Rete

Wow that is so sad that you only see your spouse and son when they come to the UK to visit you.

Jamackabi

I think the positive thing for you is, your theft offence was a long time ago. That will definitely help. You're right in saying that spent convictions do not apply when it comes to U.S Immigration, however if an offence is older than 15 years, you are more likely to be considered "rehabilitated"

Have you ordered your ACRO to see what is listed? From what you have said, I think you wouldn't automatically be denied. I'd do a lot of research and give it a shot. Happy to help as much as I can.

Adrisn

Another successful Interview at the new London Embassy to share!

My experience today was almost exactly identical to Jamackabi's description!

My interview was at 09:00 Hrs on 2nd of march at the new Nine Elms location. The weather this week has been crazy, with lots of snow, so throughout the week the Embassy was sending "weather update" e-mails, inviting people to cancel and reschedule their appointment due the possibility of the embassy being closed due to weather.
I live in London, and pretty much down the road from the Embassy, so I knew that it would take a proper snow-Armageddon for the Embassy to go to through trouble of closing down! So kept my appointment as normal.
However, decided to leave the house a little earlier than needed, in case I had any issues getting there due to snow and ice on the streets - it turns out that the roads were empty and got there super early!
Even though the e-mail asks you to get there half hour before, I was told I couldn't get in until 15 mins before. So I just walked down to Waitrose down the street and had some coffee to warm up.

Once I came back to the Embassy, the queue was much longer, but only had to wait a few minutes until a girl checked my DS-260 and I went through the security check.

They didn't ask us to remove shoes nor boots (the floors were very muddy due to snow!), but I had a (lost) nail clipper in my handbag, which I had to walk back outside the building to throw away in a bin, and some people had laptops, bike helmet, large bags etc, which are all items well informed that you are not allowed to bring in. Not sure what happened to them, but they had to leave the security check area to sort out storage.

But the experience was very much like going through an airport, and surprisingly quick, considering how many unprepared people there were!

Walking up t the building, there was a HUGE line of people waiting to go in for their non-immigrant visas, but I went straight up to a girl who found my name on their appointments list and asked me to follow her past the queue and straight into the reception.

At reception by a girl who printed out my number, which she stuck to my DS-260 confirmation sheet and told me to go to the 1st floor. The 1st floor is ginormous and was packed, but there is a separate area for immigrant Visas, thankfully, that is much quieter. There were two others being seen when I arrived, and a couple of others waiting. I sat down and within 10 minutes my number was called.

I was seen by a very nice lady, which even joked about my color coordinated folders with all my paperwork, and said that her job would be easier if people came well prepared!

In this order she asked for:

- Courier confirmation
- My Birth Certificate (plus certified translation, and copies of everything)
- Marriage Certificate (plus copy)
- Police certificates (from 3 countries I've lived in since 16, with their certified translations and copies)
- I-864 from my husband, and she also asked to see his job offer letter, tax return from the last year (I had 3 previous years, plus Tax Transcripts, plus proof of US assets, bank accounts, mortgages, etc, etc. She didn't want to look at any of it - only last year's tax return and job offer letter)
- x1 U.S Visa sized Photo of myself - she joked about US photo size being more expensive than UK size, even though the extra amount of paper is so minuscule!

She handed me a CD with my Chest X-Ray on it, asked me to use the fingerprint scanner and kept my passport. She asked me to pay the Visa fee a couple of windows down and then take a seat and wait for my number to be called again.
This first appointment actually took quite a while, as my paperwork was complex to navigate through (lots of certified translations and paper work from different countries I have citizenship (2) and have lived & worked in (4)).

Only a few more minutes passed and my number was called again. It was so quick, I was still distracted re organizing my paperwork when they called me back, and I didn't even hear it. The guy sitting next to me asked me if I was number X, and if so, I was being called up the window!

Next guys was also very nice, and I bet the whole "interview" took probably 37 seconds!
All he asked me about was if my children had already been registered as "USC born abroad" at the Embassy (which the answer was yes - they are both US citizens) - I had their passports, birth certificates (UK & US), as well as my husband's, but none was asked for.

He than asked if my husband's job offer was with the same company (yes), where was he living at the moment (still in London, moving to US tomorrow).
Where are you moving to? Colorado
Do you already have a house to live? He will stay with his mother until I get there - hopefully - in April, and only then we'll look for a house.

And that was it!

Next thing he said was that the visa will be issued in the next 5 working days and will be set to the address I've selected on the courier options (home delivery).

It was so quick that it totally caught me off guard and I just stood there.
He looked at me and said "your visa has been granted, you can go now".

It took me longer to go through security than the actual interview!
Not that I'm complaining about it!

Now I have to sit tight and wait for my passport to be returned!!

KK85

Wonderful news! Congratulations!

kbales

Every time I read posts about successful interviews I cry! Congratulations!!

Adrisn

Just to follow up on the post I've written here a few days ago, and give some indication of timeline.
I think some people were having issues with processing times by the new Embassy in early January after their move to Nice Elms, but everything seems to be back in order now!

- My interview was done on the 2nd of march in the morning, visa confirmation at the end of the interview at around 11am.
- On monday morning (the 5th of march, but next working day) I checked the CEAC website and it was showing as "Pending Administration" - and I expected to stay as that for a few more days.
But by the end of Monday (still the same day, the 5th and the first working day after my interview), as I was leaving work, I've noticed that the CEAC page was still open in my browser, so couldn't help myself and checked again!
And for my surprised, it had already been updated again to ISSUED!!

So my visa was issued in 1 working day after the interview!

- By the 7th of March I finally received a message from the courier that they had my package and it was going to be delivered the next day.

- Passport and "big huge white envelope" delivered at my home address (as selected) on the 8th of march.

So a total of 3 working days between interview at new London Embassy and home delivery!

Very efficient in my books! Wasn't expecting such a quick turnaround!