Consulate Review: London, United Kingdom
Review Topic: IR-1/CR-1 Visa
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| Event |
Description |
| Review Date : |
March 19, 2012 |
| Embassy Review : |
So here is how my big day went,
I woke up at 6 am, had a shower in the hotel room, and by 7:30 am I was out the door, I had arrived in London at about 10pm the night before, and didnt feel like taking the walk from the hotel to the embassy that night, so figured I would go early in the morning.
It was only a 15 min walk from my hotel to the embassy, so I had plenty of time, I droped my mobile off at goulds and joined the que by 8am. As I reached the head of the que I overheard a little bit of a ruccus, apparently US spouses where being turned away even tho they had arranged with the embassy to join their loved ones, the explenation I over heared was security had decided the day before to impliment it today, so be aware of this if you intend to take your spouse with you.
The que was not that long, a few checks of my appoitnment letter and passport and I was at the security checkpoint. The security was exactly like an airport, exept you dont need to remove your shoes, lol It was a painless experiance, and I was heading around to the visa section of the building by 8:25, Note: If you smoke, there is a smoking area just outside these doors, but its up to you if you want to risk missing your number called when your "havin a fag" hehe
When you go through the double doors, there is a large recpetion area, The woman at the reception took my app letter and assigned me the number I-909, I headed up the stairs to the left and entered the waiting room.
I was only sat down for approx 15 mins before I was called to window number 1, as I approached I realised there was none there, took about 3 min before a very short asian woman came and sat down, She was a bit corse, but friendly enough, she checked her computer and said that there was nothing on me in the system, gulp, she told me to hang on and headed off to get my file,
When she returned she read through a letter that was attached to the top of my file, I caught a glipse of it, the heading , in big bold black text it said "EXPEDITED CASE, DOCUMENTATION TO BE REVIEWED AT CONSULATE" she sighed and told me that she couldnt find the DS-230, I explained that the consulate must have it as it was sent with the DS-2001 which had that letter attatched to it, ( I pointed to the cover letter I had sent with the DS-2001 requesting and expedited interview date that was now visable ontop of my file,) , she said it wasent here, so I told her that I had a photocopy, which she seemed happy about
She then asked for my wifes I-864, I haded it over, and she said "whats this"? handing me back my wifes birth ceritifcate and muttering something about me not stapeling it together... oops. after she had added this to my file, she asked for my joint sponsors I-864 and took the whole lot off me, birth certificate, I-864, 3 years of tax returns and proof of current income, she then went through the pay stubs and handed me back the ones from 2011, said they where to old and cant be used,
during this time she asked me a few questions about my wife, such as when we got married, and how she was doing, I told her that she was stressed, and she asked why, and to be honest, the tone of her voice when she asked she did seem concerned. After reviewing my docs,and taking my finger prints she handed me a blue slip, told me to take it to the cashier, pay and return the reciept to her,
the cashier is around the corner, next to window 12, I paid the £257 in cash, and took the reciept back to her, I had to wait a while as she was seeing someone else at the time, she took the reciept, added it to my file haded me the pink courier slip and said I would be called for my interview in a few min
I went to sit back down after purchasing a bottle of water ( £1 ) , I was sat for approx 45 min when I was called up to window 12, where I was met by a bearded american, who reminded me of chuck Norris, he was very friendly, he took my finger prints again, to veryfy I was still me, then asked me to raise my right hand and pledge an oath of truth,
He had my file infront of him, but didnt look through it, I assume he had done so before hand as he asked me questions about it, He asked me where I met my wife, to which I replied second life, he told me he had heared of it, and then he asked me how dose my wife live, as she has not worked for quite some time, I told him that I support her financially, to which he asked what did my wife do before I came on the scene. I told him that her parents helped her.
He asked a few more questions, very casually, it wasent like an interview, more like a formal chat, he asked what type of house my wife lived in, and where, and asked me if she had any children, I replied yes, she has 2, and we have one due in august, he smiled and said congratulations javascript:emoticon(' ') he then asked what I did for a living, I told him, he asked If I had a job waiting for me, and I told him that I had some feelers out to various companys in the local area who operate within my line of work, to which he seemed impressed.
the last part of the interview was concerning my joint sponsor, he asked who she was, how we knew her, her job, where she lives ect, I had no problems answering these, as I talk to my joint sponsor quite often via facebook, he did ask how I intent to support myself untill I find a job, as my wife didnt work, I told him that I had some money saved, and I have a bank statement if he needed to see it, he said no thats fine, but he did ask howmuch I had,
He then said that my file seemed to all be in order, that I had obviously planed well for the move by contacting various companys, and that he was more than happy to approve my visa javascript:emoticon(' ') he said the last part for me to do is to go pay the courier, and wake my wife up with the good news
I cant actually remember walking to the courier desk, I was to bloody happy, lol, I paid the £20 for delivery before 12, she noticed that I was an immigrant visa and asked me what time my app was and what time I got there,, I told her 9:30 and I arrived at 8 and she said " wow thats pretty quick, one guy yesterday was here over 5 hours " she handed me the tracking number and such, and I left the same way I came in, stoping at goulds to pick up my phone before heading to the hotel to pick up my bag. |
| Rating : |
Very Poor |
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