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| London, United Kingdom |  Review on September 28, 2010: |
JoannaV
Rating:  | Review Topic: IR-1/CR-1 Visa
I arranged to stay in London for a few days with a friend. My interview time was 9am. I left my friend's house at maybe just after 7:30 to leisurely walk the ~45 minutes to the Embassy. I arrived at Grosvenor Square and slowly walked around the garden in the Square towards the Embassy. I observed the scene and at first it was a little confusing, as it looked like there were two different queues. But of course the second queue was just those who'd gone through the first queue. So I got in line and waited. At this time the line wasn't too long. At some point I got to a notice that said electronic devices were not permitted inside the Embassy. I was already aware of this, and had taken great care to leave my mobile etc. behind. (Which wasn't nice as my friend and her roommates didn't get home until late, so I had to hang out in the British Library for a while and wander back and forth in the cold with no way of contacting them to find out when someone would be back. But hey haha.) However this notice alerted me to the fact that flash drives were among the electrical devices that were banned! Unfortunately I keep a flash drive in my wallet. So ensued several minutes of panicking. Should I try to burrow it in the ground? (One has crazy thoughts when one is dealing with immigration haha.) I wasn't going to throw it away. I wasn't entirely sure of the capabilities of those scanning machines, so I didn't know if it was an issue. The main problem was that I didn't want to lose my place in the queue. It had now gotten rather long. I noticed that one woman who didn't get through security was allowed to run to the pharmacy and then go right back into security when she returned. So I decided that it would be best to wait and do that. I got up to the women with the checklists, they found my name and sent me on to the security line. In security my flash drive was of course noticed so I ran down the road to the pharmacy and paid my £2 to have it stored. I ran back and the man guarding the security line let me back in. So finally I was walking up the steps to the Embassy.
There were several other people at the check-in desk, so I had to wait a few minutes. Then I was issued my ticket, entered the hall, and took a seat. I had a book with me, but it was kind of hard to concentrate because whenever a number was announced I would jump. I think there were only a couple of immigrant visas ahead of me, but plenty of non-immigrant visas. Eventually, maybe an hour, hour&half later I was called up. Gave him the documents I had to bring. He then sent me back to my seat, I think he gave me the envelope with my X-ray to hold. He also gave me the courier form to fill out. I had to borrow a pen from the person beside me :-)
An hour later I was called up again. Very nice man. He asked me where it was I was going in America. Then he joked, saying of course he knew this, he had looked through my file. He then asked me a couple of questions, about when I had gone to America and when we had met each others families. I was really nervous inside. Then he said that I was approved! And that he had only asked any questions at all to, well, make conversation and make me feel I had at least been asked something haha. He said I would receive my passport and visa within a week.
I then went to join the queue for the courier. They didn't really leave much space for people to queue, and there were a lot of people. Eventually I got there and paid and left. The courier didn't seem to accept many forms of payment, which seemed a little silly but anyway.
My interview was on a Thursday and the visa was delivered on the Monday. (Before I myself returned actually!) Eight days later I moved to America.
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Consulate / USCIS Member Review #6666