meauxna

Congrats, C_C.. well done, you!
Not that I expected anything different..

shayward

C_C, and others,

How long did it take from the sending back the 2001/230 forms to getting an interview appointment date?

I have FINALLY got my police clearance certificate back from South Africa (what a pain that was) so can at last get things moving. Got my medical booked for next Friday and sent everything off on Monday.

glad to read about your joint sponsor clearing the way for proving domicile, as our domicile proof for my wife is going to be tricky as well. Fortunately my wife's aunt is doing us a big favour on that one. would be interested to hear others experience of the domicile question.

Am I the last person in our group to be going for the interview..... rather ironic as i started the original thread

USAalltheway

I sent my 2001/230 forms off on 6 December, signed for on 7 December and interview date of 28 January.

My husband was not asked a single question about domicile during the interview. Not a one. I had meticulously prepared voting records, bank and student loan statements, lease agreements...the works. They just wanted my 2009 US tax returns and that was it.

Appreciate everyone's situation is different, but a few of us who have had interviews in the past few weeks have had a similar experiences. FYI, I am the USC and still in the UK, so you would have thought there would at least be a question or two...

shayward

Mine was singed for on the 8th of Feb, so based on your timescale I should get the last week of March.

C_C

Best of luck - at least you weren't in a big rush to move if I remember correctly

It normally takes about 1.5-2 months between sending in the DS forms and the interview, but you can always try to expedite it by putting an earlier intended travel date on the cover note (they ask for one to accompany the form).

If you have a US joint sponsor you'll be fine. In my case all they wanted seemed to be a name and an address in the US and proof of their income. As soon as I gave it to them it went like a breeze and they asked for no other proof of my husband's intending re-domicile. I think they'd have approved me in the end anyway because we also had more than enough assets and I had brought a ton of domicile evidence, so I'm sure they'd have asked for that next. But after they took the joint sponsor paperwork they didn't care about the rest.
Just be prepared and have as much proof as possible about your joint sponsor. Definitely their latest tax return and W2 (or IRS transcript alone), definitely proof of their citizenship (i.e. copy of passport or birth certificate), and if the tax returns are from a while back (e.g. from 2009) it's a very good idea to include some sort of proof that the income continues (e.g. most recent paychecks and/or letter from their employer).

shayward

hey,

just an update to say that I went for the medical yesterday and quite relieved that it was not nearly as invasive as the form implied. The "external genitalia including circumcision" bit had me a little nervous, especially as I had a young lady dr. But all she did was listen to my chest, quick eye test and take some blood.... oh and the x-ray of course.

Also had to have 2 vaccinations, but then that was it.

They were all quite friendly and now I am just waiting for an interview date.

Hope that everyone else is doing fine.

shayward

My interview letter has arrived and I am booked in for the 17th of March at 09:00

C_C

Best of luck shayward! I'm sure it will go great!

CloudChaser

My 2001 was sent on the 26/Jan (230 was sent in December)

I haven't heard anything back yet about interview and would have expected to by about now based on peoples timescales on here - should I be concerned about not having received this yet?

C_C

Not necessarily, but have you tried to contact the Embassy to enquire about it? Based on the date you sent your DS-2001, you should be getting an interview sometime in late March.

shayward

Doesn't sound right. I sent my forms back on the 7th of Feb and went for the medical on the 18th of Feb and have an interview for the 17th of March.

Have you had your medical yet?

potfish

Good luck for this morning Shayward!

C_C

Oh is it today? Best of luck and I'm sure it'll go like a breeze!!

shayward

SUCCESS

Everything went smoothly this morning.

My experience was very similar to C_C's.

Went up to the first window and everything was going well until we got to my wife's affidavit of support. She wasn't too happy that we didn't have a US address and that my wife wasn't currently working. We had enough assets to meet the requirements, but she thought the connof would prefer it if she was working.

I then told her that I had a joint sponsor, which made everything go much more smoothly.

They didn't even want to a see a thing about my wife's intent to domicile proof. I had prepared a whole pack of stuff and they weren't interested.

I then went back to the waiting room for about 1½ hours before the ConOff called me over. That went really smoothly. He just asked me why we were moving and what work i intended to do, and then he approved the application and said to have a nice life in the United States.

My top tip for any-one applying from the UK, especially if your USC spouse does not have a US job and address is to get a joint sponsor. Having a US based joint sponsor seems to trump everything else and smooth the way through for approval.

When I walked out of there I felt absolutely brilliant

Now its time for phase 2: Packing up the house and getting me a US job.

Thanks for the help every-one

C_C

Congratulations
Your description felt extremely familiar
The funny thing is that we too qualified with our assets (and we actually had quite a lot above the threshold) so we took the joint sponsor documents with us just in case, thinking it was just a back-up. Well, we couldn't have been more wrong as you know, as this proved to be a very crucial part in the process!! In retrospect I'm very glad we had the documents

Happy moving!!!