katnap8

YIPPEE!!!

Welcome to the world of K1 visa holders. I'm glad it was a breeze for you. Best wishes to you and your fiance.

Kat

dbark

Well done Pete! It really does help those of us who will be going through London to read all the reassurances!

Congratulations and all the best.

Debbie

Richard Green

Pete, Hope everything is good with you
Congratulations to us Overall Thursday became a very enjoyable day!

I'm currently in the midst of writing a very long report on what we did on
Thursday, trying to cram every detail in, expect to post it later tonight or
tomorrow if i don't get it all done in time.

Good Luck for the future, Pete.

Richard Green

"PeteJ" wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
    > Well.... I am now the proud owner of a K-1 visa. A HUGE thankyou to
    > everyone who has been an amazing help in the run-up to this point in the
    > immigration process. I hope that this account of the day will be a help
    > to future people going through London Embassy. Hello to Richard Green
    > who is another fellow newsgrouper who I met at the Embassy yesterday.
    > Congrats on getting your K-1 Richard!!!!
    > 7am - Thursday 23rd January 2003
    > I stayed at a hotel near Lancaster Gate and did not sleep well the night
    > before. However my nerves were settled when I went down to breakfast to
    > try and stomach some food before the long day ahead. I got chatting to a
    > nice man from Alaska who was on holiday and completely forgot about the
    > impending day ahead and managed to eat a bun and a croissant and a cup
    > of coffee.
    > 15 minutes walk to the Dr Phelan's office. I arrived at 7:45 and there
    > were 4 or 5 people already there. By the time the doors opened at about
    > 8:02 there were about another 15 people behind me.
    > THE MEDICAL (DR PHELAN'S PLACE)
    > We were handed a pink folder as we walked into the door and taken
    > through to the waiting room. The instructions told us to place the
    > following in the folder and take it back to reception:
    > PASSPORT, ONE PHOTO, VACCINATION RECORDS AND MEDICAL QUESTIONNAIRE.
    > Because of various other previous posts I was prepared so just needed to
    > plop my stuff into the folder and take it back to reception. I handed it
    > in and it was placed in a rack on the desk. I waited about 10 mins until
    > I was called on the (new and audible!) intercom to pay my £125. I paid
    > cash and was given my passport back. Waited again for 5-10 mins and was
    > called FIRST for the medical. They split the medicals into male and
    > female. It was the case that the 5 or 6 males were first this time as
    > there were more men than women. Then I think it was the order which they
    > were returned to reception.
    > I was handed my information in a now green folder and told to go down
    > the stairs and wait in the waiting room down there.
    > I put my green folder in a holder on the wall and the nurse came out and
    > took it into her little room. A coupl eof minutes later she came out and
    > took me in for the blood test. It was very painless and she got me to
    > confirm my name on the test tube and sent me out to the waiting room to
    > wait for the chest x-ray.
    > The guy came and took me to the cubicles with the saloon doors! He told
    > me to strip to the waist and qualified that it was chin to waist! I
    > asked if he had people stripping the other way! - he said many times!!
    > He was very chatty and a bit of a joker. Had the chest x-ray and was
    > sent back to the cubicle to wait for Doc Phelan. He called me a couple
    > of minutes later. He checked my vaccination records and although I only
    > had a mish-mash of papers from various places, he accepted them and said
    > I didn't need any other jabs!! He did blood pressure, eye test, looked
    > in my ears and mouth and the 'cough test'.
    > Got dressed and picked up my rolled up chest x-ray and off to the
    > embassy!
    > Before I left the docs I had to visit the notorious and infamous toilet.
    > How bizzare!! the half size 'Alice in wonderland' door and the kitchen
    > foil on the ceiling - weird!!
    > THE EMBASSY (9:30 AM)
    > I walked to the embassy and there is only 1 door to go in now - it is on
    > the Audley street side of Grosvenor Square. IGNORE ALL QUEUES! It
    > confused me and others there on the day as the signs on the metal fence
    > say "queue for visa applications here" GO STRAIGHT TO THE SECURITY GUARD
    > BOX AT THE FRONT OF THE QUEUE AND SHOW YOUR INTERVIEW LETTER AND
    > PASSPORT. they will let you through and you walk up the side of the
    > building turn right and wait outside the door for a security check. you
    > need to hand in your mobile phone and get your bag scanned etc...
    > I then went and checked in at Booth 1. No-one was there so I rang the
    > 'call bell' They took my letter away and I waited......
    > About 30 mins later I was called up to provide all my info. Gave him my
    > passport, two pictures - I asked whether he wanted full face or ADIT
    > style. He said to keep the ADIT ones for AOS, so he took the full face
    > ones. Didn't seem bothered either way!! I had to sign my 2 copies of
    > DS156 and provide the originals and 1 copy of the following documents:
    > Police Certificate, My birth certificate, Biographic form. He took the
    > I-134 Affidavit and the copy of the supporting documents giving me the
    > originals to keep for AOS. May have been other stuff - can't remember
    > exactly...
    > Make sure you take an extra copy of everything in your file - useful to
    > have as they do want orginal and copies of some forms.
    > Went and waited again for another 30-45 mins. then I was called for the
    > INTERVIEW...
    > Nice man - very straight forward. Asked where and when we met. Where we
    > would be living - when the wedding was and had I met her family and her
    > met mine.....That was pretty much it. He handed me back my original
    > police certificate and birth certificate and said to go away and come
    > back at 12:30 - it was now 11am. He said that everything was fine
    > pending medical results...
    > Went to the local starbucks with the other K-1ers and discussed the
    > experience. had to make sure we still had our interview letter to get
    > back into the embassy at 12:30pm!!
    > Came back at 12:30 and waited about 15mins - we were called up and
    > handed our pasasport WITH VISA and the rules explained about using the
    > visa once and within 6 months of issue and then marrying within 90 days
    > of entering. Got handed the infamous sealed brown envelope and told to
    > hand it to POE officer with x-ray and to carry them both in hand
    > luggage......
    > YAY SUCCESSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
    > I left the embassy to find a phone to tell my fiancee the good news!!
    > I will be joining her at the beginning of April.....now just need to
    > find the flight!!!!
    > Hope this is of some use to future London people -
    > It is not as scary as you think - very straight forward and everyone is
    > really nice - Try not to worry....
    > All the best,
    > Pete
    > --
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