brigeet

Hey Dublin people!
We haven't heard from you in a while. Stephen and I were wondering if anyone has heard any news about interview appointments. Have you been calling the embassy to pester them? We hope that you guys get everything you need when you need it.

Buendia

I called yesterday, and got the mean Scottish woman. She said that they'd received all of our paperwork (which we knew because we called to make sure after we sent it) and that we are still "in processing." It's been 18 days since we sent back the Notification of Readiness (checklist). Ugh ugh ugh.

ire blues

Hi Brigeet...

I called the embassy yesterday and they gave me the interview date of July 1!

Fingers crossed now for Buendia to get her interview date very soon.

Buendia

Thanks!

You know, I was pretty upset yesterday after calling the Embassy, but then I thought about it... at least I'm here with David... I'd rather be with him in Santa Fe, but I've made the decision to stay here until we have the visa. My marriage is great, in whatever country we're in... David asked me out on a "date" on Thursday... My cat is here snoring next to the computer... Life is pretty good, even without an interview! (Although, it'll be much, much better with one...)

I'll post here as soon as we hear anything!

duffmid

Hard luck on getting the mean Scottish woman. I called after I got the packet 4 to confirm the time of the interview because on the letter it says 01:00 which to me means 1am written in the 24 hour clock notation. I know in most circumstances you would just accept that they must have meant 1pm and think no more about it, but as we all know this is way too important to leave anything to chance. Like what if it was supposed to be 11:00 or 07:00 or well quite frankly it could have been anything because 01:00 is clearly a typing mistake since 01:00 means 1am and can and will never mean 1pm. I know i'm being pedantic but im getting to the reason for that. Because when I called I got the mean Scottish woman and I told her my concern and she said in the most patronising tone of voice I have EVER heard "Well you don't think we would tell you to come in at 1 o'clock in the morning do you?" and gave a sort of dismissive snort kind of laugh (uh well you have done because my letter says 0100 hours on it you expleted expletive) So I said no I was just checking incase it was a typing error. To which she replied in a tone that suggested I had just sold her children and then tryed to claim that black was white and up was down "Its at 1pm! It's always at 1pm!" (oh how ridiculously silly of me what with all the other fiancee visa interviews I've been to of course I should have known that!) Did anyone mention to that woman she is working at the "help" desk?

Anyho, another thing about calling the so called helpline is that the last time I did call to pester them about getting my interview date, I was given the old "very busy, big backlog, call back in a couple of weeks" rubbish and this was on the 3rd or 4th of May (I don't remember which now) but when I got the packet 4 a couple of days later it was dated the 30th of April, so it had already been sent out before I made that last call.

So, other than ranting, all I'm saying is pester the helpline people (just because they deserve it) but pay little attention to what they say and just keep watching for the postman. Good luck.

nat

A little titbit of info, though I am sure many of you at Dublin already know, if they give you an appointment time, say for example at 1.00pm, you arrive pretty pleased with yourself at 12.45pm but there are already a dozen people standing in line outside the gates, don't expect your appointment to be at 1.00pm on the dot. You will be after you get through the gates after the other dozen people who could have appointments at 12, 2, 3 or whatever. Then your name is called in the order on the list you have to sign in when you get inside the building. I think the appointment times are really just to stagger the interviewees arriving. Perhaps they tell everyone 1.00pm?

Also, if you have any foreign documents that need translation, make sure they are translated by a proper translation company or Embassy (if possible) because they will NOT accept translations certified by friends/family members etc (albeit according to BCIS this should be acceptable). This happened to me on my interview date and I was sent away (needless to say very upset). Interestingly, I raced around to the French embassy hoping that I could do it there and then and get back to the US embassy before they closed. Cutting a long story short, the French embassy doesn't do certified translations in the afternoon so my mother kindly drove into Ballsbridge the following morning as I was working only then to be told that they only certify/notarize documents from English into French! (wish they had told me that the day before). Very strange, but she was told that apparently no Embassy is allowed to translate a document from their language to another, they can only translate from the other language to theirs. I therefore had to go and have my French birth certificate translated (again and identifical to the one I had prepared and had certified by my mother but at a privilege of 40 euros) by a translation service. Very frustrating situation.

Finally, with regard to the medicals - when I went to collect our medicals in Blackrock I specifically asked for a copy for my records also and was told it was confidential! Ha - just cost ME about 600 euros for the two and it was confidential!? They also told me that they are told not to give out copies. Anyway, one of the documents specifically says a copy is to be handed to me (the vaccination worksheet) so bear that in mind. At the interview I specifically asked could I go and request a photocopy from the medical center because I would certainly need a copy of the vaccination worksheet for proof later on in the US. They told me I could which is exactly what I did. I got straight back on to Blackrock, told them the Embassy OK'd a copy and off I went and got a photocopy of all the documentation for both of us.

brigeet

They told you over the phone? wow! Congratulations I'm suprised you got anything out of them over the help line!

Buendia, I'm glad that you're with your husband right now too. I'm sure it makes the wait easier. Just hope they hurry it up.

Nat, thanks for the info. That translation stuff sounds insane! Since Stephen is a worrier he wants to get there super early for the interview

Buendia

Duffmid - your story made me laugh so hard!!! I needed that! That mean Scottish woman is really a piece of work - she was the one who wouldn't send me a new Packet 3 when ours clearly wasn't going to arrive (the one who said to me: "We don't send those out willy nilly.") Grrr... But David says there's an even meaner American woman.

And Nat - that's great advice... I told David to ask for a copy of his medical when he picked it up, but like you said, they wouldn't give it to him. So we'll try your approach...

lairdside

Can I ask. How do you all know that she is Scottish? I was often mistaken for being Scottish when in England and Wales (not as much now as I used to be as my accent has softened).

I'm not, I'm Northern Irish but it's a common mistake.

Funny 'cos in N.I. people (and people from Monaghan anywhere) thought that I hailed from Monaghan and still do. Go figure

Buendia

Pretty sure she's Scottish - but I certainly could be wrong... I don't think being Scottish has anything to do with her being mean; it just helps me identify who I'm talking to.

I've gotten pretty good, though, at identifying the accents - I was in a taxi once and the driver sounded just like my friend Paul (who is from Monaghan), so I asked him if he was from around there, and, very surprised, he said "I am!"

I can usually tell a Northern Ireland accent, definitely an inner city Dub accent (we live in D7). Can id northern England but not specific area.

And now that I've been here for 8 mos, American accents (on the television and when I hear Americans walking around Dublin) sound sort of strange.

lairdside

It gets confusing. One lady I worked with in Coleraine, I was so sure that she was Scottish, never gave it a second thought. Turned out that she wasn't. She was from somewhere? outside of Limavady. Her whole family as far back as she could recall were too. She'd never even been to Scotland.

It's the Ulster Scots I reckon.

Buendia

Ahhhh... good point!

Well, wherever she's from, she's really not very nice...

duffmid

Well I would hope I could tell the difference between a northern and a scottish accent since I'm from county Antrim but from now on I will refer to her as the mean scottish sounding woman just to be on the safe side.

And another thing on the scottish accent tangent we've taken, alot of people from the north west and alot of Donegal specifically have very scottish sounding accents. But i dont know if it can be down to the ulster scots thing, isn't that supposed to be more in the north east. I have been told before I get a bit of a scottish twang on certain words. But then again Bridget says I dont have any real accent at all :P

MrDub

I also paid this sort of money for my medical to be done in Zurich and was not too pleased to hear after forking out all of this money for a 20 min consultation that I could not even have a photocopy of the results for myself (just in case future jobs request this !?). However I am glad to hear that a copy can be requested at the interview....
Thanks

ire blues

I have gotten the American woman before and so has Peter. He finally asked to speak with someone that could answer his question and was given to an Irish lady, that actually gave him the requested information. It was an Irish woman that gave me the answer on the date this past Monday.

With the medical, Peter mentioned he got a copy, so I hope we will have no problems with that.

Nat - Thanks for the information on getting to the interview early.