US Immigration from United Kingdom

Good morning from a very cold and snowy Boston!

I was wondering if anyone is able to offer me some advice regarding this topic.

I filed my EAD and form I485 for adjustment of status on 10th Nov 2025.

I had my biometrics appointment on 29th Dec 2025 for both of these.

I have my appointment for my interview for my green card scheduled for the 2nd week in February.

My understanding was that if I filed my work authorization it would arrive earlier than my green card enabling me to apply for jobs and find employment. As I thought the green card itself enables me to work and travel as well, as being in the US legally.

My question I guess is have I wasted my money applying for the employment authorization document?

From looking at timelines it looks like some people received their EAD within 30 days of applying for it ( I am aware that there has been Veterans Day, Thanks

giving, Christmas, New Year and MLKJ day since when I applied and now) but I ve also seen ( and hope it s true) that if approved , people receive their green cards within 2 weeks of having their interviews.

I understand that this may not always be the case and depends on the number of cases going through the system but based on the dates for the appointments I m getting my situation aligns with this pattern.

Im just wondering if anyone has any knowledge or experience of this?

Hey everyone. I haven't been here in a while because husband got his citizenship about 10 years ago I think, and life got busy and I stopped checking in. St Paul was our original local office but we moved to Ohio, so he got his citizenship in Cleveland. Now we are back in MN.

As you are probably incredibly aware, things are not good in Minnesota, especially in Minneapolis.

How is everyone right now?

Stay safe. I never, ever thought I'd have to say this in the U.S. but keep your proof of residency/visa/ect with you at all times. If you are nervous about sending your kids to school, with everything that is going on, online public schools ARE an option. We do that for our kids. They are free, and with the one we use, they will lend a computer to families who need one.

Everyone please stay safe.

Nora.

Sharing my full experience for anyone going through EB-2 NIW consular processing in London. Iv rushed home to write it all down so i dont forget!

Medical Examination (Two Weeks Before Interview)

Exactly two weeks before my interview, I attended my medical in London.

As soon as you know your interview date, call and book your medical appointment. Mine was fairly early in the morning, around 9:00am.

When I arrived, I gave the receptionist my interview confirmation page, GP Medical Summary Report and my passport.

Before the appointment, you need to go to your GP and get a medical summary checklist. I had done this and provided it to the receptionist as well.

The first person you see is a nurse. She reviews your medical information, checks your vaccination history, and confirms whether you are missing any vaccinations or if there is anything in your medical history that needs discussion.

If you are from overseas or did not grow up in the UK, I strongly recommend bringing all your medical records as a backup. I was asked for vaccination history from when I lived in New Zealand because not all of my records had been added correctly to my NHS file (they were there but the format was incorrect so they wouldn't accept them as they had been entered into the NHS system). Having my overseas records saved me a lot of time.

Next, you see the doctor, who reviews your medical history again. This is where they take blood, do a quick eye check, and check your stomach, feet, and lymph nodes. You are wearing the gown at this point. Everything is private and very professional.

After this, you return to the waiting room, put your clothes back on, but keep the gown.

The third part is the chest X-ray. They ask you to put the gown back on and take the X-ray.

Once everything is done, you go back to the waiting room. They then call you up and give you a piece of paper, which you need for the next step, the document check.

They told me that if there were any issues with the medical, they would call me within about a week. Otherwise, no news is good news.

Document Check (At the U.S. Embassy)

After the medical, you go to the document check at the U.S. Embassy.

When you arrive, you will see a person sitting behind a glass barrier beside security. Go straight up and give them your pink slip from the medical and your passport. Just tell them you are there for a document check.

They give you your passport and slip back and send you through security.

After security, you go into a small reception area. Give the receptionist your passport again, and they give you a small slip (it looks like a bookmark) with instructions on where to go.

It will tell you to go to level one. When you get out of the elevator, turn left and then left again. There are signs as well.

You then go to booth 24, which is where they do the document checks - there are seats around it so sit and wait for your number to be called.

Once your number is called, you go to the window and provide your original documents. For me, they only required:

Passport
Police certificates
Birth certificate

If you have a spouse or children, you may also need marriage certificates or additional documents.

They bind everything together in a clear sleeve and tape it shut so you cannot open it.

If anything is missing, they will tell you what you need to bring to your interview. You are then done and come back later for the interview.

Consular Interview Day

I arrived at the embassy at 8:00am for an 8:30am appointment. It was pretty chaotic outside because there were a lot of people there.

All you need to do is take your DS-260 confirmation page and your passport and go to the front of the line. There is a man standing at a table at the front who is doing pre checks before you go to security. Just tell him you are here for an immigrant visa, specifically a green card. They will then move you to the front of the queue (feels weird pushing ahead of all the people the but as somebody going through an immigration process you are treated slightly differently to those who aren't).

They check your documents briefly and send you straight through to security.

After security, you walk into a reception area where they check your documents again. There are two lines here. You want to take the one on the left, which is for immigrant visas and citizenship. Do not take the one on the right, which is much bigger and for everyone else.

Then you go up to level one, turn left, left again, and you end up back in the same waiting area where you went for your document check after your medical.

You sit down and wait to be called.

When I was called to the first window, they only wanted to see the clear sleeve with my original documents, confirmation page with my instructions i wanted to pick up my passport from Holborn and my passport. They did not want anything else. They took these and told me to go sit back down.

I waited about half an hour and then was called back to another window. This is the actual interview. You raise your right hand and take an oath. They also take your fingerprints again.

They had clearly already reviewed my file, because they went straight into questions.

For me, the questions were very straightforward. They asked:

What visa are you applying for
What university did you attend
What is your highest level of education

That was it.

I had practiced a lot of other questions, but I was only asked those three things. The whole interview part lasted less than three minutes.

The officer then told me my visa was approved and that my passport would be available for collection (which I had nominated, make sure you register your interview and request either collection or pickup - they want to see this as a print out at the interview) in about five days.

Then I left.

Final Thoughts and Tips

- Overall, everything was very procedural and anticlimactic.

- They did not re-adjudicate my petition.
- They did not ask detailed questions about my proposed endeavor.

- For the Document Check i did bring everything i would need for the interview - they did only ask for Birth Cert and Police Check documents in the end but it was nice to have everything so i knew in 2 weeks time i was good to go and there was no last minute panic

Hope this helps anyone waiting for their interview.

Hello everyone,

I am hoping to hear from people who have gone through the K-1 fianc visa process at the U.S. Embassy in London in recent years.

USCIS has just approved our I-129F, and the case is being sent to the NVC. I am the UK beneficiary. I am trying to understand, based on real experiences, whether the London embassy sends any physical letters or packets by post to the beneficiary s UK address before the interview, or whether everything is handled electronically.

I have seen that older guides and the K1 visa flowchart on here mention receiving a packet, but I am aware that procedures change over time. I am particularly interested in current or recent London cases.

One reason I am asking is that I would prefer to ensure I personally receive and manage any instructions, rather than have family members at my address see them first.

Specifically, I would appreciate hearing:

• Did you receive any physical mail from the U.S. Embassy in London before your interview?

• Or were all instructions and next steps handled by email, CEAC, or ustraveldocs?

• Was the only physical delivery the return of your passport after the interview?

I know after my interview, I'll get my passport posted back. I simply want to know what happens before the interview.

I am not looking for legal advice; I am looking for firsthand experiences from people who completed a London K-1 case.

Thank you very much in advance for any insight.

So I received my i-130 approval under the documents tab after receiving the action taken email on the 19th Jan. But on the USCIS account it shows up as the 21st.

edit: on my approval notice it says the 19th!! But still curious of my questions for the rest of the process.

Also our case was sent to the department of state today (the 23rd) but on the USCIS account it states it as the 24th Jan.

So my 2 questions. Which should I update my VJ timeline to be the most accurate if this is a pattern of the day it actually happens and the day the say it happened?

And I guess why does this happen? When do they consider the approval/events to be?

All this being said my approval day in my heart will always be the 19th. It's a day i'll never forget.

Thank you all