VISA approved

[Jake & Ali 0]

Yay!!!...Jake had his VISA approved yesterday and they said it should be with us in 3-5 working days. I am in Cambridge with him now (it is freezing cold and raining)...silly me, I only packed summer clothes...what was I thinking?!? He really wanted to post our experience, as TimsDaisy's post about Tim's experience was so helpful for us in knowing what to expect at the embassy. So he is going to dictate as I type (he types with 8 less fingers than I do). Also, thank you all for the good luck wishes, very sweet of you all since I have not even been on Visa Journey much lately (Jake and I have been lucky enough to be able to spend the last 5 weeks together). So here's how it went at the embassy...

Jake's interview was scheduled for 9am however we arrived at the embassy at 7:30am despite the letter saying not to arrive more than 1/2 hour early. Outside the embassy there was a que of about 10 people. We were greeted by a guard who asked us for our interview letter and Ali's passport. He then registered us and asked us to go ahead to the security booth where we had to leave all our electrical devices (mobile phone & flash memory stick). We were given a number to collect our things later. Our bags were passed through an x-ray machine and we walked through a metal detector just like in an airport. We then walked all the way around the embassy inside to the rececption desk where they gave us a ticket with the number 5 on it meaning we were fifth in the que to be seen! We sat down in the waiting room where there were monitors divided people waiting into sections (security, immigrant, and non-immigrant)...we were listed in the immigrant visa que. During the time we were waiting, there were 0 people were listed in the security section, about 15 people listed under immigrant visa, and over 100 listed under non immigrant section. About three windows out of 24 were dealing with immigrant visas. No one was seen until 8 o'clock. We were called up to window 13 at 9:30 where a young lad asked us for our documents one by one (only what was on the checklist). (We had 2 forms of evidence of support just in case...Jakes own funds which should be plenty sufficient, as well as an affidavid of support from Ali's Aunt as backup). However, they only asked for the affidavid of support to which Jake replied he had his own funds which we were going to use instead of the affidavid (as the affidavid was not even complete!). However, the officer was only interested in seeing the affidavid and said we could pull out the other evidence of support if needed in the interview. After he checked off that all the required documents were there, he said it looked good and they should issue a VISA today. We grinned at each other and the officer told us to go have a seat in the waiting room until our number was recalled for the actual interview. It was 9:50am when we sat back down. While we were waiting, Chris Martin (lead singer of Coldplay) walked in and sat down behind us! Jake and him exchanged hellos and we left him alone. However there were about 20 young Virgin airline stewardesses there who recognized him as well!...I'm sure you can imagine...poor guy! (He was actually very nice and chatted with them all for some time and even gave some of of them his autograph!). We were called back to window 16 at 10:45 for the interview. We both went up to the window where a young female officer told Ali to wait in the waiting room as it was only an interview for Jake. She then asked Jake how we had met, how many times we had seen each other, how many times Jake had been to the US and when, and if and when Alyson had been to the UK. She then asked why Alyson's Aunt was the sponsor for the affidavid of support. He told her that as a student, Ali didn't earn enough to be the sponsor and that he was planning on using his own funds. She was only interested in the answer to her question and not the fact that he had his own funds!?! She then said, "that's great, I'm going to issue a VISA today. It will take 3-5 days to get to you." YAY!!! So we went together to pay the curiour and pick up our belongings, were out of the embassy by 11:00am. The interview took a maximum of 3 minutes! They never even bothered to look at any supporting evidence or Jake's own funds (trust me, I am not complaining!).

What a relief! Now we can relax ...I mean plan a wedding :-) Thank you all for your support and advice throughout this part of the process! Good luck to those with up coming interview dates. Hope this helps!

[TimsDaisy 0]

Yay!!!!!!!!!!! [Doing handsprings in celebration!]

SO happy for you, my friend. To the lake it is, then! Rum runners, anyone?

[Jake & Ali 0]

Yay!!!!!!!!!!! [Doing handsprings in celebration!]

SO happy for you, my friend. To the lake it is, then! Rum runners, anyone?

Daisy, thanks for always being so quick to post! Yup, a celebration is in order! Thanks for the congrats :-) See you two soon!

[Leney 0]

Yay! Very happy for you! Congrats Enjoy the rest of your lives together!

[elmcitymaven 9,711]

Great news guys, and fantastic post -- big big congrats!!!

[Jennymc11 2]

Congratulations! It's such a relief isn't it?

[*julez* 124]

Congrats you two!! You may as well relax for a day or two before you start freaking out over the wedding!! You deserve a break after all the K1 stuff!!

[psho 0]

Congratulations!!!

Chris Martin, eh? I don't think I'd recognize him unless he were singing! I'm going to keep my eyes peeled for celebrities next Tuesday, though.

[Jake & Ali 0]

Congratulations!!!

Chris Martin, eh? I don't think I'd recognize him unless he were singing! I'm going to keep my eyes peeled for celebrities next Tuesday, though.

Thank you all for the congrats! We are so excited it's hard to hold it in.

And psho, I'd never recognize Chris Martin either but Jake did and the 20 airline stewardesses definately did!!! Funny thing is, although he is a gazillionaire, he was dressed worse than anyone in there...you'd never know he was famous. Gotta love em for that.

[~*Maria*~ 1]

Congratulations

[essjay 0]

I'm so pleased for you both. Congratulations.

Thank you for a really helpful review as well. Always good to hear the specifics.

You can now relax, have fun and celebrate. Well done again.

[nora &ryan 0]

Congratulations. i'm so happy for you guys.... all the best on your wedding planes

[Toshtishtash 1]

Congratulations!!!!

[Lansbury 19]

Congratulations - nice when that part of the process is over and done with

[Peggy 1]

Congrats