Clair.S

I think experiences can be different depending on the staff member working at each window - In our case my husband (the petitioner) did most of the talking. The staff were asking him about what state he was from and the gentleman from the first window was also from the same state so they talked about that a bit and where we would be moving too. The gentleman from the second window was also interested in where my husband was from and they were comparing the weather and things in their home states and the outdoor recreation in Utah where we will be moving to.

From my experience CR-1/IR-1 do not go in a separate line and do not go in first. The queue outside the embassy is a bit chaotic and is done by time of appointment for two of the lines and the other line is for those who have checked in to go through security. So when you finally get to the front of your timeslot line and sign in for your appointment, you then join the line to go through security (they only let 4 people in at a time). When you get in the embassy tickets are based on what type of visa you are applying for be it immigrant or non-immigrant, my number was i918. These tickets are not called in order, by the looks of it 3 or 4 of the desks were dealing with immigrant visas. There were significantly more non-immigrant visa applicants during my visit than immigrant applicants, as such the wait for immigrant applicants didn't seem that long at all

When you schedule the courier you have a choice of pick up or delivery, the depot is less than 3 miles away from where I'm staying so didn't bother with delivery :-) I would say its best to get a hotel, we were up at 4.00 to make my 8.30 appointment and still had to rush. They do the queue's by timeslot e.g 8-9am and 9am+ So I would still suggest getting there 30+ minutes early. There is some good restaurants near by on Duke Street I think for breakfast celebrations afterwards ;-) You must take your appointment letter with you as you will need it when you are queuing outside the embassy. I also placed my husbands name on the readiness form but my husbands name wasn't on my appointment letter so I used the online enquiry form to request to be added to the list and they responded and added him to the list.

The staff outside are all British. Like I said before its a bit chaotic, you walk up towards the embassy and there are these queues with no labels or signs to say who should go where, so you have to ask one of the staff which queue you need to be in. Everyone is asked to get their appointment letters and passports out, the staff members then walk up and down the lines checking your letters and make sure you are in the right line and have a plastic security bag to put your electronics in :-)

They may want to use them as a reference when applying for jobs and leaving without giving notice might be problematic if that is the case.