VISA INTERVIEW - APPROVAL USA LONDON EMBASSY
Jul 22nd 2008, 11:53 am
#1
Forum Regular
Thread Starter
Joined: Jan 2007
Location: NEW YORK
Posts: 50
VISA INTERVIEW - APPROVAL USA LONDON EMBASSY
Hi
I have used this site a few times in my angst and wanted to post when I received my visa, which I did on Friday past!
The process in total, from filing the first piece of paperwork until I received my passport with the visa inside was exactly one year.
My husband filed the paperwork with the NVC in the US - Vermont I think. We filed I130/CR1 & CR2 (my daughter) because we have not been married 2 years at time of approval we will be Conditional Residents.
There were only a couple of problems along the way and overall I think they probably held up the visa by maybe a month or two which is long enough when you are separated from your husband for as long as I have been! I should also say that the vast majority of stress and worry was entirely self inflicted and I worried when really I shouldn't have - but of course these things are always clearer in hindsight…..
The first problem was that when allocating the case numbers for myself and my daughter, they assigned us to two different Embassy's, me to Dublin and my daughter to London! (We live in Northern Ireland) We didn't notice this until half way through the process but thankfully, somehow we did and realized that the first 3 letters of the case number represent the Embassy they intend to send you through, mine was DUB and my daughters LND. We contacted the NVC because they were dealing with all the paperwork and the case number allocation; this meant putting our case on what they called "review" until it was sorted - they said it would take approximately 3 weeks to review and in fact it took slightly less - but they were near enough.
The next problem that occurred was that we didn't send in the original birth cert and marriage cert for me and they wrote out and asked us for those, which we provided post haste only to be told they HAD received them, but they had "misplaced" the DS230 part 1 for me and my daughter! This meant the case had to be put on "review" again for 3 weeks. Again we rang around the 3 week stage and were told they had found the DS230 part 1's and a letter had been sent out with an interview date of 1st July 2008. When I received the letter I of course went through it with a fine tooth comb and got originals of all the documents again, even though it said in the letter that they would only be needed if the originals weren't sent to the NVC, but unsurprisingly I didn't really trust them.
The NVC apparently organises ALL the paperwork now so that there is less to be produced at the Embassy on the day of the interview and even though it said in the letter that if the NVC had not received the originals you must take the originals with you to the interview, it seemed to us that that was unnecessary to say because the NVC would not process the paperwork further until they had received ALL originals - so we didn't understand the relevance of stating that!
NOTE:- The call centre staff in the NVC on the whole are USELESS - I cannot stress enough how USELESS they are!!!!! I also cannot stress enough how confusing, contradictory and unfair the process is! Question EVERYTHING 10 times over, Keep copies of EVERYTHING, Keep check on EVEYRTHING, Keep ringing and pushing them on to do stuff that needs done, never expect them to be reasonable or know the answer - at least the correct one, don't get mad or argue, prepare yourself for a wait, do everythiing they say (after checking 10 times over) and when you are at what you think is the final post - expect the goal posts to change AGAIN! Ok rant over....
Anyway, I did have to get my medical first, as did my daughter. I rang and made an appointment with the Knightsbridge doctors for 25th June. Everything with the medical was fine except for the vaccinations; I had gotten a letter from my doctor, one for me and one for my daughter stating that we had received all our vaccinations to date - NOT GOOD ENOUGH!! They needed Vaccination Name and Date of Vaccination for everything on the list and they needed a stamp from the practice not just his signature. They were very nice and said if I went back home and got my GP to sign and stamp the printed list they gave me with the dates of the vaccinations then that would be ok. They said if I got vaccinations with them it would be more expensive and I ended up having to get an MMR vaccination because they DO NOT ACCEPT individual vaccinations - it must be the MMR, even though the MMR was not available when I was a child so I had to get it, and also there was another I didn't have - but sorry - I forget the name, but I was able to get those at my own GP. At any rate I got them the day I came back from London. My daughter had to go through the same process and they INSISTED that she get the HPV vaccine, even though it isn't technically available in the UK yet. They do obviously have supplies but my daughter would not have been due to get it until she is 12 (she's 11 now) and they are not starting to give it out at all until this coming Autumn. (I was a bit annoyed at this because there was no way to know that she had to have something that wasn't being distributed here and it did say on the vaccination list that only vaccines available in the UK were required!) Also girls in America don't get it until they are 11 and they are given it through their school so Emma would have gotten it when she attended school in America - although it's quite costly I believe! My GP however was good enough to source one for me and they gave my daughter the first dose which was all that the US Government required apparently, however they would not have let us get the visa without it! We then faxed the signed, dated and stamped lists over to the doctors and they got the information to the Embassy on time and sent me a copy too.
So we set off for the interview in London - the trip itself was a disaster - I don't like London and this trip didn't help. There were a few problems in so far as getting there and getting around etc which added to the stress levels and all I can say to anyone is if you know someone who knows London get information from them - find out a lot about the tube because it's the best way to travel around and leave yourself LOADS of time to get things done.
Like I said I went through the Embassy letter with a fine tooth comb and got mega paranoid - my photographs (which I mention in another posting) were too small according to the letter and so having failed to get them in NI I immediately set about getting them when we arrived in London. I went into a Kodak store and the guy took our photos - got them the right size (2 x 2 inch) and charged us the princely sum of £18, this seemed expensive to me however it turned out to be just the start! I had paid for everything I could in advance. My husband had paid the visa fee (the NVC also collect that with the paperwork, which incidentally is another hold up because they won't take the payment WITH the documents - you must wait until they check the documents and then they send you a bill and then you send in the money!!! - each section of that takes 2 weeks or so), I paid for the flights, train and hotel over the internet before I travelled to London but I still spent a lot - London is VERY expensive - even for the simplest of things. Anyway, we arrived at the hotel on 30th June, the day before my interview as it was at 10am on the 1st July (and 30th of June is also my wedding anniversary :-)! The hotel was ok - very basic but very very reasonable I thought for central London - £82 for a family room including breakfast (Days Inn in Sussex Gardens) and it was also very near Paddington station, places to eat etc. I decided after the trip over for the medical that I was not going to worry about getting buses or the tube from the hotel the next morning and so I paid for a taxi to the Embassy - it was £15 one way and for the peace of mind it gave me it was well worth it. We arrived at the Embassy at 9am and there was a man telling people where to stand depending on what time their interview was at. We stood over along a railing - loads of people waiting (gorgeous day - the hottest of the year apparently!) and then the guy came along and said that anyone with any electronic equipment would not be admitted to the Embassy. I felt safe in the knowledge that we had left all at the hotel until he said "that includes your car key - if its one that opens the doors of the car "electronically!". My heart sank as I knew I had my car key with me in my bag and didn't even think of it as being electronic - I told him I had the key and he said the chemist across the street would keep it for me until I came out of the interview and off I went, leaving my daughter in the queue. I got to the chemist - with a few other people who had brought mobile phones etc, a guy in front of me presented them with his phone and said he would like to leave it with them and they said - fine £10 please! The guy was furious at having to pay the money - quite frankly I didn't give a hoot - I was just glad I could leave it! In hindsight I think they were really taking the mick but they have people over a barrell so…………
I went back to the Embassy and a lady then checked again that we had nothing we weren't supposed to have, then checked our letters to see that we had an interview that day, then we joined another queue and waited to go through security. They took us though in pairs and then we were directed round the side of the building, up steps and into a room full of chairs with HUNDREDS of people waiting on them! We collected a number on the way in the door and took a seat to wait.
The numbers are frightening but they really do speed their way through them. It appeared to me that non-immigrant visa's were numbered in the 1000's and immigrant visa's were in the 5000's. We were number 5018 and when I sat down it said there were 10 people in the immigrant visa queue. There are a few screens which display the numbers and the whole time we were there there was announcements of number 1234 to window 12 etc etc. The windows were just like in a bank or post office numbere from 1 to 20 I think and you stand at them when presenting the paperwork and interview etc, just like in a bank or post office.
Anyway, in the waiting room they have a photo booth - I don't know if anyone would be prepared to take the chance that it is always working and wait to get their photos there but it is there nonetheless! There is also a little tuck shop where crisps and sweets and drinks can be purchased if you wish and also there are toilets. It was very warm that day so they could have been doing with more cooling of some sort but it was not too bad at the same time.
It took about an hour or so for our number to be called out and up we went. The lady at the counter (English lady) went through all my paperwork and took my finger prints, that process took about 20 minutes or so I think. I thought that was it really until she said to take a seat again and we would be called for our interview. The wait for the interview was about another 30 - 40 minutes by which time it was around 12 o'clock. This time it was a different counter and an American lady - she was extremely pleasant and put me but more importantly my daughter at ease. She again went through the paperwork, took my fingerprints and gave me my chest x-ray which she said I must take with me to America. She got us both to raise our right hand and swear to tell the truth etc etc… then she asked me questions about my husband and his family - not very many just basic stuff like how did we meet, what does he do for a living, had he ever visited me in Ireland and if so how long and what was the longest he ever stayed, did I know his parents and meet them and what is their names?! She then asked my daughter did she know and like my husband and his parents, what did she enjoy doing with him and was she excited about living in America.
She asked me about my daughter's biological father. I had some people on this site query that also and some people were under the impression that it would cause difficulty that I had not sought him out and asked his permission to take my daughter to America. However there was no such difficulty at the Embassy. Because my daughter's biological father did not put his name on her birth certificate (much to my dismay at the time - but relief now), he has little or no real claim to her legally. Also he had no contact with her - his choice again but a good thing for me obviously. So she did ask about him but seemed satisfied that what I said was true and there was no documentary evidence to the contrary.
The last thing she said was that in February 2008 a new system for getting a police check/SAR/certificate whatever had come in and I had the old version! I had put my paperwork in before then so had no option but she said they wanted the new one and she gave me the web address where to get it and the contact details for the courier who would collect the cert off me along with our passports and then return the visa to me again. (on reading about it since - I did see that it said the Embassy's would not be accepting the old type cert AFTER August 2008 so I don't know why she insisted but again - I don't care!).
She then said that unless something different came up on the cert that I had my visa and Welcome to the USA!
I was of course delighted and relieved, I collected my very expensive car key,(which I had to pay £10 to leave in the chemist!) went back to the hotel - had a horrendous time getting home - but who cares - immediately paid £70 to get the police cert in the fastest way possible, (it's £35 if you want to wait up until 10 days for it) rang the courier to arrange for them to collect the passports and cert 2 days later - paid them £24.50 - totally ridiculous since the so called courier service took 10 days to collect and return the visa to me when Royal Mail would probably have delivered it next day for £7! But again I don't really care - I have my visa, Im finishing work on 1st August and leave for New York on 18th August! Now I'm fretting about getting the house in order to rent out ……………….
I have used this site a few times in my angst and wanted to post when I received my visa, which I did on Friday past!
The process in total, from filing the first piece of paperwork until I received my passport with the visa inside was exactly one year.
My husband filed the paperwork with the NVC in the US - Vermont I think. We filed I130/CR1 & CR2 (my daughter) because we have not been married 2 years at time of approval we will be Conditional Residents.
There were only a couple of problems along the way and overall I think they probably held up the visa by maybe a month or two which is long enough when you are separated from your husband for as long as I have been! I should also say that the vast majority of stress and worry was entirely self inflicted and I worried when really I shouldn't have - but of course these things are always clearer in hindsight…..
The first problem was that when allocating the case numbers for myself and my daughter, they assigned us to two different Embassy's, me to Dublin and my daughter to London! (We live in Northern Ireland) We didn't notice this until half way through the process but thankfully, somehow we did and realized that the first 3 letters of the case number represent the Embassy they intend to send you through, mine was DUB and my daughters LND. We contacted the NVC because they were dealing with all the paperwork and the case number allocation; this meant putting our case on what they called "review" until it was sorted - they said it would take approximately 3 weeks to review and in fact it took slightly less - but they were near enough.
The next problem that occurred was that we didn't send in the original birth cert and marriage cert for me and they wrote out and asked us for those, which we provided post haste only to be told they HAD received them, but they had "misplaced" the DS230 part 1 for me and my daughter! This meant the case had to be put on "review" again for 3 weeks. Again we rang around the 3 week stage and were told they had found the DS230 part 1's and a letter had been sent out with an interview date of 1st July 2008. When I received the letter I of course went through it with a fine tooth comb and got originals of all the documents again, even though it said in the letter that they would only be needed if the originals weren't sent to the NVC, but unsurprisingly I didn't really trust them.
The NVC apparently organises ALL the paperwork now so that there is less to be produced at the Embassy on the day of the interview and even though it said in the letter that if the NVC had not received the originals you must take the originals with you to the interview, it seemed to us that that was unnecessary to say because the NVC would not process the paperwork further until they had received ALL originals - so we didn't understand the relevance of stating that!
NOTE:- The call centre staff in the NVC on the whole are USELESS - I cannot stress enough how USELESS they are!!!!! I also cannot stress enough how confusing, contradictory and unfair the process is! Question EVERYTHING 10 times over, Keep copies of EVERYTHING, Keep check on EVEYRTHING, Keep ringing and pushing them on to do stuff that needs done, never expect them to be reasonable or know the answer - at least the correct one, don't get mad or argue, prepare yourself for a wait, do everythiing they say (after checking 10 times over) and when you are at what you think is the final post - expect the goal posts to change AGAIN! Ok rant over....
Anyway, I did have to get my medical first, as did my daughter. I rang and made an appointment with the Knightsbridge doctors for 25th June. Everything with the medical was fine except for the vaccinations; I had gotten a letter from my doctor, one for me and one for my daughter stating that we had received all our vaccinations to date - NOT GOOD ENOUGH!! They needed Vaccination Name and Date of Vaccination for everything on the list and they needed a stamp from the practice not just his signature. They were very nice and said if I went back home and got my GP to sign and stamp the printed list they gave me with the dates of the vaccinations then that would be ok. They said if I got vaccinations with them it would be more expensive and I ended up having to get an MMR vaccination because they DO NOT ACCEPT individual vaccinations - it must be the MMR, even though the MMR was not available when I was a child so I had to get it, and also there was another I didn't have - but sorry - I forget the name, but I was able to get those at my own GP. At any rate I got them the day I came back from London. My daughter had to go through the same process and they INSISTED that she get the HPV vaccine, even though it isn't technically available in the UK yet. They do obviously have supplies but my daughter would not have been due to get it until she is 12 (she's 11 now) and they are not starting to give it out at all until this coming Autumn. (I was a bit annoyed at this because there was no way to know that she had to have something that wasn't being distributed here and it did say on the vaccination list that only vaccines available in the UK were required!) Also girls in America don't get it until they are 11 and they are given it through their school so Emma would have gotten it when she attended school in America - although it's quite costly I believe! My GP however was good enough to source one for me and they gave my daughter the first dose which was all that the US Government required apparently, however they would not have let us get the visa without it! We then faxed the signed, dated and stamped lists over to the doctors and they got the information to the Embassy on time and sent me a copy too.
So we set off for the interview in London - the trip itself was a disaster - I don't like London and this trip didn't help. There were a few problems in so far as getting there and getting around etc which added to the stress levels and all I can say to anyone is if you know someone who knows London get information from them - find out a lot about the tube because it's the best way to travel around and leave yourself LOADS of time to get things done.
Like I said I went through the Embassy letter with a fine tooth comb and got mega paranoid - my photographs (which I mention in another posting) were too small according to the letter and so having failed to get them in NI I immediately set about getting them when we arrived in London. I went into a Kodak store and the guy took our photos - got them the right size (2 x 2 inch) and charged us the princely sum of £18, this seemed expensive to me however it turned out to be just the start! I had paid for everything I could in advance. My husband had paid the visa fee (the NVC also collect that with the paperwork, which incidentally is another hold up because they won't take the payment WITH the documents - you must wait until they check the documents and then they send you a bill and then you send in the money!!! - each section of that takes 2 weeks or so), I paid for the flights, train and hotel over the internet before I travelled to London but I still spent a lot - London is VERY expensive - even for the simplest of things. Anyway, we arrived at the hotel on 30th June, the day before my interview as it was at 10am on the 1st July (and 30th of June is also my wedding anniversary :-)! The hotel was ok - very basic but very very reasonable I thought for central London - £82 for a family room including breakfast (Days Inn in Sussex Gardens) and it was also very near Paddington station, places to eat etc. I decided after the trip over for the medical that I was not going to worry about getting buses or the tube from the hotel the next morning and so I paid for a taxi to the Embassy - it was £15 one way and for the peace of mind it gave me it was well worth it. We arrived at the Embassy at 9am and there was a man telling people where to stand depending on what time their interview was at. We stood over along a railing - loads of people waiting (gorgeous day - the hottest of the year apparently!) and then the guy came along and said that anyone with any electronic equipment would not be admitted to the Embassy. I felt safe in the knowledge that we had left all at the hotel until he said "that includes your car key - if its one that opens the doors of the car "electronically!". My heart sank as I knew I had my car key with me in my bag and didn't even think of it as being electronic - I told him I had the key and he said the chemist across the street would keep it for me until I came out of the interview and off I went, leaving my daughter in the queue. I got to the chemist - with a few other people who had brought mobile phones etc, a guy in front of me presented them with his phone and said he would like to leave it with them and they said - fine £10 please! The guy was furious at having to pay the money - quite frankly I didn't give a hoot - I was just glad I could leave it! In hindsight I think they were really taking the mick but they have people over a barrell so…………
I went back to the Embassy and a lady then checked again that we had nothing we weren't supposed to have, then checked our letters to see that we had an interview that day, then we joined another queue and waited to go through security. They took us though in pairs and then we were directed round the side of the building, up steps and into a room full of chairs with HUNDREDS of people waiting on them! We collected a number on the way in the door and took a seat to wait.
The numbers are frightening but they really do speed their way through them. It appeared to me that non-immigrant visa's were numbered in the 1000's and immigrant visa's were in the 5000's. We were number 5018 and when I sat down it said there were 10 people in the immigrant visa queue. There are a few screens which display the numbers and the whole time we were there there was announcements of number 1234 to window 12 etc etc. The windows were just like in a bank or post office numbere from 1 to 20 I think and you stand at them when presenting the paperwork and interview etc, just like in a bank or post office.
Anyway, in the waiting room they have a photo booth - I don't know if anyone would be prepared to take the chance that it is always working and wait to get their photos there but it is there nonetheless! There is also a little tuck shop where crisps and sweets and drinks can be purchased if you wish and also there are toilets. It was very warm that day so they could have been doing with more cooling of some sort but it was not too bad at the same time.
It took about an hour or so for our number to be called out and up we went. The lady at the counter (English lady) went through all my paperwork and took my finger prints, that process took about 20 minutes or so I think. I thought that was it really until she said to take a seat again and we would be called for our interview. The wait for the interview was about another 30 - 40 minutes by which time it was around 12 o'clock. This time it was a different counter and an American lady - she was extremely pleasant and put me but more importantly my daughter at ease. She again went through the paperwork, took my fingerprints and gave me my chest x-ray which she said I must take with me to America. She got us both to raise our right hand and swear to tell the truth etc etc… then she asked me questions about my husband and his family - not very many just basic stuff like how did we meet, what does he do for a living, had he ever visited me in Ireland and if so how long and what was the longest he ever stayed, did I know his parents and meet them and what is their names?! She then asked my daughter did she know and like my husband and his parents, what did she enjoy doing with him and was she excited about living in America.
She asked me about my daughter's biological father. I had some people on this site query that also and some people were under the impression that it would cause difficulty that I had not sought him out and asked his permission to take my daughter to America. However there was no such difficulty at the Embassy. Because my daughter's biological father did not put his name on her birth certificate (much to my dismay at the time - but relief now), he has little or no real claim to her legally. Also he had no contact with her - his choice again but a good thing for me obviously. So she did ask about him but seemed satisfied that what I said was true and there was no documentary evidence to the contrary.
The last thing she said was that in February 2008 a new system for getting a police check/SAR/certificate whatever had come in and I had the old version! I had put my paperwork in before then so had no option but she said they wanted the new one and she gave me the web address where to get it and the contact details for the courier who would collect the cert off me along with our passports and then return the visa to me again. (on reading about it since - I did see that it said the Embassy's would not be accepting the old type cert AFTER August 2008 so I don't know why she insisted but again - I don't care!).
She then said that unless something different came up on the cert that I had my visa and Welcome to the USA!
I was of course delighted and relieved, I collected my very expensive car key,(which I had to pay £10 to leave in the chemist!) went back to the hotel - had a horrendous time getting home - but who cares - immediately paid £70 to get the police cert in the fastest way possible, (it's £35 if you want to wait up until 10 days for it) rang the courier to arrange for them to collect the passports and cert 2 days later - paid them £24.50 - totally ridiculous since the so called courier service took 10 days to collect and return the visa to me when Royal Mail would probably have delivered it next day for £7! But again I don't really care - I have my visa, Im finishing work on 1st August and leave for New York on 18th August! Now I'm fretting about getting the house in order to rent out ……………….
Jul 22nd 2008, 12:50 pm
#2
Forum Regular
Joined: Oct 2007
Location: Charleston, SC
Posts: 42
Re: VISA INTERVIEW - APPROVAL USA LONDON EMBASSY
Hi
I have used this site a few times in my angst and wanted to post when I received my visa, which I did on Friday past!
The process in total, from filing the first piece of paperwork until I received my passport with the visa inside was exactly one year.
My husband filed the paperwork with the NVC in the US - Vermont I think. We filed I130/CR1 & CR2 (my daughter) because we have not been married 2 years at time of approval we will be Conditional Residents.
There were only a couple of problems along the way and overall I think they probably held up the visa by maybe a month or two which is long enough when you are separated from your husband for as long as I have been! I should also say that the vast majority of stress and worry was entirely self inflicted and I worried when really I shouldn't have - but of course these things are always clearer in hindsight…..
The first problem was that when allocating the case numbers for myself and my daughter, they assigned us to two different Embassy's, me to Dublin and my daughter to London! (We live in Northern Ireland) We didn't notice this until half way through the process but thankfully, somehow we did and realized that the first 3 letters of the case number represent the Embassy they intend to send you through, mine was DUB and my daughters LND. We contacted the NVC because they were dealing with all the paperwork and the case number allocation; this meant putting our case on what they called "review" until it was sorted - they said it would take approximately 3 weeks to review and in fact it took slightly less - but they were near enough.
The next problem that occurred was that we didn't send in the original birth cert and marriage cert for me and they wrote out and asked us for those, which we provided post haste only to be told they HAD received them, but they had "misplaced" the DS230 part 1 for me and my daughter! This meant the case had to be put on "review" again for 3 weeks. Again we rang around the 3 week stage and were told they had found the DS230 part 1's and a letter had been sent out with an interview date of 1st July 2008. When I received the letter I of course went through it with a fine tooth comb and got originals of all the documents again, even though it said in the letter that they would only be needed if the originals weren't sent to the NVC, but unsurprisingly I didn't really trust them.
The NVC apparently organises ALL the paperwork now so that there is less to be produced at the Embassy on the day of the interview and even though it said in the letter that if the NVC had not received the originals you must take the originals with you to the interview, it seemed to us that that was unnecessary to say because the NVC would not process the paperwork further until they had received ALL originals - so we didn't understand the relevance of stating that!
NOTE:- The call centre staff in the NVC on the whole are USELESS - I cannot stress enough how USELESS they are!!!!! I also cannot stress enough how confusing, contradictory and unfair the process is! Question EVERYTHING 10 times over, Keep copies of EVERYTHING, Keep check on EVEYRTHING, Keep ringing and pushing them on to do stuff that needs done, never expect them to be reasonable or know the answer - at least the correct one, don't get mad or argue, prepare yourself for a wait, do everythiing they say (after checking 10 times over) and when you are at what you think is the final post - expect the goal posts to change AGAIN! Ok rant over....
Anyway, I did have to get my medical first, as did my daughter. I rang and made an appointment with the Knightsbridge doctors for 25th June. Everything with the medical was fine except for the vaccinations; I had gotten a letter from my doctor, one for me and one for my daughter stating that we had received all our vaccinations to date - NOT GOOD ENOUGH!! They needed Vaccination Name and Date of Vaccination for everything on the list and they needed a stamp from the practice not just his signature. They were very nice and said if I went back home and got my GP to sign and stamp the printed list they gave me with the dates of the vaccinations then that would be ok. They said if I got vaccinations with them it would be more expensive and I ended up having to get an MMR vaccination because they DO NOT ACCEPT individual vaccinations - it must be the MMR, even though the MMR was not available when I was a child so I had to get it, and also there was another I didn't have - but sorry - I forget the name, but I was able to get those at my own GP. At any rate I got them the day I came back from London. My daughter had to go through the same process and they INSISTED that she get the HPV vaccine, even though it isn't technically available in the UK yet. They do obviously have supplies but my daughter would not have been due to get it until she is 12 (she's 11 now) and they are not starting to give it out at all until this coming Autumn. (I was a bit annoyed at this because there was no way to know that she had to have something that wasn't being distributed here and it did say on the vaccination list that only vaccines available in the UK were required!) Also girls in America don't get it until they are 11 and they are given it through their school so Emma would have gotten it when she attended school in America - although it's quite costly I believe! My GP however was good enough to source one for me and they gave my daughter the first dose which was all that the US Government required apparently, however they would not have let us get the visa without it! We then faxed the signed, dated and stamped lists over to the doctors and they got the information to the Embassy on time and sent me a copy too.
So we set off for the interview in London - the trip itself was a disaster - I don't like London and this trip didn't help. There were a few problems in so far as getting there and getting around etc which added to the stress levels and all I can say to anyone is if you know someone who knows London get information from them - find out a lot about the tube because it's the best way to travel around and leave yourself LOADS of time to get things done.
Like I said I went through the Embassy letter with a fine tooth comb and got mega paranoid - my photographs (which I mention in another posting) were too small according to the letter and so having failed to get them in NI I immediately set about getting them when we arrived in London. I went into a Kodak store and the guy took our photos - got them the right size (2 x 2 inch) and charged us the princely sum of £18, this seemed expensive to me however it turned out to be just the start! I had paid for everything I could in advance. My husband had paid the visa fee (the NVC also collect that with the paperwork, which incidentally is another hold up because they won't take the payment WITH the documents - you must wait until they check the documents and then they send you a bill and then you send in the money!!! - each section of that takes 2 weeks or so), I paid for the flights, train and hotel over the internet before I travelled to London but I still spent a lot - London is VERY expensive - even for the simplest of things. Anyway, we arrived at the hotel on 30th June, the day before my interview as it was at 10am on the 1st July (and 30th of June is also my wedding anniversary :-)! The hotel was ok - very basic but very very reasonable I thought for central London - £82 for a family room including breakfast (Days Inn in Sussex Gardens) and it was also very near Paddington station, places to eat etc. I decided after the trip over for the medical that I was not going to worry about getting buses or the tube from the hotel the next morning and so I paid for a taxi to the Embassy - it was £15 one way and for the peace of mind it gave me it was well worth it. We arrived at the Embassy at 9am and there was a man telling people where to stand depending on what time their interview was at. We stood over along a railing - loads of people waiting (gorgeous day - the hottest of the year apparently!) and then the guy came along and said that anyone with any electronic equipment would not be admitted to the Embassy. I felt safe in the knowledge that we had left all at the hotel until he said "that includes your car key - if its one that opens the doors of the car "electronically!". My heart sank as I knew I had my car key with me in my bag and didn't even think of it as being electronic - I told him I had the key and he said the chemist across the street would keep it for me until I came out of the interview and off I went, leaving my daughter in the queue. I got to the chemist - with a few other people who had brought mobile phones etc, a guy in front of me presented them with his phone and said he would like to leave it with them and they said - fine £10 please! The guy was furious at having to pay the money - quite frankly I didn't give a hoot - I was just glad I could leave it! In hindsight I think they were really taking the mick but they have people over a barrell so…………
I went back to the Embassy and a lady then checked again that we had nothing we weren't supposed to have, then checked our letters to see that we had an interview that day, then we joined another queue and waited to go through security. They took us though in pairs and then we were directed round the side of the building, up steps and into a room full of chairs with HUNDREDS of people waiting on them! We collected a number on the way in the door and took a seat to wait.
The numbers are frightening but they really do speed their way through them. It appeared to me that non-immigrant visa's were numbered in the 1000's and immigrant visa's were in the 5000's. We were number 5018 and when I sat down it said there were 10 people in the immigrant visa queue. There are a few screens which display the numbers and the whole time we were there there was announcements of number 1234 to window 12 etc etc. The windows were just like in a bank or post office numbere from 1 to 20 I think and you stand at them when presenting the paperwork and interview etc, just like in a bank or post office.
Anyway, in the waiting room they have a photo booth - I don't know if anyone would be prepared to take the chance that it is always working and wait to get their photos there but it is there nonetheless! There is also a little tuck shop where crisps and sweets and drinks can be purchased if you wish and also there are toilets. It was very warm that day so they could have been doing with more cooling of some sort but it was not too bad at the same time.
It took about an hour or so for our number to be called out and up we went. The lady at the counter (English lady) went through all my paperwork and took my finger prints, that process took about 20 minutes or so I think. I thought that was it really until she said to take a seat again and we would be called for our interview. The wait for the interview was about another 30 - 40 minutes by which time it was around 12 o'clock. This time it was a different counter and an American lady - she was extremely pleasant and put me but more importantly my daughter at ease. She again went through the paperwork, took my fingerprints and gave me my chest x-ray which she said I must take with me to America. She got us both to raise our right hand and swear to tell the truth etc etc… then she asked me questions about my husband and his family - not very many just basic stuff like how did we meet, what does he do for a living, had he ever visited me in Ireland and if so how long and what was the longest he ever stayed, did I know his parents and meet them and what is their names?! She then asked my daughter did she know and like my husband and his parents, what did she enjoy doing with him and was she excited about living in America.
She asked me about my daughter's biological father. I had some people on this site query that also and some people were under the impression that it would cause difficulty that I had not sought him out and asked his permission to take my daughter to America. However there was no such difficulty at the Embassy. Because my daughter's biological father did not put his name on her birth certificate (much to my dismay at the time - but relief now), he has little or no real claim to her legally. Also he had no contact with her - his choice again but a good thing for me obviously. So she did ask about him but seemed satisfied that what I said was true and there was no documentary evidence to the contrary.
The last thing she said was that in February 2008 a new system for getting a police check/SAR/certificate whatever had come in and I had the old version! I had put my paperwork in before then so had no option but she said they wanted the new one and she gave me the web address where to get it and the contact details for the courier who would collect the cert off me along with our passports and then return the visa to me again. (on reading about it since - I did see that it said the Embassy's would not be accepting the old type cert AFTER August 2008 so I don't know why she insisted but again - I don't care!).
She then said that unless something different came up on the cert that I had my visa and Welcome to the USA!
I was of course delighted and relieved, I collected my very expensive car key,(which I had to pay £10 to leave in the chemist!) went back to the hotel - had a horrendous time getting home - but who cares - immediately paid £70 to get the police cert in the fastest way possible, (it's £35 if you want to wait up until 10 days for it) rang the courier to arrange for them to collect the passports and cert 2 days later - paid them £24.50 - totally ridiculous since the so called courier service took 10 days to collect and return the visa to me when Royal Mail would probably have delivered it next day for £7! But again I don't really care - I have my visa, Im finishing work on 1st August and leave for New York on 18th August! Now I'm fretting about getting the house in order to rent out ……………….
I have used this site a few times in my angst and wanted to post when I received my visa, which I did on Friday past!
The process in total, from filing the first piece of paperwork until I received my passport with the visa inside was exactly one year.
My husband filed the paperwork with the NVC in the US - Vermont I think. We filed I130/CR1 & CR2 (my daughter) because we have not been married 2 years at time of approval we will be Conditional Residents.
There were only a couple of problems along the way and overall I think they probably held up the visa by maybe a month or two which is long enough when you are separated from your husband for as long as I have been! I should also say that the vast majority of stress and worry was entirely self inflicted and I worried when really I shouldn't have - but of course these things are always clearer in hindsight…..
The first problem was that when allocating the case numbers for myself and my daughter, they assigned us to two different Embassy's, me to Dublin and my daughter to London! (We live in Northern Ireland) We didn't notice this until half way through the process but thankfully, somehow we did and realized that the first 3 letters of the case number represent the Embassy they intend to send you through, mine was DUB and my daughters LND. We contacted the NVC because they were dealing with all the paperwork and the case number allocation; this meant putting our case on what they called "review" until it was sorted - they said it would take approximately 3 weeks to review and in fact it took slightly less - but they were near enough.
The next problem that occurred was that we didn't send in the original birth cert and marriage cert for me and they wrote out and asked us for those, which we provided post haste only to be told they HAD received them, but they had "misplaced" the DS230 part 1 for me and my daughter! This meant the case had to be put on "review" again for 3 weeks. Again we rang around the 3 week stage and were told they had found the DS230 part 1's and a letter had been sent out with an interview date of 1st July 2008. When I received the letter I of course went through it with a fine tooth comb and got originals of all the documents again, even though it said in the letter that they would only be needed if the originals weren't sent to the NVC, but unsurprisingly I didn't really trust them.
The NVC apparently organises ALL the paperwork now so that there is less to be produced at the Embassy on the day of the interview and even though it said in the letter that if the NVC had not received the originals you must take the originals with you to the interview, it seemed to us that that was unnecessary to say because the NVC would not process the paperwork further until they had received ALL originals - so we didn't understand the relevance of stating that!
NOTE:- The call centre staff in the NVC on the whole are USELESS - I cannot stress enough how USELESS they are!!!!! I also cannot stress enough how confusing, contradictory and unfair the process is! Question EVERYTHING 10 times over, Keep copies of EVERYTHING, Keep check on EVEYRTHING, Keep ringing and pushing them on to do stuff that needs done, never expect them to be reasonable or know the answer - at least the correct one, don't get mad or argue, prepare yourself for a wait, do everythiing they say (after checking 10 times over) and when you are at what you think is the final post - expect the goal posts to change AGAIN! Ok rant over....
Anyway, I did have to get my medical first, as did my daughter. I rang and made an appointment with the Knightsbridge doctors for 25th June. Everything with the medical was fine except for the vaccinations; I had gotten a letter from my doctor, one for me and one for my daughter stating that we had received all our vaccinations to date - NOT GOOD ENOUGH!! They needed Vaccination Name and Date of Vaccination for everything on the list and they needed a stamp from the practice not just his signature. They were very nice and said if I went back home and got my GP to sign and stamp the printed list they gave me with the dates of the vaccinations then that would be ok. They said if I got vaccinations with them it would be more expensive and I ended up having to get an MMR vaccination because they DO NOT ACCEPT individual vaccinations - it must be the MMR, even though the MMR was not available when I was a child so I had to get it, and also there was another I didn't have - but sorry - I forget the name, but I was able to get those at my own GP. At any rate I got them the day I came back from London. My daughter had to go through the same process and they INSISTED that she get the HPV vaccine, even though it isn't technically available in the UK yet. They do obviously have supplies but my daughter would not have been due to get it until she is 12 (she's 11 now) and they are not starting to give it out at all until this coming Autumn. (I was a bit annoyed at this because there was no way to know that she had to have something that wasn't being distributed here and it did say on the vaccination list that only vaccines available in the UK were required!) Also girls in America don't get it until they are 11 and they are given it through their school so Emma would have gotten it when she attended school in America - although it's quite costly I believe! My GP however was good enough to source one for me and they gave my daughter the first dose which was all that the US Government required apparently, however they would not have let us get the visa without it! We then faxed the signed, dated and stamped lists over to the doctors and they got the information to the Embassy on time and sent me a copy too.
So we set off for the interview in London - the trip itself was a disaster - I don't like London and this trip didn't help. There were a few problems in so far as getting there and getting around etc which added to the stress levels and all I can say to anyone is if you know someone who knows London get information from them - find out a lot about the tube because it's the best way to travel around and leave yourself LOADS of time to get things done.
Like I said I went through the Embassy letter with a fine tooth comb and got mega paranoid - my photographs (which I mention in another posting) were too small according to the letter and so having failed to get them in NI I immediately set about getting them when we arrived in London. I went into a Kodak store and the guy took our photos - got them the right size (2 x 2 inch) and charged us the princely sum of £18, this seemed expensive to me however it turned out to be just the start! I had paid for everything I could in advance. My husband had paid the visa fee (the NVC also collect that with the paperwork, which incidentally is another hold up because they won't take the payment WITH the documents - you must wait until they check the documents and then they send you a bill and then you send in the money!!! - each section of that takes 2 weeks or so), I paid for the flights, train and hotel over the internet before I travelled to London but I still spent a lot - London is VERY expensive - even for the simplest of things. Anyway, we arrived at the hotel on 30th June, the day before my interview as it was at 10am on the 1st July (and 30th of June is also my wedding anniversary :-)! The hotel was ok - very basic but very very reasonable I thought for central London - £82 for a family room including breakfast (Days Inn in Sussex Gardens) and it was also very near Paddington station, places to eat etc. I decided after the trip over for the medical that I was not going to worry about getting buses or the tube from the hotel the next morning and so I paid for a taxi to the Embassy - it was £15 one way and for the peace of mind it gave me it was well worth it. We arrived at the Embassy at 9am and there was a man telling people where to stand depending on what time their interview was at. We stood over along a railing - loads of people waiting (gorgeous day - the hottest of the year apparently!) and then the guy came along and said that anyone with any electronic equipment would not be admitted to the Embassy. I felt safe in the knowledge that we had left all at the hotel until he said "that includes your car key - if its one that opens the doors of the car "electronically!". My heart sank as I knew I had my car key with me in my bag and didn't even think of it as being electronic - I told him I had the key and he said the chemist across the street would keep it for me until I came out of the interview and off I went, leaving my daughter in the queue. I got to the chemist - with a few other people who had brought mobile phones etc, a guy in front of me presented them with his phone and said he would like to leave it with them and they said - fine £10 please! The guy was furious at having to pay the money - quite frankly I didn't give a hoot - I was just glad I could leave it! In hindsight I think they were really taking the mick but they have people over a barrell so…………
I went back to the Embassy and a lady then checked again that we had nothing we weren't supposed to have, then checked our letters to see that we had an interview that day, then we joined another queue and waited to go through security. They took us though in pairs and then we were directed round the side of the building, up steps and into a room full of chairs with HUNDREDS of people waiting on them! We collected a number on the way in the door and took a seat to wait.
The numbers are frightening but they really do speed their way through them. It appeared to me that non-immigrant visa's were numbered in the 1000's and immigrant visa's were in the 5000's. We were number 5018 and when I sat down it said there were 10 people in the immigrant visa queue. There are a few screens which display the numbers and the whole time we were there there was announcements of number 1234 to window 12 etc etc. The windows were just like in a bank or post office numbere from 1 to 20 I think and you stand at them when presenting the paperwork and interview etc, just like in a bank or post office.
Anyway, in the waiting room they have a photo booth - I don't know if anyone would be prepared to take the chance that it is always working and wait to get their photos there but it is there nonetheless! There is also a little tuck shop where crisps and sweets and drinks can be purchased if you wish and also there are toilets. It was very warm that day so they could have been doing with more cooling of some sort but it was not too bad at the same time.
It took about an hour or so for our number to be called out and up we went. The lady at the counter (English lady) went through all my paperwork and took my finger prints, that process took about 20 minutes or so I think. I thought that was it really until she said to take a seat again and we would be called for our interview. The wait for the interview was about another 30 - 40 minutes by which time it was around 12 o'clock. This time it was a different counter and an American lady - she was extremely pleasant and put me but more importantly my daughter at ease. She again went through the paperwork, took my fingerprints and gave me my chest x-ray which she said I must take with me to America. She got us both to raise our right hand and swear to tell the truth etc etc… then she asked me questions about my husband and his family - not very many just basic stuff like how did we meet, what does he do for a living, had he ever visited me in Ireland and if so how long and what was the longest he ever stayed, did I know his parents and meet them and what is their names?! She then asked my daughter did she know and like my husband and his parents, what did she enjoy doing with him and was she excited about living in America.
She asked me about my daughter's biological father. I had some people on this site query that also and some people were under the impression that it would cause difficulty that I had not sought him out and asked his permission to take my daughter to America. However there was no such difficulty at the Embassy. Because my daughter's biological father did not put his name on her birth certificate (much to my dismay at the time - but relief now), he has little or no real claim to her legally. Also he had no contact with her - his choice again but a good thing for me obviously. So she did ask about him but seemed satisfied that what I said was true and there was no documentary evidence to the contrary.
The last thing she said was that in February 2008 a new system for getting a police check/SAR/certificate whatever had come in and I had the old version! I had put my paperwork in before then so had no option but she said they wanted the new one and she gave me the web address where to get it and the contact details for the courier who would collect the cert off me along with our passports and then return the visa to me again. (on reading about it since - I did see that it said the Embassy's would not be accepting the old type cert AFTER August 2008 so I don't know why she insisted but again - I don't care!).
She then said that unless something different came up on the cert that I had my visa and Welcome to the USA!
I was of course delighted and relieved, I collected my very expensive car key,(which I had to pay £10 to leave in the chemist!) went back to the hotel - had a horrendous time getting home - but who cares - immediately paid £70 to get the police cert in the fastest way possible, (it's £35 if you want to wait up until 10 days for it) rang the courier to arrange for them to collect the passports and cert 2 days later - paid them £24.50 - totally ridiculous since the so called courier service took 10 days to collect and return the visa to me when Royal Mail would probably have delivered it next day for £7! But again I don't really care - I have my visa, Im finishing work on 1st August and leave for New York on 18th August! Now I'm fretting about getting the house in order to rent out ……………….
Congratulations! You must feel so happy. Glad to hear that most of the worrying is caused by ourselves. I keep thinking about all the possible documents that they might ask me for and worry that I might forget something....
We filed on May 9th, in London but still nothing
Jul 22nd 2008, 2:17 pm
#3
Joined: Mar 2003
Posts: 68,280
Re: VISA INTERVIEW - APPROVAL USA LONDON EMBASSY
$500k a year looking after these things ...
Jul 22nd 2008, 2:24 pm
#4
Forum Regular
Thread Starter
Joined: Jan 2007
Location: NEW YORK
Posts: 50
Re: VISA INTERVIEW - APPROVAL USA LONDON EMBASSY
Jul 22nd 2008, 2:43 pm
#6
BE Forum Addict
Joined: Feb 2008
Posts: 3,259
Re: VISA INTERVIEW - APPROVAL USA LONDON EMBASSY
If you are close to your second anniversary, I'd consider putting off your entry until after your second anniversary....short term pain, long term gain is the phrase often used here.
Jul 22nd 2008, 2:47 pm
#7
Forum Regular
Thread Starter
Joined: Jan 2007
Location: NEW YORK
Posts: 50
Re: VISA INTERVIEW - APPROVAL USA LONDON EMBASSY
It's got nothing to do with when you are approved, but when you enter the US. If your second anniversary has passed by that time then you will get a 10-year green card instead and be admitted as IR-1. That means no removal of restrictions to go through and it's cheaper.
If you are close to your second anniversary, I'd consider putting off your entry until after your second anniversary....short term pain, long term gain is the phrase often used here.
If you are close to your second anniversary, I'd consider putting off your entry until after your second anniversary....short term pain, long term gain is the phrase often used here.
Jul 22nd 2008, 2:55 pm
#8
BE Forum Addict
Joined: Feb 2008
Posts: 3,259
Re: VISA INTERVIEW - APPROVAL USA LONDON EMBASSY
I think you misread it.
The visa will be valid from 6 months of the date of issue of the visa. Whether you are admitted as CR-1 or IR-1 most definitely depends on how long you have been married at the point of entry to the US.
In any case, as you say, it's not possible for you to enter as IR-1 on the visa you have.
The visa will be valid from 6 months of the date of issue of the visa. Whether you are admitted as CR-1 or IR-1 most definitely depends on how long you have been married at the point of entry to the US.
In any case, as you say, it's not possible for you to enter as IR-1 on the visa you have.
Jul 22nd 2008, 3:26 pm
#9
Dizzy Blonde
Joined: Sep 2007
Location: Cincinnati, Ohio.
Posts: 964
Re: VISA INTERVIEW - APPROVAL USA LONDON EMBASSY
Thanks for taking the time to write about your trip.
Can I just ask - I thought that the children only had to attend the embassy for interview at age 14 or over? I'm just wondering because I know if I have to take my two they are going to drive me nuts without their psp's!
Can I just ask - I thought that the children only had to attend the embassy for interview at age 14 or over? I'm just wondering because I know if I have to take my two they are going to drive me nuts without their psp's!
Jul 22nd 2008, 3:43 pm
#10
Forum Regular
Thread Starter
Joined: Jan 2007
Location: NEW YORK
Posts: 50
Re: VISA INTERVIEW - APPROVAL USA LONDON EMBASSY
Thanks for taking the time to write about your trip.
Can I just ask - I thought that the children only had to attend the embassy for interview at age 14 or over? I'm just wondering because I know if I have to take my two they are going to drive me nuts without their psp's!
Can I just ask - I thought that the children only had to attend the embassy for interview at age 14 or over? I'm just wondering because I know if I have to take my two they are going to drive me nuts without their psp's!
I feel so sorry for you! I was under that illusion too but when the interview letters arrived there was one for my daughter and I checked it out and YES I definitely had to bring her even though she was only 11 years old. Apparently the under 14 thing is for a different type of visa were you are taking the children on the same visa but that is not possible for an I-130! It was also the extra flights etc I was annoyed about - but what can you do - they did make a point at the interview of actually interviewing my daughter, asking questions etc so I guess they have their reasons!The only thing I would say is that there is alot of activity going on and things are kept moving. They can bring colouring books/jigsaws or reading books and there is a little shop where they can get drinks and snacks. I also suspect there would be no harm in them playing about although there isn;t much extra room. Good luck anyway!
