British Expats - IR-1 Visa Interview Experience

OK, so I had my interview on Thursday and it was - drum roll - APPROVED :thumbsup:

Since I've always devoured everybody else's accounts, I feel I owe it to write down my own - in the hope that it'll give others a bit of guidance and reassurance! As several others before me have said, if you have all your paper work in order, things will go very smoothly and there really isn't very much to worry about; obviously, everyone will worry going in, that's perfectly normal, but I was actually not AS nervous as I would have been had I not been following this forum - so thanks very much to everyone!! Together we're strong!!!

My interview was for 8.30am, but I was pretty certain that that really didn't mean anything as it is a first come, first served system -the sooner you get there, the lower your I-number will be and the quicker you'll be dealt with. Easy as that.
So, despite REALLY not being an early morning person, I decided to get there for 7am (and that was fine, we were staying with a friend in Vauxhall, caught a 36 bus, got off at the Dorchester and walked for about 4 or so minutes). When we first got to the embassy, there was virtually no one there - there were two guys who I thought were there for a visa, but I didn't see them again later so don't know where they went. Since they don't start admitting people until 7.30 and there wasn't a queue, we decided to go and look for some food, reading material etc. as we didn't have anything (and I wanted chewing gum, I"m a bit of an addict!!) so went down a little side street where there are a few businesses, amongst others a Starbucks and a newsagent - perfect! Having acquired a Times and a silly magazine and a coffee, we wandered back to the embassy, where at this point there were a few more people -but not very many and obviously belonging together, they were there for some non-immigration visas (work visas is my guess, I think they were a band or something) and one couple who I think were there for a spousal visa - they must have been I-901 because I was I-902! I knew that boded well - second immigrant visa of the day, yey!!
At some point, a security lady come over and first went to the American citizens and Officials line, which was opposite us, and started admitting people; after a little while, a second lady came over to our queue and did the same - after re-directing us as we'd all been in the wrong row, and as bureaucracy will have it, that simply WON'T do :sneaky::sneaky::sneaky:
Anyway, she had a list of names which we was checking against our letters of invitation and things progressed rather quickly; our first glitch of the day happened when she said she didn't have my husband's name on her list (even though we had informed them that he'd be accompanying me, calling the extortionate number 'n all...). So, moment of slight panic there!! We then had to react quickly as I didn't want to lose my place in the line, so we decided I'd just continue on and he would try to get in touch with his colleagues, who actually work at the embassy (just not the consular part) and a few of whom we had actually seen walking past!! They sure start working early!!! Of course, he couldn't just call them because we didn't have any phones on us, so he had to go back to that newsagent and get a phone card, then call his office back home to get the number....lengthy and rather annoying process, but hey-ho).
Anyway, I had to go in without him, which wasn't ideal but I had expected something to go wrong and was hoping that was going to be the only thing - also, the main reason why I wanted him with me was to keep me company, in case I had to sit around and wait for hours, which I didn't - my process took just a little over two hours!!
So I went inside as one of the first people, after going through security, which wasn't a very frightening affair as they were rather friendly and I didn't have anything that wasn't allowed - had a couple of bottles of drinks which I sipped from (they actually didn't even notice a third bottle that was inside my backpack!!). Once inside, I chose a place by the window but actually didn't sit down as I was a bit wired, so just stood there, looking around; after maybe 15 minutes or so, the screen came to life and they started calling numbers - no soandso to counter soandso, in rather rapid succession, but mostly N- numbers. When my number was called, I proceeded to counter no. 14, where I was greeted by a VERY pleasant British member of staff who made me feel instantly at ease. He was basically the one who did all the paperwork with me, and I realized at the end that I'd spent more time with him than with the US consular lady!! Anyway, all went well and we went through my stuff - in a sort of nice, chatty way that I so LOVE about the Brits!!! If you compare that to the German authorities...what a difference!! and then he gave me a piece of paper and said: now could you pls go to counter no. 12 and pay and then come back to me, which I did or, rather, tried to do - enter glitch no. 2: I - stupidly - only had a debit card in my husband's name on me (we have a joint account and were both issued with debit cards for it, only I misplaced mine months ago and have been using his ever since!); unfortunately, their system doesn't work with PINs but signatures, and I ws therefore not able to use it!! I had also - stupidly - not brought any other cards (I still have a German credit card in my name but took that out of my wallet a while ago as I never use it here...), and I also didn't have enough cash (PDS 253) on me....Nervy person that I am, I thought: sh*t, this is it, that's me screwed - but it wasn't actually the end of the world as I was able to leave the building, go to a bank, get cash and then enter the building again without having to queue again (well, not at the long queue, anyway - had to queue just a little bit for the security that I had to go through a second time, but that was no big problem). Oh and incidentally, when I came out I bumped into my husband, who was still standing there, waiting for one of his colleagues from the other part of the embassy to come out and get him into the building - the poor darling!! Luckily, he has a lot more patience than me (we complement each other :D)...So I ran to the ATM, ran back, arrived back inside the building where by this time there were tons of people and it was really stuffy!! Went back to the cashier lady, paid, took slip back to lovely guy at counter 14, who then asked me to take a sit and wait to be called for the actual interview. Went back into the main area (I felt rather lucky that I had been called to one of the counters that are a little away from the main part - counters 1 through 11 are in the main part, if I remember correctly! Counters 12 through whatever are sort of down a little corridor, much calmer!!). This time, I actually did sit down as I was preparing for a longish wait; was able to see hubby through the windows and then saw him being met by a member of staff so was confident that he'd be able to join me soon(ish). So sat there, trying to read my Times but quickly realizing that, even though one could hear the numbers being called very clearly, I still found myself staring at the screens every two seconds, which makes coherent reading somewhat difficult... So decided to put down the paper, especially since they had just called I-901 in again, which meant for their interview (by that time, they were only up to I-910 for the initial part of the process!!! There was a young woman with a small boy a couple of rows in front of me and I could see that their number was I-914, so they were in for a long wait...I pittied her as I could see the wee fella getting seriously bored rather quickly - it is not the most child-friendly atmosphere!! Even though it would have affected me negatively, I do think they should maybe give people with small children some priority...then again, she could have been there at 7.30, I guess...)
Anyway, hubby came in, wearing a rather important looking badge, and just a few minutes later, our number was called! Jumped out of my seat, raced back to the counter (no 15, this time), where there was a smiling AMerican lady who was very welcoming. Surprisingly, as soon as I saw her, I felt totally calm!! I thought my heart would be racing and I'd stutter and get clammy hands etc, but none of this was the case. She was super nice and the interview wasn't really one at all, more like a nice little chat - I felt like coming out of it, I knew more about her than she of me!! To be honest, it felt like a done deal from the moment she smiled at us, and then she said the magic words "I'm going to go ahead and approve you" (which makes me laugh inwardly as it reminds me so much of the movie "Office Space" which I don't know if you guys know - if you don't, rent it, it's hilarious!!). Basically, while chatting, she sort of threw in "where did you guys actually meet?", which seems to be the going question, and she asked where we were going to move to, but that seemed more out of interest (even though I'm sure they're trained to ask questions that don't sound like questions); she probably knew anyway the area we'd be moving to, due to hubby working for the government, and it turned out that she has a house in Baltimore, so we jokingly asked her whether it was for rent :-)
She never asked for anything else - proof of relationship or photos or anything, and at no point did she make me feel like an unwelcome immigrant or something, which I appreciated very much.
Well that was it really for the interview - we then proceeded to the courier desk, where we paid for our delivery. The nice lady had recommended we go for expedited delivery, as we're flying out on the 30th and she said it took 7 to 10 working days, but I was almost certainly from reading other peoples' experiences that it never takes that long, and the courier lady told us that they don't have an option for that anyway - the only thing you can pay extra for is having it delivered during a certain time frame the day you get it delivered, which we didn't need. She said they'd text us once they'd received everything from the embassy and then it would go out the next (working) day. Oh and the nice consular lady said that they would put everything together as quickly as they could also, so I wasn't too worried about that. And fair enough, Friday afternoon we got a text from the courier company, informing us that they had received everything from the embassy and will deliver on Monday :thumbsup:. Now THAT's what I call rEALLY quick!! For that part, at least, they don't hang about!!!

We left the embassy at around 9.45, which unfortunately meant it was WAY too early for celebratory drinks :-)) We spent the rest of the day bumming around London - got ourselves a travelcard and just hopped on buses and walked around and ate & drank, so, all in all, a very good day :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

So that's that sorted - I am SO DONE with paper work for the next - hm - shall we say ten years??

Hope it goes as well for all of you who still have their interviews, but honestly, I think you'll be fine and you'll agree with me that this really is an anti-climax (in a good way!!) after all the months spent trying to organize documents and papers and booking medicals and calling extortionate numbers etc....As long as you have all the documents in order, you'll be just fine (and I had been slightly worried about that as my birth record is from Germany, and I needed that extra police record from Germany, which I then had to have translated....no probs, though!!)

I think we got really lucky as our entire process - from sending off the petition to visa in hand - will have been under six months!!! We did start to panick at some point when w were almost convinced that I wouldn't be able to fly over with my husband, so that was a bit of an awful time, but once we got the petition approved and our case number, things just seemed to happen...now we just need to get the move over and done with and move to the US (with our two cats) and find a house and a car and, eventually, a job for myself....and I'm actually really heart-broken because I so love the UK :cry_smile:

So, thanks, everyone, for your support & I hope everything goes well for those of you who are still in the middle of it!!

Katrin