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| London, United Kingdom |  Review on January 30, 2018: |
Richard Purves
Rating:  | Review Topic: EB-1 Visa
Well that was a waste of time that might have life changing repercussions for me.
Interview scheduled for 9am January 30th at the new London embassy. Got there early, but allowed through at 8.30am. Process was smooth as I was in an immigrant visa category, and I got to skip nearly all of the queues. Immigrant visa petitioners end up in a separate private section away from everyone else two left hand turns from the elevators. This is where things stopped being smooth.
The process is in three parts: 1) submission of documents, wait and then 2) actual interview then 3) pay visa fee.
1) Spoke to the lady at the window. Volume on the speaker was really low so was a struggle to hear her. Find out at this point that they did not have my medical file but get through this part ok. They keep your original birth certificate at this point and don't tell you, so a few of us were wondering what was going on.
2) Get to the interview properly. Held up my right hand and swore in as required. This is where the guy behind the glass had obviously had a bad day. He discounted large chunks of my file, specifically everything to do with things I was working on right now: He only wanted completed project information. That was the first bad sign. Worse was to come when I got grilled on how I'd supported myself. Anyone who's done anything in the Entertainment biz supported themselves by other means while they established their careers, so telling him that was yet another wrong answer. Again future stuff that is dependent on this visa doesn't count apparently despite the catch-22 that puts me in.
The potential job doing other things in the entertainment industry was also discounted out of hand.
I didn't get to no.3 as I was referred to Administrative Processing with a blue 221(g) form. What this now means is this guy has just condemned me to a minimum 60 day black hole as my file is referred back to USCIS, assuming it ever does.
The warnings of not travelling to the US because my ESTA is now invalid were bad. Worse was to come: If I fail, I will require visas for any travel to the USA in future. Because of a prior failed immigration petition, the likelihood of gaining such a visa is almost nil.
This is probably going to kill my entertainment career stone dead. It's also going to have severe repercussions for burgeoning relationship I have, and for my other career path too as it's reliant on US based info and conferences. Starting to wish I'd never done this.
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Consulate / USCIS Member Review #23161