katjoeuk

Hooray!!!! Received the anxiously awaited interview appointment letter in the mail today !!!!
Unfortunately, it's only for September 8 (I would have liked to get it over and done with asap) but I'm not going to complain as this should be enough time for us to get the passport back for our outbound flight on September 30 (provided all goes well at the interview....)

let's hope the riots will have stopped by then!!!!!!

Gerber

My DH's interview is tomorrow morning. He's travelling onto London tonight...with all the rioting, I'm hoping he'll be ok.

Has anyone else had an interview this week? How did it go?

oliver22

Congrats Katk almost there now

whitebear

So glad for you. Despite our earlier communication, they have still not given me an interview date, with timeline of Medical on 12th July and Ds203 sent on 29th June.

oliver22

whitebear it sounds like you need to contact them

katjoeuk

Whitebear, I agree - you should call them; we called last Thursday, they told us to email them the DS2001 again (as they said they hadn't received it yet, even though it arrived at the Embassy on July 25th) on Friday and had the letter with the interview appointment in the mail today (posted Tuesday)!
Best fiver ever spent

It seems like you get there much faster if you jsut call that friggin' number - that's how we got our case number and that's how we got our interview date!!!

whitebear

Attorney already contacted them. Response time 3-5 days.

ismo220

We had our interview yesterday. We live in Croydon and travelled to London and there was not a single problem with the riots, so all should be fine.

Hubby was approved!!! I was so excited.

We got the 05.45 train into Victoria then the Victoria line to Green Park. We walked from Green park. It only took 10 minutes and was a very nice walk. There were two people in the line, both got turned away when security opened as they had electronics on them that they should not have. So hubby was literally the first one in.

I went and had a coffee at the local Starbucks (only a 5 minute walk from the embassy). I managed to wait there until about 08.30 then couldn't sit still any more and walked back to the embassy.

He was the first Immigrant visa in line. He said there were a lot of people there, but they were mainly there for non-immigrant visas. I saw a lot of people get turned away at security. One woman even brought a laptop!! Clearly these people are not reading the forums

He said it was very quick and easy. He was only asked on question. They asked who my father was as he is our co-sponsor on the I-864. My husband stated that he was his father-in-law and the lady at the desk said "I'm happy to approve your visa, please raise your right hand..." And that was it!

One thing to point out, I didn't go in so I held onto his mobile during his interview. He got a test at around 08.30 from our bank stating that he made a purchase in the United States and to call if it was not correct. Now luckily the bank didn't block his card. However, if it were me, my card most certainly would have been blocked! So you may want to call your bank ahead of time to let them know that you will be making a purchase at the US Embassy so they can put a note on the account.

The last thing you want is for your card to get denied and you to have no access to phone to sort it out!

So after 10 months of going through this it's finally all done. I can hardly believe it still. I've been stressing the entire time during this process and when we returned home yesterday I passed out on the sofa and slept for hours! Definitely a sense of relief.

Next thing to worry about is my poor kitties being put on a plane for 8 hours! They land 6 hours before us so my mom is picking them up. We will be in the air when they get there, so I literally won't know that they arrived safely until I get to the other side and my mom can tell me so.

ismo220

That's how we got our interview date too. We called and asked them to expedite it and that's when they gave us the code and the email. I'm not 100% if they did expedite it, but we seemed to have received our interview date quicker than others.

oliver22

Hey Ismo congrats so happy for you, have a great time out in the states

katjoeuk

Well, it certainly seems like it - or else it's just coincidence that all of us who called got their appointments within the following days...but you know what, at this point, I couldn't care less whether it's coincidence or not - I"m just happy that the final hurdle in finally in sight!!
Ismo, thanks for posting, I think I got the idea from you

I have to say though, we must have spent a hundred quid on this phone number, all in all...maybe I could have saved some of that money by finding this thread earlier, there are so many knowlegable here!!!!

God I'm so glad the cats are travelling in the cabin with us...I think I would get a heart attack if we were separated!!! Oh, by the way, it says on the United website that pets travelling from the UK to the US aren't allowed, but that's not true; that's who we're flying and the cats are booked on (and a friend of ours just recently did the same - she had three cats so had to put two of them in the hold, but took the third one with her into the cabin). Just for your information!!
Blessed are the kitties who have no idea that they'll soon be making a looooooooooong loooooooong trip!!! No return, too

bobLobLaw

We've called the embassy about 4 times now and they keep saying to wait even though we sent our forms 6 weeks ago, and the medical was 4 weeks ago on monday..

whitebear

What's your timeline Bobloblaw?

ismo220

Have you requested to expedite the interview date? We were told to wait the first 3 times we called, then the 4th time we used the magic word "expedite" and that's when they gave us the code.

However, it would appear that there are no set rules unfortunately. I hope you hear back soon.

katjoeuk

Really??? Now that doesn't sound fair....