SoundsFishy

Really pleased that on Friday at the US Embassy in London we got through our interview and have had the EB1 visa approved... I just wanted to thank all the contributors to this forum for the help and advice that i have picked up over the last couple of months since joining.

Now looking at moving to Los Angeles in Mid-January... so if anybody has any advice on packing up our UK life .. would love to hear it !

Think there'll be a lot of trips to the tip and the charity shops to get rid of years of clutter.

GeoffM

Congratulations!

dickiederson

Hey Congratulations!

This is actually my first post on here and it looks like you've recently been through what my wife and I are experiencing at the moment...!

Our Lawyer emailed us a few months ago to tell us our 'EB1.1' Petition had been approved... We were a bit confused but he assured us that it means we WILL be getting our greencards ("Unless you are criminals"!)

So we've paid the $405 each for the applications and sent off all our paperwork and certificates to the Lawyers, who have received them, approved them and sent them to the National Visa Centre.

My understanding is that the next thing is for the London Embassy to arrange an interview for us, which could be up to 2 months.

It seems like you've just been through this so? What sort of an interview is it, is it a formality to check that we are who we say we are and the paperwork is in order or are they still evaluating our eligiblity. Can they still decide they don't like us on the day and say 'No!' in other words?
Do they hand the green card to you straight away (and, IS it a card that is green?!) if the interview is successful or is there more waiting?

I have also read that we may need to have a medical. Will the Embassy tell us the procedure for that or can we get it done in advance?!

Haha so many questions!

Congratulations once again, I see you're moving to LA? That's our plan too. We're both actors and really hoping that the industry over there has it's head a little less far up it's own arse (ass?!) as it does in the UK!!

All the best

Rich

GeoffM

Personally I think the hard part is done at that stage. Is it EB1A or some other EB1 case? Like SoundsFishy, I have an EB1A too.

Assuming your paperwork is in order, that sounds about right. We had an RFE as I hadn't read the instructions properly, but when that was sent back it was processed within a day and bundled off to London shortly afterwards - that was late November. The interview was early February.

I think the interview in our case is to ensure the person standing in front of them is the person in the petition. In my interview the interviewer flicked through the petition and fired random questions at me. I have to say I found it rather stressful, especially as he walked away for a good 5 minutes before returning with more questions. But he said we were approved .

You hand over your passport and a week or two later it comes back with your visa. When you enter the US the visa is endorsed (basically just an entry stamp) and that becomes your temporary green card. Eventually you'll get the physical green card in the mail in the US - they say up to six months but mine came within a month.

You have to have a medical, and at the one place in London - http://www.visamedicals.info/us.asp - once you have your NVC case number I think you can organise it. Your visas won't be issued until your approved medical results are received by the consulate. While it's best to do it as soon as you can, you don't want to do it too early as the results expire within 6 months at the latest - the results have to be unexpired on the day you enter the US.

dickiederson

Wow thanks so much for the speedy response Geoff!
You've eased some of my fears although I'm sure you know we won't be completely at ease until we've got through passport control!

Another thing has scared me since reading through some posts...someone was speculating that their interview didn't go very well because they had spent time in a Muslim country!
It sounds ridiculous and I'm sure it is. But I have worked quite a lot in Malaysia.. not quite a hotbed of training camps and AK47s but definitely Muslim...
I can't wait to get to the USA, then maybe I can get some sleep!

Thanks again oh and yes it is an EB1A :-)

Rich

GeoffM

You're welcome - I'll try to answer anything else you have, though I can't answer the Malaysia issue. My guess is that if you've evidence of working there then it won't be a problem.

ThomasK

I'm a Malaysian with a clear conscience. Never had a problem getting a 10 year US tourist visa.

SoundsFishy

sorry for the late response... but yes.. basically .. 'what Geoff said' ! Been a touch busy since getting approved.. but if i can answer anything I will.

I was really tense at the actual interview.. but it turned out the questions were easy enough to answer, assuming you know your subject.. and your application! We 'revised' the key facts, and dates, but didn't actually end up getting any questions that were difficult to answer - and they were all about my career and plans on arrival in the US. As Geoff said, I think the main point is to meet you, and check you are ....er.. real ! Up until the interview they've only seen your passport photo.

Once the Consular Officer said 'your visa is approved' the feeling was amazing - we're now just waiting for the passports to come back !

Fran_L

Hi,

When you say packing up your UK life, do you mean literally needing helping with removals and shipping or do you mean more generally in terms of what you need to get sorted before your emigration? There's a great Emigration Checklist by The Emigration Group that you could take a look at if needs be. Not trying to spam you here. We're trying to write something similar at my company and found that this checklist was one of the best that we've come across.

Removals/shipping-wise I won't make any recommendations on here for fear of being reported as spam, but again I'd be happy to help out if you PM me.

Fran

GeoffM

There's a checklist here:
http://britishexpats.com/wiki/List_o...n_about_Moving

Fran_L

Well there you go, that solves that one! Looks pretty good too.

It doesn't give you an idea of time frames though. The Emigration Group's checklist has a countdown from 18 months to moving day and afterwards. (It's also a bit easier on the eye.) You'll get similar information though either way, so either should help!

SoundsFishy

Thanks for the checklist suggestion - very useful... I will be adding a few things to my Excel Spreadsheet !