I'd first like to thank everyone who helped us on this forum (and others). I'm going to post this EVERYWHERE so hopefully it will help any others who are in a similar situation.
The whole process today was very....routine, even an anti-climax. The agents were very friendly and polite, and they really helped to ease the anxiety.
We got to the line outside the embassy and around 7.45am (our appointment was for 8.30am), and waited to go through the exterior security checks and scans. This took around 15 minutes.
We then get into the Embassy and are issued a numbered ticket. Our number was called after around a 5 minute wait and we go to a booth to present our documentation. The nice lady behind the screen takes only the documentation required, the reams of extra stuff we took along was not needed (but it's still prudent to go over-prepared). She also took Dave's fingerprints, and then sent us off to the payment window to pay the visa fees (US$380).
Next came a 30 minute wait, the one which comes before the dreaded "real" interview. Our number is called again and we run along to another window. A US immigration agent took Dave's prints again and then interviewed us, actually interview is too strong a word to use.....he read through our paperwork, asked a couple of easy questions and then smiled and informed us that everything is in order. Most of the questions were aimed at me, how long I had been living over here, how long I had worked for my company. We didn't have any questions about our relationship and he didn't ask to see any proof of domicile, any proof of our relationship... we lugged our huge wedding album for nothing! But we're glad we took it just in case.
The feeling of stress easing away was incredible, and the guy was warm and friendly. He told us that the passport will be couriered back to Dave within 5 days (you have to go to another desk and pay for the courier service and give them the postal details) as long as the fingerprint checks don't raise any issues (they won't).
It was a very good feeling to walk out of the Embassy knowing that the hard part was over. We hope to continue to be active on the forums to give anyone advice who might be going through the same thing (I know each case is different, but it might help!).
