imdougal

I'm planning on returning to England with my family and will need a new H1/H4 visa stamped in our passports.

Has anyone been through this recently and can explain what is involved. The London Consular website is a bit vague and the people not very helpful. I know I have to make an appointment, but I'm only planning on being there for 10 days. I want to spend as little time in London as possible before going north to visit family. I'm worried about flights being delayed and missing the appointment and have no idea what would happen then.

Dougal

dunroving

When are you going? If it's far off, I believe you can get your new visa from within the US (if it's a visa renewal situation), thereby avoiding the situation you are talking about.

imdougal

I did that a few years ago, but the rules have change recently and you have to go to a consulate in your home country. I have my Notice of Action valid until Feb 2007, but the visa in my passport is out of date.

Wintersong

It still needs to be stamped in an embassy outside the US before the holder can re-enter the country. This is generally in the holder's home country, but many people go to Mexico or Canada to get it done.

I haven't been to the embassy in London for renewal but did get my H4 there originally. It takes a while to get an appointment (I think it was about 2-3 weeks when I made mine) so make sure you have an appointment before you go back to the UK. My experience was that they keep your passport and then courier it back to you (you pay 10 pounds for the service). I had my appointment on a Monday and the passport was returned to me on the Thursday. I don't see why it would be any different for the renewals. If you want to head up north, give the embassy your family's address for them to send the passports back to you. There's no reason why you have to be in London for any longer than the one day on which you have your interview. Why not go to your family first, then travel to London for the day of the appointment?

NB. though that this is my experience from getting my H4, not renewing it. It may be different for you.

Wintersong

Btw, you might get better advice if you post this in one of the visa forums (maybe the marriage based one?)

Elvira

My experience for H4 renewal mirrors Wintersong's. The important thing is to have you appointment set up well in advance. Other than that, there shouldn't be a problem (other than having to queue for hours inside and outside the embassy... )

But why would you "want to spend as little time in London as possible" - so much too do and see!

Elvira (aka 'London Lover' )

lisag8070

Hi there, well we went home in December last year to do this and I have to admit its a lot of preparation to do, first you need an appointment (could take a few weeks), you have to phone the embassy in London for this, then they will send you a package, inside this package is like a help list of what you'll need to bring (including all the forms you need to fill out) and also the letter to confirm the appointment, you also need to pay the embassy 60 quid per person YOU MUST PAY FOR THIS BEFORE YOU ARRIVE AT THE EMBASSY AND HAVE THE RECEIPT!!!, I believe some Barclays Bank or Bank of Scotland will do this. I'm telling you this because you have to have the receipt for proof before you enter the embassy. Even though you have an appointment at a certain time, so will 50 other people, they will make you wait outside (we waited an hour) then they call the 8:30 or 9:30 etc appointments and only then can everyone go inside (after you've shown your passport, letter to confirm your appointment and receipt of payment). Then you take a ticket once you get inside, they'll shout your number you give them your paperwork and photo's, then they give you another number, then when they shout you its for an interview, What job do you do, etc, please fill the forms in with as much details as you can otherwise they'll ask you a million questions and may doubt your answers (because you didn't put it down in your forms). If you are accepted or granted the visa you leave your passports at the embassy, they'll stick in the visa and return them back to you via the post. It took us most of the morning to do this, but I admit its because your just standing in line most of the time, like everything else thesedays. Well I hope I've answered your question with as much detail as I can remember, but should you have any questions, give me a shout. GOOD LUCK.

Englishmum

Actually I was at the US Embassy in London on 28th July so I suspect that the procedure is different to that of the previous poster who went in December.

First of all, you can't make the appointment with the Embassy from overseas - the phone call to them must be from within the UK. My husband's company HQ is in London so he just got them to patch a call through from his office in New York to the Embassy through the company's London office. If this is not an option for you, you will need to get a relative or friend to make the appointment for you. Usually how it works is if you want to go say, on the 15th October, you can't make an appointment before the 15th September. However, this time around my husband called them on or around 20th June and they were only making appointments five weeks ahead, hence my date of 28th July (I'd already booked my flights to return on 7th August!). You *must* give them a UK address and postcode and that is where the appointment letter confirmation and papers will be sent to.

Through trial and error you might prefer an afternoon appointment: two years ago I had a 10.30am appointment and didn't get out of the Embassy until 4.5 hours later! This time around (our second renewal) I opted for an afternoon appointment and was out in 2hrs 15 mins! (They want to get rid of you so they can go home LOL!).

IMPORTANT; This was a huge change since my previous visit. Most of the form filling is now completed online *before* arriving at the Embassy so they can do background checks in the USA with the FBI/Pentagon/CIA or whatever before you even get to the Embassy. I only realized this two nights before our trip to the Embassy, I thought it was in the stack of paperwork my husband had given me from his company's attorneys (he had already had his interview a few weeks before on a business trip) and was sitting in my sister's house using her computer at 11pm less than 36 hours before the interview LOL!


This info below was contained in the letter which was sent to my mum's house confirming my appointment at the Embassy (letter NIV51 - LND application (in person) March 2005:

APPLYING FOR A NON-IMMIGRANT VISA IN LONDON

The online form (the DS-156) that ALL visa applicants have to complete is directly on the website of the US Embassy in London:

http://www.usembassy.org.uk (go to non-immigrant visa section)

Application Form DS-156

It MUST be completed online (one seperate application for each person) - a barcode is issued. You must print a copy for yourself and take it to the Embassy when you have your interview.

Application Form DS-157

A completed DS-157 is required of all male applicants aged 16 to 45 and for everyone aged 16 or over born in or passport holders from places such as Cuba, Iran, China, North Korea, Libya, Russia, Sudan or Syria. Again it is available at above website and can be completed online (also took a hard copy to the Embassy for my 16 year old son).

Photograph: you only need one for each visa applicant. Best to get it done in the US at somewhere like a pharmacy eg. Walgreen's or local photo shop. Hard to get US spec photos in the UK, only Snappy Snaps really and a few other places.

Proof of Payment of the visa application fee: previous poster is correct about the 60 British Pounds fee for each person and paid in CASH only - you must take the receipt with you to the Embassy. Barclays bank doesn't charge a fee, other banks may charge. (Must get the company to re-imburse that too).

Also Bring:

H, L, O, P, Q (and in some cases R) visa applicants: must bring the original or clear copy of the form I-797A or B which was sent to the employer by the US Dept of Homeland Security, Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) once the temporary worker petition has been approved. Intra-company transfer applicants must also submit a copy of the approved petition and supporting documents filed with USCIS.


VISA ISSUANCE FEE:

You will have to pay a fee at the Embassy once the consular official has decided to approve your visa application...you just go along to the cashier and hand over cash or a credit card. My visa is an L2 (so is my son's) and I still have the receipt for the issuance fee: US$210 for two visas and I paid on my American Express card....actually I must remember to hand it to my husband to reclaim it from his company. It seems to be $105 for *each* visa, certainly with the L2 visas.

Documentation of Intent To Return to Your Country of Residence: Examples include, but are not limited to: evidence of employment or school attendance and other indications of financial and family ties to the UK, such as recent bank and mortgage statements. Employment letters should indicate your position, length of employment and salary or wages. (Note; I didn't take any evidence at all.....I don't even work in the US and we left the UK more than 10 years ago...I wasn't asked for it either at the 'interview' and when my husband went he didn't take anything either - but I'm not suggesting that other people do this though! (My husband is in senior management at a MNC).

Before the interview takes place you sit in the huge hall and wait for your number to come up (like in the deli queue at a supermarket!). When you are called you get your fingerprints taken and I think they are also recording your face on film too. You then have to return to your seat and wait until you are called again for your interview at another booth.

My interview took all of 10 seconds really. The only thing I was asked by the consular lady was "How long have you lived in the States?" Honest to God that's all she asked me! I just had to go to the cashier, pay the issuance fee and take the receipt back to the consular lady. Then she gave me another receipt which I had to take to the courier firm, SMS, which has a desk near the main doors at the main waiting room. No more Royal Mail Special Delivery these days, it's SMS only.

You can pay an 'expedited' fee to rush your passports back to you. I paid extra to get the passport delivered after 8am but before Noon - but of course there are no guarantees on which *day* they will be delivered, as they don't know when the Embassy would have completed their processing of the visa. They delivered it to my mum's house at 12.30pm when she was out LOL! (I was in Wales visiting my cousins). My interview was on the Thursday and they tried to deliver on the following Tuesday. My mum phoned SMS and they re-delivered the following morning. I paid 13.50 in total (another thing to get re-imbursed for LOL!)

Suggest you take newspapers, mags to the Embassy to pass the time, and also some drinks...it's hot and stuffy in there!

All in all, it's an expensive process to get the visas isn't it? Come to think of it, I will put in the receipt for the train tickets too (went down on the train from Coventry for the day, although the company would have paid for hotel accommodation, especially if we'd chosen to wait in London for the return of our passports...didn't bother this time as I wanted to spend time with my rellies and I didn't fancy the idea of my passports being delivered to an hotel desk clerk and I didn't want to wait around in an hotel for the courier .....SMS regulations are that the envelope must be signed for and you are supposed to show ID, but the courier didn't want to see mine when it was delivered at my mum's house and said it was OK......

Elvira

Just wanted to add that the application forms can be filled in online, which helps because if you forget to fill in some bits you'll get an error message. You still have to print them off and bring them with you though, but all the information is on a bar-code-type-thingy which should speed things up a little.

But beware of the drop-down menus for dates - somehow one of my sons' birth dates ended up being out by a month - which caused some consternation because he's a twin and it looked like I'd given birth twice, one month apart...

The fee is now GBP 60 ???!!! Last year it was only forty quid - some inflation - WTF?!

Elvira

Definitely - and perhaps a brolly?

Englishmum

Just to clarify Elvira:

The forms MUST now be completed online - the info is sent directly to the USA for checking and it even states the suggested 'search' time (approx one hour in most cases).....goodness knows what one must do if one doesn't have a (decent) printer LOL!

Come to think of it....if one doesn't have access to, or is not computer/internet savvy, then I don't know how the US Embassy expects visa applicants to complete the forms?!!

Wintersong

That's the price of oil for you

imdougal

Well, it sounds as painful as I expected. Thanks Englishmum for confirming everything.

To make things worse, we have 3 girls ( one born in the USA ), so without checking the website, I'm assuming they'll all have to be there with me since we are all renewing H1 and H4's (except the little yank of course).

It's funny though, when we've visited the UK before they see the US passport for the youngest (haven't bothered to get the UK passport yet) and ask us how long we are staying! Get back to US and they make you feel like they don't want you either.

mandpete

We renewed our L1/L2 visas on 9th August this year and children under the age of 14 do not have to attend the appointment.

Luckily our son's 14th birthday was 6 days after the appointment so we left both our children with my parents in Cheshire and had a couple of days in London on our own.