London K1 Interview - 15 May 2006

[elwintro 0]

Hello VJ.

I had my K1 interview yesterday morning at the London embassy. It was

a success.

My trip started off on Sunday night, flying over to London from Belfast. I

stayed overnight at the Bryanston Court Hotel, about a 10 minute walk

away from the embassy. My room at the Bryanston was tiny, but clean.

At 44 GBP for the night, I couldn't complain!

My appointment at the embassy was for 10:30am, but I got there just

after 10am. There was a very long queue of people waiting to go in, but

I had my passport and appointment letter ready, and just walked right

on up to the front and spoke to the security guards. They waved me on

through. Got to the security hut and went through the usual bag x-ray

and walk through the metal detector. No problems.

There are signs telling you where to go for visas, and I walked around to

the other side of the building, up some steps, was told by the girl at the

desk to make sure my mobile phone was turned off, then it was up some

more steps into the waiting room. A nice woman greeted me, looked at

my letter, and gave me a ticket for an immigrant visa. I was number 11.

I took a seat, and waited for my turn.

There were a lot of people waiting, mostly for non-immigrant visas.

According to the monitors, only one person was infront of me in the

immigrant visa queue (they were number 10).

It was about 20-25 minutes before I was called up to window #1. Just as

I got there, I saw this little Chinese woman come out from window #1 into

the waiting room, grab a copy of "Now!" magazine, go back in the door,

and sit back down at window #1. I stood there like a fool as she started

to flip through the magazine. She looked up and saw me, said hello, and

said something about her doing some work now. I laughed and she told

me how reading the gossip mags helps relax her brain.

This woman was very friendly, and we were chatting away. Only trouble

was that I could barely hear her half the time through the glass. She was

saying something to me about office politics at one point, and asked if I

agreed. All I could do was smile, nod, and say, "Yes, yes. Definitely." I

hadn't a clue what I was agreeing to.

Anyway, she took all my forms: passport, birth certificate + copy, police

certificate + copy, I-134 from my fiancee + copies of the supporting

evidence, I-134 from my fiancee's dad + copies of supporting evidence.

She noticed I've got an academic background, so she started telling me

about her daughter starting her GCSEs next week.

She got me to sign the two DS-156 forms from packet 3, and I watched

as she glued on the passport-style photos. I saw our old I-129F petition.

It had the red "APPROVED" stamp on it, and I noticed all the coloured tabs

that my fiancee put on to make it easily navigatable were now gone, and

the various photos we'd included were in clear plastic bags and stapled

onto the forms (we'd put them in envelopes that were stapled to a blank

sheet of paper).

When I was done at window #1, I took the ginormous x-ray envelope, and

sat down to fill out the courier form and await my doom. 10 minutes later,

I was called up to window #13.

A pleasant-looking, middle-aged American lady was waiting to talk to me.

She fingerprinted me, got me to print my fiancee's name and sign the

DS-156K form, then I was sworn in. Her line of questioning proceeded as

follows:

1) What's your fiancee's name?

2) How did you meet?

3) Have you been to see her?

4) Have you met her family?

5) Has she been to see you?

6) Has she met your family?

7) What do you intend to do for a living in America?

This last question opened up a bit of a discussion. I intend to work in the

computer industry as a programmer or some such. I've got a Bachelors

in computer science, but have just finished a PhD in astronomy. She

questioned the PhD, saying she thought it seemed a bit inconsistent with

what I've done before, and what I intend to do. I explained a bit about my

research, how it is very computational in nature, and that astronomy is

full of hard computer science problems. She seemed satisfied.

She reviewed my medical results, and told me I'd be happy to know I'm

not ringing with STDs. She chuckled at one point, telling me that the doc

I got at Knightsbridge seems to be obsessed with tattoos and body piercings.

I related that the doc was very pleased to note my clean, unpierced flesh,

that that was what she liked to see.

After that, the woman told me she was going to approve the application.

I said thanks, and she told me I'd 90 days to enter the US on the visa

and get married. After the honeymoon, I'd then have to get in touch with

the Department of Homeland Security in order to adjust status. I was then

told to go to the courier desk and pay them. I said goodbye and thank you,

and proceeded on my merry way.

I was in and out of the embassy in less than an hour. As my flight home

wasn't until 9:40pm, I had some time to kill. I can recommend a walk

along Oxford Street, then an afternoon in the British Museum - the Rosetta

Stone is cool.

All-in-all, a painless interview experience. No evidence for an ongoing

relationship was asked for, and I didn't feel as though they were out to get

me. Just make sure all your paperwork is in order, and try to relax and

have a friendly chat.

Good luck to all!

[bethnash 0]

thats great news!! im glad it well...!!

[irishgirl73 0]

great news congrats!!!!!

[aussiewench 9]

Great news.....Congratulations and well done

[PrinceandPrincess 0]

That's a wonderful news! Congratulations!

[rebeccajo 14]

Super! Won't be long till you're in America! Congratulations!

[Jaylen Brit 0]

Congrats!!

Weird tho how she 'questioned your PhD' in astronomy...etc etc. Can't see the relevance of her query at all there

Well done tho and glad it went so quickly

[munchkins 0]

Congratulations on the approval, have a safe journey "home"

[sidw 0]

great news bro!

It's good to hear some success stories. We're getting ready for the interview and sometimes i feel like - from some net stories and from my lawyer - we're doomed no matter what we do. It's good to hear that the interviews don't always just assume your a terrorist or something.

[CJBell 0]

Here is my experience of the K1 interview - 17th May 2006.

Got to the embassy at around 8:50am (caught the 6:43am train from Stafford to ensure I'm there with plenty of time!)

Once at the embassy was told to queue on the right hand queue which was for those people without an interview time that was about to occur (i.e at 9:50am those with a 10am interview time was called to join the left hand queue.)

So basically, had a long wait outside the place, luckily it wasn't raining, and had a good chat with an individual who had done the non-immigrant interview process before until about 10:20am)

At 10:20am, the 10:30am people were called to join the 2nd line, myself and the other guy were at the front at the queue at this stage, we quickly proceeded to the security hut.

At the security hut it is your standard airport style security check.

Once you process that, then it's the long walk to the other side of the building, once there you are greeted by the guy at the reception, and are informed to switch off your phones and go up the stairs to the left. Once there you go to one of two reception booths, where the operator will ask if you have an immigrant or non-immigrant visa, at this stage based on your letter, you state immigrant.

Following this you get a ticket, and wait in the reception area, as a list of very high numbers for the non-immigrant, and the occasional low number for immigrant visa are called.

After about let's say 15 minutes, your number is called, and you go the relevant desk. There you are asked for the documents as requested in Packet 4, sign the forms, given a pink courier slip, and asked to take a seat back in the waiting area.

Then, and reading other reports the time varies, (for me it was short another 15 minutes) you wait to be called again, by then you filled your pink slip you go back to another desk. It's then when the proper interview takes place, you have your finger prints taken, put your right hand up and swear the oath, and then they ask you about how you met etc.

Finally, I was told to take the pink slip back to the courier desk that is near the main entrance of the waiting area, paid my £9.50 and told my passport and visa should be returned in 2 working days.

Hope this helps those waiting, to be honest, as long as you honest, open with them, it's not that bad, obviously, I had a nervous night before, but it's more the unknown that gets you worried!