technolog

My USC fiancée and I travelled down on the train the day before the interview so we could get to the Embassy nice and early. Because of this we also decided to take in a show - The Book Of Mormon at The Prince Of Wales Theatre (highly recommended IF you're not easily offended!). We followed this with a gorgeous meal at Imli Street restaurant on Wardour Street.

We stayed at the Holiday Inn - Regent's Park for £120 for the one night. It's nicely situated, 3 minutes walk from Great Portland Street tube station. We left just after 7am - you travel 1 stop west to Baker Street tube station on either the Metropolitan, Hammersmith & City or Circle lines. Change there to the Jubilee line southbound and it's one stop away to Bond Street tube station. From there it's about a 10 minute walk to the Embassy. The whole journey from hotel to Embassy took about 20 minutes. Or it should have done if we hadn't missed the sign for North Audley Street

Anyway, we arrived at the Embassy at 7.40am and the queue was already about 60m long with probably around 50 or 60 people in front of us. However the queue moved quickly and we were soon showing our appointment letter and passports to the lady at the head of the first queue. We then moved a few feet to another, very short queue after which we showed the same documents again then we were through to the next queue outside the security building by 8.05am.

The security procedure involved placing belts, phones and watches in a clear plastic bag, jackets were placed in a plastic tray along with the clear plastic bag. The tray went through one scanner and we went through another; just like an airport. My fiancée was allowed to take her e-cigarette through with her without any problems.

So, by about 8.10am, we were inside the Embassy compound. We walked round the outside of the building, entering from the north side and taking a ticket (I912) from a very polite British fella on the reception desk.

Next we entered the large waiting room and took our seats for the long wait.

The screen at the front was flashing up numbers pretty rapidly, one after the other and we had to keep our eyes on the screen more or less constantly. After about 45 minutes our number popped up and we headed off to window 13. The girl there was lovely, chatty, ex-military and immediately put us at ease.

I'd organised the my documents into the different, labelled compartments of a document wallet and I can't emphasise enough how helpful this was in being able to hand over the requested documents easily and quickly.

I can't remember the order in which the documents were asked for but they were: appointment letter and passport, 2 US passport photos onto both of which I had to print my first and last names, my long form birth certificate and a copy, DS-160 confirmation page, visa payment/courier confirmation page, my police certificate and a copy, my divorce decree and a copy, an I-134 Affidavit of Support filled in by my fiancée (this showed zero income and assets, so...), an I-134 Affidavit of Support filled in by my fiancée's step father and the letter from his employer confirming salary etc.

Notable points were: they asked for my fiancée's I-134 even though it showed zero assets or income; they didn't ask for my fiancée's tax returns (she didn't have any as she wasn't required to file due to being below the lower earnings limit (of which we'd taken proof); they didn't require the (eventual) I-134's sponsor's tax returns, pay stubs or even his US passport details - she even made a comment of how relatively unimportant the I-134 was compared with the I-864; no proof of ongoing relationship was asked for.

She then took my prints via an electronic scanner; LH four fingers, RH four fingers and two thumbs. Finally she handed me my chest x-ray/results from the medical and told me I needed to hand it over to the officer at the Port of Entry together with the unopened, sealed packet, that will be returned with my passport.

This stage took between 10 and 15 minutes. We sat back down and waited a further 30 minutes or so before we were called for the second stage interview.

This time we had a less chatty but thoroughly professional and polite man. He asked a few rudimentary questions about how we'd met and how often. He asked if I'd got a job sorted for when I move and I said no and that I wouldn't be able to until 90 days after the wedding. It was at this point he disappeared and said he needed to check something. When he returned he looked through my documents from stage 1 and noticed we hadn't been asked for my fiancée's divorce decree, so we handed that over together with a copy. Again he disappeared off to check something. At this point we were starting to worry that something was amiss with our paperwork and that we might be heading for a delay in our approval. After he disappeared a third time we were really worried! It was only after he returned this time he explained he was new on the job and had to keep checking with his boss! Good grief man - you could have told us the first time you disappeared! That explained why he asked whether I'd got a job already sorted. Then he said 'right guys, you're good to go'. YAY!!!!!!!!

We were in the Embassy compound for almost exactly 2 hours. Apart from the brief seeds of doubt sown near the end, we found the whole process quite relaxed, straightforward and certainly nothing to worry about so long as you do your research and get your documents in order.

Thanks very much to everyone that has helped along the way but especially Ian & Rene - thanks guys! Are you ready for my AOS questions?

Jonion

Nice read.
Happy that you got it approved and not too much drama :-)

Can I just ask a question?
What was your actual appointment time?
I'm trying to work out how early I need to be there to get through security etc to be on time.

breakerfall

Awesome, I’ve been keeping up with your story - congratulations!

ian-mstm

Congratulations! Well done.

Ian

civilservant

congrats!

technolog

The appointment time was 9am but I think it's generally accepted that there's no notice paid to the appointment time by any of the Embassy staff. It's definitely first come, first served. The earlier you get there, the sooner you'll get out. We got there at 7.40am and there were about 60 in the queue in front of us - we were the 12th in the queue for the immigrant visas (from the I912 ticket number).

I'm not sure if there's a time after which they won't allow anyone in but we came back to the Embassy for a 'flat Stanley' photo session (don't ask, it's a long story - google it) after going away for breakfast nearby and there was no queue outside the Embassy at all at about 11am, so it might be possible to be even quicker by being later.

Noorah101

Congratulations!

Time to start researching AOS!

Rene

Musical

Very pleased for you....exciting times ahead!!