London Interview run down
Aug 7th 2002, 9:00 pm
#1
Guest
Posts: n/a
London Interview run down
Well the promised run down of my K1 day out to London on tuesday, I may ramble a
little but I will get there in the end.
If you have done it yourself don't read it, it wont be any different than
yours...it boring
I now feel that I am an expert at waiting, in fact both Oxford and Cambridge
Universities have offered me a position lecturing on the finer points of standing
around aimlessly and wasting time.
First thing, my SqueezyJet flight from Edinburgh to London Luton was supposed to get
to the airport at around 6pm with my reckoning, London proper by about 6.45, check
into my hotel, some food and then scout out the doctors, sadly this wasn't to be, the
flight was almost 4 hours late and I made it to the hotel after eleven. Holiday Inn
in Welbeck street, it was £75 but it was well placed for food, tube stations and
doctors office and the room was clean, comfortable with a big bed and big bathroom
with a bath and a shower, you could even play playstation games on the telly. it
turned out that I paid my cash for somewhere to hang around and watch television and
wait for my doctors appointment as I never slept a wink, giving up even trying at the
back of four as I was getting up again at six thirty. I watched some bad TV!
including the "Big Bus" bad aeroplane style film about, oddly enough; a big bus. it
did amuse though.
Anyway. After 2 strong cups of coffee (I don't drink it ever! I needed the caffeine)
and a shower I was out of the hotel by 7.15 and off to the doctors , 10 minute walk
in the rain (it was still hot though) got my to the doctors office, and found a queue
of one, there was a girl already standing there, and not one to want to stand around
I went for a walk around the block, and I arrived back at 7.30 and found that the
queue had increased dramatically, well to about 8 people, consisting of a couple of
couples including a heavily pregnant lady and her husband/boyfriend and a guy who
seemed to be in his 60s and his American wife and a family of 4 and another guy on
his own. The queue continued to grow till their was about 25 people in total. Walk
in, given a folder, told to put in our
1/ passport,
2/ passport photo,
3/ vaccination records
4/ questionnaire that came out with packet 4
I had everything ready and my folder was the third one in and I was taken third, they
were in the order that they were handed in (I can only comment on the guys, there
wasn't a girl in the first six with their folder, so I was out of the doctors before
I saw any of them taken. you listen for your name on a really bad, crackly and cheap
intercom you then go to the front desk and pay your cash or credit cards no American
express if I remember £125, the lady that took your cash (I commented that it was
more painful then getting the blood taken, and I got a laugh and she agreed), you
sign the photo that you handed in and it is stapled to your medical form its put in a
green folder and you are sent downstairs, and you put the green folder in a rack on
the pillar at the bottom of the stairs and you take a seat in a small waiting room,
they seem to work with pairs, another pair coming down the stairs, every time 2 move
off to the next part of the medical, a lovely maternal nurse lady calls your name and
takes you into a room where she takes your blood, she told me that my vaccinations
were ok, she asked if I was getting married and what part of the states I am coming
to while she was doing this she proceeded to remove a syringe full of blood in about
5 seconds, she is good (practice I suppose) asked to check it was my name on the
syringe, then told to sit outside again. the nurse disappears through a door with my
folder and then calls the next person in. a couple of minutes later the radiographer
calls me through and tells me to pop into a changing room cubical and tells me to
take of everything from the neck to the waist, I have a ring in my nipple and I was
about to take it out and he said not to bother as he had a pair of rusty pliers for
doing that, but it didn't matter and I could leave it in. Very friendly and very
jokey and chatty and there was quite a bit of banter in the corridor where the
cubicles are, I got chatting with the others and there were 2 K1ers and 2 guys that
were married to Americans, they were both older, the older guy I mentioned earlier
and another bloke in his forties, get your xray and then told to leave your top off
and wait in your cubicle for the doctor, a very efficient doctor calls you, still
nice and chatty with the odd joke but still efficient, he flew through the medical,
but I still got a good going over, asked my questions, again was I getting married,
where I was going to, shone a light in my ear, my mouth and my eyes, made me lie on a
bed, he banged my chest a little, and my stomach, he also look at my.....down there,
which was a shock when he pulled my pants down. told me everything was ok and to get
dressed and head down to the embassy. I was handed my rolled up xray and told to take
it in my hand luggage and they may or may not want to see it and told me to remember
to go into the embassy through the gate andnot to climb the fence as the police there
have MP5s and 800 rounds a minute are a lot of bullets Time breakdown
5.05 Doctors
6.30 called downstairs
7.15 out of the doctors
The walk to the embassy take about 10 or 15 minutes and its easy to find, and after
checking my name of on a sheet, sends me round to the other side of the building, a
man there looked at my letter, took my camera and mobile phone, gave me a ticket for
them and sent me up the right hand stairs, the door magically unlocks as you
approach, that is a heavy door, inside there is a big room with most of it taken up
with racks of files, the room is split down the middle with a row of stand up
booths, and there is some chairs and a box of toys for the kids, a sign tells you to
hand your stuff in at booth one or two, I stood for a few moments and then the
British guy came and took my paper work, he asked for the stuff as it come on the
check list, he didn't care if it was a full face or a 3/4 view picture and he only
wanted one, he staples it to a form. When I gave him the I-134 and the evidence I
gave him a lot of evidence,
8/ Affidavit of Support
9/ A letter from my girlfriends boss, with how long she had been employed and how
much she got paid
10/ A letter from her bank manager, saying how long she had been a customer and what
her balance was
11/ A stock statement
12/ Tax returns, (she went a little overboard and send me 3 years federal and state
tax returns, but I thought what the hell, wouldn't harm to take them with me)
13/ 12 months bank statements, The bank couldn't tell her what he average balance
was, so we thought this might help prove it.
He then told me that they didn't actually need very much evidence for the K1 and gave
me back the bank balances and the tax returns. He also said that the interviewer
might ask for them so to keep them handy, I was then told to take a seat and I would
be interviewed shortly I was taken about 20 minutes later. The interviewer, a black
guy that shaved his head then called my name through a tanoy, and I was called up to
booth six which is screened off and I was asked to raise my right hand and swear I
would tell the truth, the first thing he did was ask me to fill in my fiancées full
name and sign the actual visa application I sent in earlier. He then starts firing
questions at me, and he had obviously been reading the emails that we sent with the
initial petition. I cant remember them all but somewhere
Had I ever been arrested in the UK Had I been arrested in the US How did we meet each
other When we met When did we meet in person who visited who first How many time I
had been to the US How often she had been here If she had any pets Had I met her
parents What their names where If she had any brothers and sisters What where their
names, I actually forgot her oldest brothers name for about five seconds, which he
thought was quite funny, I got it in the end. How to spell her sisters name, its a
little unusual name. He then asked who two people were that was mentioned in emails I
was in America last year over Joanne's birthday and he asked me how we celebrated,
where we went etc he then asked if we actually went out on her birthday (we didn't it
was the day before) he gave me my police and birth certificates back, asked me if I
had been for my medical, he then told me that pending my medical results he was going
to grant my visa and to return at one o'clock to collect it, it was only 10.30, I had
been at the embassy for about 45 minutes.
I hadn't been nervous through the interview or the medical and now I began to get
nervous, what if something showed up, it was stupid thinking that, but I felt like
it. I wont tell you what I did in London, but it involved sitting in Hyde park and
waiting. I went for a beer and then got back to the embassy at 12.40. The guy at the
gate looked at my appointment letter, checked my name and then asked for ID, camera
and phone in checkpoint and up the stair and through the heavy magic door, sat down
again, my interviewer was still interviewing and the waiting room was hotter than it
was earlier, then another guy appeared and started handing out visas, calling people
up one by one talking to them for a few moment and then sending them on there was
with their passports and sealed envelopes; there seemed to be no order in them being
given out and I was one of the last to get mine, sweating all the time. that was the
longest official part of the day, I was their for over an hour.
then back to the airport to wait 3 and 1/2 hours for my flight then sitting in a
traffic jam at the Forth Bridge at Edinburgh for another hour!
lots of waiting, but all in all it wasn't as bad as I thought, and if I had to sum up
everyone that dealt with me in two words, it would be friendly and efficient, even
the girl in KFC
now I only have two weeks left here to do stuff, that's never enough time
next stop Dulles airport........
Alan
little but I will get there in the end.
If you have done it yourself don't read it, it wont be any different than
yours...it boring
I now feel that I am an expert at waiting, in fact both Oxford and Cambridge
Universities have offered me a position lecturing on the finer points of standing
around aimlessly and wasting time.
First thing, my SqueezyJet flight from Edinburgh to London Luton was supposed to get
to the airport at around 6pm with my reckoning, London proper by about 6.45, check
into my hotel, some food and then scout out the doctors, sadly this wasn't to be, the
flight was almost 4 hours late and I made it to the hotel after eleven. Holiday Inn
in Welbeck street, it was £75 but it was well placed for food, tube stations and
doctors office and the room was clean, comfortable with a big bed and big bathroom
with a bath and a shower, you could even play playstation games on the telly. it
turned out that I paid my cash for somewhere to hang around and watch television and
wait for my doctors appointment as I never slept a wink, giving up even trying at the
back of four as I was getting up again at six thirty. I watched some bad TV!
including the "Big Bus" bad aeroplane style film about, oddly enough; a big bus. it
did amuse though.
Anyway. After 2 strong cups of coffee (I don't drink it ever! I needed the caffeine)
and a shower I was out of the hotel by 7.15 and off to the doctors , 10 minute walk
in the rain (it was still hot though) got my to the doctors office, and found a queue
of one, there was a girl already standing there, and not one to want to stand around
I went for a walk around the block, and I arrived back at 7.30 and found that the
queue had increased dramatically, well to about 8 people, consisting of a couple of
couples including a heavily pregnant lady and her husband/boyfriend and a guy who
seemed to be in his 60s and his American wife and a family of 4 and another guy on
his own. The queue continued to grow till their was about 25 people in total. Walk
in, given a folder, told to put in our
1/ passport,
2/ passport photo,
3/ vaccination records
4/ questionnaire that came out with packet 4
I had everything ready and my folder was the third one in and I was taken third, they
were in the order that they were handed in (I can only comment on the guys, there
wasn't a girl in the first six with their folder, so I was out of the doctors before
I saw any of them taken. you listen for your name on a really bad, crackly and cheap
intercom you then go to the front desk and pay your cash or credit cards no American
express if I remember £125, the lady that took your cash (I commented that it was
more painful then getting the blood taken, and I got a laugh and she agreed), you
sign the photo that you handed in and it is stapled to your medical form its put in a
green folder and you are sent downstairs, and you put the green folder in a rack on
the pillar at the bottom of the stairs and you take a seat in a small waiting room,
they seem to work with pairs, another pair coming down the stairs, every time 2 move
off to the next part of the medical, a lovely maternal nurse lady calls your name and
takes you into a room where she takes your blood, she told me that my vaccinations
were ok, she asked if I was getting married and what part of the states I am coming
to while she was doing this she proceeded to remove a syringe full of blood in about
5 seconds, she is good (practice I suppose) asked to check it was my name on the
syringe, then told to sit outside again. the nurse disappears through a door with my
folder and then calls the next person in. a couple of minutes later the radiographer
calls me through and tells me to pop into a changing room cubical and tells me to
take of everything from the neck to the waist, I have a ring in my nipple and I was
about to take it out and he said not to bother as he had a pair of rusty pliers for
doing that, but it didn't matter and I could leave it in. Very friendly and very
jokey and chatty and there was quite a bit of banter in the corridor where the
cubicles are, I got chatting with the others and there were 2 K1ers and 2 guys that
were married to Americans, they were both older, the older guy I mentioned earlier
and another bloke in his forties, get your xray and then told to leave your top off
and wait in your cubicle for the doctor, a very efficient doctor calls you, still
nice and chatty with the odd joke but still efficient, he flew through the medical,
but I still got a good going over, asked my questions, again was I getting married,
where I was going to, shone a light in my ear, my mouth and my eyes, made me lie on a
bed, he banged my chest a little, and my stomach, he also look at my.....down there,
which was a shock when he pulled my pants down. told me everything was ok and to get
dressed and head down to the embassy. I was handed my rolled up xray and told to take
it in my hand luggage and they may or may not want to see it and told me to remember
to go into the embassy through the gate andnot to climb the fence as the police there
have MP5s and 800 rounds a minute are a lot of bullets Time breakdown
5.05 Doctors
6.30 called downstairs
7.15 out of the doctors
The walk to the embassy take about 10 or 15 minutes and its easy to find, and after
checking my name of on a sheet, sends me round to the other side of the building, a
man there looked at my letter, took my camera and mobile phone, gave me a ticket for
them and sent me up the right hand stairs, the door magically unlocks as you
approach, that is a heavy door, inside there is a big room with most of it taken up
with racks of files, the room is split down the middle with a row of stand up
booths, and there is some chairs and a box of toys for the kids, a sign tells you to
hand your stuff in at booth one or two, I stood for a few moments and then the
British guy came and took my paper work, he asked for the stuff as it come on the
check list, he didn't care if it was a full face or a 3/4 view picture and he only
wanted one, he staples it to a form. When I gave him the I-134 and the evidence I
gave him a lot of evidence,
8/ Affidavit of Support
9/ A letter from my girlfriends boss, with how long she had been employed and how
much she got paid
10/ A letter from her bank manager, saying how long she had been a customer and what
her balance was
11/ A stock statement
12/ Tax returns, (she went a little overboard and send me 3 years federal and state
tax returns, but I thought what the hell, wouldn't harm to take them with me)
13/ 12 months bank statements, The bank couldn't tell her what he average balance
was, so we thought this might help prove it.
He then told me that they didn't actually need very much evidence for the K1 and gave
me back the bank balances and the tax returns. He also said that the interviewer
might ask for them so to keep them handy, I was then told to take a seat and I would
be interviewed shortly I was taken about 20 minutes later. The interviewer, a black
guy that shaved his head then called my name through a tanoy, and I was called up to
booth six which is screened off and I was asked to raise my right hand and swear I
would tell the truth, the first thing he did was ask me to fill in my fiancées full
name and sign the actual visa application I sent in earlier. He then starts firing
questions at me, and he had obviously been reading the emails that we sent with the
initial petition. I cant remember them all but somewhere
Had I ever been arrested in the UK Had I been arrested in the US How did we meet each
other When we met When did we meet in person who visited who first How many time I
had been to the US How often she had been here If she had any pets Had I met her
parents What their names where If she had any brothers and sisters What where their
names, I actually forgot her oldest brothers name for about five seconds, which he
thought was quite funny, I got it in the end. How to spell her sisters name, its a
little unusual name. He then asked who two people were that was mentioned in emails I
was in America last year over Joanne's birthday and he asked me how we celebrated,
where we went etc he then asked if we actually went out on her birthday (we didn't it
was the day before) he gave me my police and birth certificates back, asked me if I
had been for my medical, he then told me that pending my medical results he was going
to grant my visa and to return at one o'clock to collect it, it was only 10.30, I had
been at the embassy for about 45 minutes.
I hadn't been nervous through the interview or the medical and now I began to get
nervous, what if something showed up, it was stupid thinking that, but I felt like
it. I wont tell you what I did in London, but it involved sitting in Hyde park and
waiting. I went for a beer and then got back to the embassy at 12.40. The guy at the
gate looked at my appointment letter, checked my name and then asked for ID, camera
and phone in checkpoint and up the stair and through the heavy magic door, sat down
again, my interviewer was still interviewing and the waiting room was hotter than it
was earlier, then another guy appeared and started handing out visas, calling people
up one by one talking to them for a few moment and then sending them on there was
with their passports and sealed envelopes; there seemed to be no order in them being
given out and I was one of the last to get mine, sweating all the time. that was the
longest official part of the day, I was their for over an hour.
then back to the airport to wait 3 and 1/2 hours for my flight then sitting in a
traffic jam at the Forth Bridge at Edinburgh for another hour!
lots of waiting, but all in all it wasn't as bad as I thought, and if I had to sum up
everyone that dealt with me in two words, it would be friendly and efficient, even
the girl in KFC
now I only have two weeks left here to do stuff, that's never enough time
next stop Dulles airport........
Alan
Aug 8th 2002, 11:03 pm
#2
Guest
Posts: n/a
Re: London Interview run down
Congrats! Great write-up. Must reading for all who are awaiting their interview!
Colin <[email protected]> wrote in message news:[email protected]...
> Well the promised run down of my K1 day out to London on tuesday, I may ramble a
> little but I will get there in the end.
> If you have done it yourself don't read it, it wont be any different than
> yours...it boring
> I now feel that I am an expert at waiting, in fact both Oxford and
Cambridge
> Universities have offered me a position lecturing on the finer points of standing
> around aimlessly and wasting time.
> First thing, my SqueezyJet flight from Edinburgh to London Luton was supposed to
> get to the airport at around 6pm with my reckoning, London proper by about 6.45,
> check into my hotel, some food and then scout out
the
> doctors, sadly this wasn't to be, the flight was almost 4 hours late and I made it
> to the hotel after eleven. Holiday Inn in Welbeck street, it was
£75
> but it was well placed for food, tube stations and doctors office and the room was
> clean, comfortable with a big bed and big bathroom with a bath
and
> a shower, you could even play playstation games on the telly. it turned
out
> that I paid my cash for somewhere to hang around and watch television and wait for
> my doctors appointment as I never slept a wink, giving up even trying at the back
> of four as I was getting up again at six thirty. I watched some bad TV! including
> the "Big Bus" bad aeroplane style film
about,
> oddly enough; a big bus. it did amuse though.
> Anyway. After 2 strong cups of coffee (I don't drink it ever! I needed the
> caffeine) and a shower I was out of the hotel by 7.15 and off to the
doctors
> , 10 minute walk in the rain (it was still hot though) got my to the
doctors
> office, and found a queue of one, there was a girl already standing there, and not
> one to want to stand around I went for a walk around the block,
and
> I arrived back at 7.30 and found that the queue had increased
dramatically,
> well to about 8 people, consisting of a couple of couples including a heavily
> pregnant lady and her husband/boyfriend and a guy who seemed to be in his 60s and
> his American wife and a family of 4 and another guy on his own. The queue continued
> to grow till their was about 25 people in total. Walk in, given a folder, told to
> put in our
> 1/ passport,
> 2/ passport photo,
> 3/ vaccination records
> 4/ questionnaire that came out with packet 4
> I had everything ready and my folder was the third one in and I was taken third,
> they were in the order that they were handed in (I can only comment on the guys,
> there wasn't a girl in the first six with their folder, so I was out of the doctors
> before I saw any of them taken. you listen for your name on a really bad, crackly
> and cheap intercom you then go to the front desk and pay your cash or credit cards
> no American express if I remember £125, the lady that took your cash (I commented
> that it was more painful then getting the blood taken, and I got a laugh and she
> agreed), you sign the photo that you handed in and it is stapled to your medical
> form its
put
> in a green folder and you are sent downstairs, and you put the green
folder
> in a rack on the pillar at the bottom of the stairs and you take a seat in
a
> small waiting room, they seem to work with pairs, another pair coming down the
> stairs, every time 2 move off to the next part of the medical, a
lovely
> maternal nurse lady calls your name and takes you into a room where she takes your
> blood, she told me that my vaccinations were ok, she asked if I was getting married
> and what part of the states I am coming to while she
was
> doing this she proceeded to remove a syringe full of blood in about 5 seconds, she
> is good (practice I suppose) asked to check it was my name on the syringe, then
> told to sit outside again. the nurse disappears through
a
> door with my folder and then calls the next person in. a couple of minutes later
> the radiographer calls me through and tells me to pop into a
changing
> room cubical and tells me to take of everything from the neck to the
waist,
> I have a ring in my nipple and I was about to take it out and he said not
to
> bother as he had a pair of rusty pliers for doing that, but it didn't matter and I
> could leave it in. Very friendly and very jokey and chatty
and
> there was quite a bit of banter in the corridor where the cubicles are, I got
> chatting with the others and there were 2 K1ers and 2 guys that were married to
> Americans, they were both older, the older guy I mentioned earlier and another
> bloke in his forties, get your xray and then told to leave your top off and wait in
> your cubicle for the doctor, a very
efficient
> doctor calls you, still nice and chatty with the odd joke but still efficient, he
> flew through the medical, but I still got a good going over, asked my questions,
> again was I getting married, where I was going to,
shone
> a light in my ear, my mouth and my eyes, made me lie on a bed, he banged
my
> chest a little, and my stomach, he also look at my.....down there, which
was
> a shock when he pulled my pants down. told me everything was ok and to get dressed
> and head down to the embassy. I was handed my rolled up xray and told to take it in
> my hand luggage and they may or may not want to see it and told me to remember to
> go into the embassy through the gate andnot to climb the fence as the police there
> have MP5s and 800 rounds a minute are
a
> lot of bullets Time breakdown
> 8.05 Doctors
> 8.30 called downstairs
> 9.15 out of the doctors
> The walk to the embassy take about 10 or 15 minutes and its easy to find, and after
> checking my name of on a sheet, sends me round to the other side of the building, a
> man there looked at my letter, took my camera and
mobile
> phone, gave me a ticket for them and sent me up the right hand stairs, the door
> magically unlocks as you approach, that is a heavy door, inside there is a big room
> with most of it taken up with racks of files, the room is split down the middle
> with a row of stand up booths, and there is some chairs and a box of toys for the
> kids, a sign tells you to hand your stuff in at booth one or two, I stood for a few
> moments and then the British guy came and took my paper work, he asked for the
> stuff as it come on the
check
> list, he didn't care if it was a full face or a 3/4 view picture and he
only
> wanted one, he staples it to a form. When I gave him the I-134 and the evidence I
> gave him a lot of evidence,
> 1/ Affidavit of Support
> 2/ A letter from my girlfriends boss, with how long she had been employed and how
> much she got paid
> 3/ A letter from her bank manager, saying how long she had been a customer and what
> her balance was
> 4/ A stock statement
> 5/ Tax returns, (she went a little overboard and send me 3 years federal
and
> state tax returns, but I thought what the hell, wouldn't harm to take them with me)
> 6/ 12 months bank statements, The bank couldn't tell her what he average balance
> was, so we thought this might help prove it.
> He then told me that they didn't actually need very much evidence for the
K1
> and gave me back the bank balances and the tax returns. He also said that the
> interviewer might ask for them so to keep them handy, I was then told
to
> take a seat and I would be interviewed shortly I was taken about 20
minutes
> later. The interviewer, a black guy that shaved his head then called my
name
> through a tanoy, and I was called up to booth six which is screened off
and
> I was asked to raise my right hand and swear I would tell the truth, the first
> thing he did was ask me to fill in my fiancées full name and sign
the
> actual visa application I sent in earlier. He then starts firing questions at me,
> and he had obviously been reading the emails that we sent with the initial
> petition. I cant remember them all but somewhere
> Had I ever been arrested in the UK Had I been arrested in the US How did we meet
> each other When we met When did we meet in person who visited who first How many
> time I had been to the US How often she had been here If she had any pets Had I met
> her parents What their names where If she had any brothers and sisters What where
> their names, I actually forgot her oldest brothers name for
about
> five seconds, which he thought was quite funny, I got it in the end. How to spell
> her sisters name, its a little unusual name. He then asked who two people were that
> was mentioned in emails I was in America last year over Joanne's birthday and he
> asked me how we celebrated, where we went etc he then asked if we actually went out
> on her birthday (we didn't it was
the
> day before) he gave me my police and birth certificates back, asked me if I
> had been
for
> my medical, he then told me that pending my medical results he was going
to
> grant my visa and to return at one o'clock to collect it, it was only
10.30,
> I had been at the embassy for about 45 minutes.
> I hadn't been nervous through the interview or the medical and now I began to get
> nervous, what if something showed up, it was stupid thinking that, but I felt like
> it. I wont tell you what I did in London, but it involved sitting in Hyde park and
> waiting. I went for a beer and then got back to
the
> embassy at 12.40. The guy at the gate looked at my appointment letter, checked my
> name and then asked for ID, camera and phone in checkpoint and
up
> the stair and through the heavy magic door, sat down again, my interviewer was
> still interviewing and the waiting room was hotter than it was
earlier,
> then another guy appeared and started handing out visas, calling people up one by
> one talking to them for a few moment and then sending them on there was with their
> passports and sealed envelopes; there seemed to be no order in them being given out
> and I was one of the last to get mine, sweating
all
> the time. that was the longest official part of the day, I was their for over
> an hour.
> then back to the airport to wait 3 and 1/2 hours for my flight then
sitting
> in a traffic jam at the Forth Bridge at Edinburgh for another hour!
> lots of waiting, but all in all it wasn't as bad as I thought, and if I
had
> to sum up everyone that dealt with me in two words, it would be friendly
and
> efficient, even the girl in KFC
> now I only have two weeks left here to do stuff, that's never enough time
> next stop Dulles airport........
> Alan
Colin <[email protected]> wrote in message news:[email protected]...
> Well the promised run down of my K1 day out to London on tuesday, I may ramble a
> little but I will get there in the end.
> If you have done it yourself don't read it, it wont be any different than
> yours...it boring
> I now feel that I am an expert at waiting, in fact both Oxford and
Cambridge
> Universities have offered me a position lecturing on the finer points of standing
> around aimlessly and wasting time.
> First thing, my SqueezyJet flight from Edinburgh to London Luton was supposed to
> get to the airport at around 6pm with my reckoning, London proper by about 6.45,
> check into my hotel, some food and then scout out
the
> doctors, sadly this wasn't to be, the flight was almost 4 hours late and I made it
> to the hotel after eleven. Holiday Inn in Welbeck street, it was
£75
> but it was well placed for food, tube stations and doctors office and the room was
> clean, comfortable with a big bed and big bathroom with a bath
and
> a shower, you could even play playstation games on the telly. it turned
out
> that I paid my cash for somewhere to hang around and watch television and wait for
> my doctors appointment as I never slept a wink, giving up even trying at the back
> of four as I was getting up again at six thirty. I watched some bad TV! including
> the "Big Bus" bad aeroplane style film
about,
> oddly enough; a big bus. it did amuse though.
> Anyway. After 2 strong cups of coffee (I don't drink it ever! I needed the
> caffeine) and a shower I was out of the hotel by 7.15 and off to the
doctors
> , 10 minute walk in the rain (it was still hot though) got my to the
doctors
> office, and found a queue of one, there was a girl already standing there, and not
> one to want to stand around I went for a walk around the block,
and
> I arrived back at 7.30 and found that the queue had increased
dramatically,
> well to about 8 people, consisting of a couple of couples including a heavily
> pregnant lady and her husband/boyfriend and a guy who seemed to be in his 60s and
> his American wife and a family of 4 and another guy on his own. The queue continued
> to grow till their was about 25 people in total. Walk in, given a folder, told to
> put in our
> 1/ passport,
> 2/ passport photo,
> 3/ vaccination records
> 4/ questionnaire that came out with packet 4
> I had everything ready and my folder was the third one in and I was taken third,
> they were in the order that they were handed in (I can only comment on the guys,
> there wasn't a girl in the first six with their folder, so I was out of the doctors
> before I saw any of them taken. you listen for your name on a really bad, crackly
> and cheap intercom you then go to the front desk and pay your cash or credit cards
> no American express if I remember £125, the lady that took your cash (I commented
> that it was more painful then getting the blood taken, and I got a laugh and she
> agreed), you sign the photo that you handed in and it is stapled to your medical
> form its
put
> in a green folder and you are sent downstairs, and you put the green
folder
> in a rack on the pillar at the bottom of the stairs and you take a seat in
a
> small waiting room, they seem to work with pairs, another pair coming down the
> stairs, every time 2 move off to the next part of the medical, a
lovely
> maternal nurse lady calls your name and takes you into a room where she takes your
> blood, she told me that my vaccinations were ok, she asked if I was getting married
> and what part of the states I am coming to while she
was
> doing this she proceeded to remove a syringe full of blood in about 5 seconds, she
> is good (practice I suppose) asked to check it was my name on the syringe, then
> told to sit outside again. the nurse disappears through
a
> door with my folder and then calls the next person in. a couple of minutes later
> the radiographer calls me through and tells me to pop into a
changing
> room cubical and tells me to take of everything from the neck to the
waist,
> I have a ring in my nipple and I was about to take it out and he said not
to
> bother as he had a pair of rusty pliers for doing that, but it didn't matter and I
> could leave it in. Very friendly and very jokey and chatty
and
> there was quite a bit of banter in the corridor where the cubicles are, I got
> chatting with the others and there were 2 K1ers and 2 guys that were married to
> Americans, they were both older, the older guy I mentioned earlier and another
> bloke in his forties, get your xray and then told to leave your top off and wait in
> your cubicle for the doctor, a very
efficient
> doctor calls you, still nice and chatty with the odd joke but still efficient, he
> flew through the medical, but I still got a good going over, asked my questions,
> again was I getting married, where I was going to,
shone
> a light in my ear, my mouth and my eyes, made me lie on a bed, he banged
my
> chest a little, and my stomach, he also look at my.....down there, which
was
> a shock when he pulled my pants down. told me everything was ok and to get dressed
> and head down to the embassy. I was handed my rolled up xray and told to take it in
> my hand luggage and they may or may not want to see it and told me to remember to
> go into the embassy through the gate andnot to climb the fence as the police there
> have MP5s and 800 rounds a minute are
a
> lot of bullets Time breakdown
> 8.05 Doctors
> 8.30 called downstairs
> 9.15 out of the doctors
> The walk to the embassy take about 10 or 15 minutes and its easy to find, and after
> checking my name of on a sheet, sends me round to the other side of the building, a
> man there looked at my letter, took my camera and
mobile
> phone, gave me a ticket for them and sent me up the right hand stairs, the door
> magically unlocks as you approach, that is a heavy door, inside there is a big room
> with most of it taken up with racks of files, the room is split down the middle
> with a row of stand up booths, and there is some chairs and a box of toys for the
> kids, a sign tells you to hand your stuff in at booth one or two, I stood for a few
> moments and then the British guy came and took my paper work, he asked for the
> stuff as it come on the
check
> list, he didn't care if it was a full face or a 3/4 view picture and he
only
> wanted one, he staples it to a form. When I gave him the I-134 and the evidence I
> gave him a lot of evidence,
> 1/ Affidavit of Support
> 2/ A letter from my girlfriends boss, with how long she had been employed and how
> much she got paid
> 3/ A letter from her bank manager, saying how long she had been a customer and what
> her balance was
> 4/ A stock statement
> 5/ Tax returns, (she went a little overboard and send me 3 years federal
and
> state tax returns, but I thought what the hell, wouldn't harm to take them with me)
> 6/ 12 months bank statements, The bank couldn't tell her what he average balance
> was, so we thought this might help prove it.
> He then told me that they didn't actually need very much evidence for the
K1
> and gave me back the bank balances and the tax returns. He also said that the
> interviewer might ask for them so to keep them handy, I was then told
to
> take a seat and I would be interviewed shortly I was taken about 20
minutes
> later. The interviewer, a black guy that shaved his head then called my
name
> through a tanoy, and I was called up to booth six which is screened off
and
> I was asked to raise my right hand and swear I would tell the truth, the first
> thing he did was ask me to fill in my fiancées full name and sign
the
> actual visa application I sent in earlier. He then starts firing questions at me,
> and he had obviously been reading the emails that we sent with the initial
> petition. I cant remember them all but somewhere
> Had I ever been arrested in the UK Had I been arrested in the US How did we meet
> each other When we met When did we meet in person who visited who first How many
> time I had been to the US How often she had been here If she had any pets Had I met
> her parents What their names where If she had any brothers and sisters What where
> their names, I actually forgot her oldest brothers name for
about
> five seconds, which he thought was quite funny, I got it in the end. How to spell
> her sisters name, its a little unusual name. He then asked who two people were that
> was mentioned in emails I was in America last year over Joanne's birthday and he
> asked me how we celebrated, where we went etc he then asked if we actually went out
> on her birthday (we didn't it was
the
> day before) he gave me my police and birth certificates back, asked me if I
> had been
for
> my medical, he then told me that pending my medical results he was going
to
> grant my visa and to return at one o'clock to collect it, it was only
10.30,
> I had been at the embassy for about 45 minutes.
> I hadn't been nervous through the interview or the medical and now I began to get
> nervous, what if something showed up, it was stupid thinking that, but I felt like
> it. I wont tell you what I did in London, but it involved sitting in Hyde park and
> waiting. I went for a beer and then got back to
the
> embassy at 12.40. The guy at the gate looked at my appointment letter, checked my
> name and then asked for ID, camera and phone in checkpoint and
up
> the stair and through the heavy magic door, sat down again, my interviewer was
> still interviewing and the waiting room was hotter than it was
earlier,
> then another guy appeared and started handing out visas, calling people up one by
> one talking to them for a few moment and then sending them on there was with their
> passports and sealed envelopes; there seemed to be no order in them being given out
> and I was one of the last to get mine, sweating
all
> the time. that was the longest official part of the day, I was their for over
> an hour.
> then back to the airport to wait 3 and 1/2 hours for my flight then
sitting
> in a traffic jam at the Forth Bridge at Edinburgh for another hour!
> lots of waiting, but all in all it wasn't as bad as I thought, and if I
had
> to sum up everyone that dealt with me in two words, it would be friendly
and
> efficient, even the girl in KFC
> now I only have two weeks left here to do stuff, that's never enough time
> next stop Dulles airport........
> Alan
