Laurence+Lauren

Wow in your excitement you moved the calender a month in advance.

Congrats

Hahaha! I totally did! I'm such a dufus! That's a combination of excitement and tiredness! Ugh. I need more sleep!

For the sake of completeness, I will add the end result here.

Lauren sent me the required documents (co-sponsor I-134 plus tax returns) via a very fast FedEx service - she sent them Friday (April 13th), I got them Monday (April 16th). I rang SMS and go tthem to collect the stuff, along with my passport on the Tuesday (April 17th). I paid extra for the 'Before 12' service, cost me about £36, and they kept me waiting all morning till 11:45am! (My work opens at 07:30) On Friday (20th) I got a text to say that my documents were ready and would be returned to me on Monday April 23rd (today).

AGAIN they kept me waiting till 11:45am! I was the most nervous man on the PLANET. But finally the courier arrived, same guy as the first time, and I signed for my package.

Inside was a big thick envelope, bigger than an A4 sheet of paper, marked 'TO BE OPENED ONLY BY THE UNITED STATES IMMIGRATION OR PUBLIC HEALTH SERVICE OFFICER. This is your Visa. It must be surrendered to the United STates Immigration Officer at Port of Entry into the United States. DO NOT PACK IT - IT MUST BE HAND CARRIED'

I had a blonde moment (despite being dark-haired) and thought my passport was inside the envelope. I didn't open it (thank f#~k) but I threw my passport in the trash as it was still inside the couriers' packaging! D'oh! I soon fished that out...

Anyways, a happy ending! Now Lauren and I are looking forward to April 9th when we can FINALLY put an end to all this waiting!

Tell me about it, anyone else I and I would kick up a stink about it, if I have to pay I will but I wont be happy about it, and I think if they pick up from you and redeliver it is £22 not sure though, I will let you know.........dont see why I should pay for their mistake, not a happy bunny!!!!!

I hate stuff like this. If it's your own mistake, fair enough. You can kick yourself and you know it's just because you had a 'blonde moment' or something like that. But when someone whose JOB it is screws it all up for you, it just makes me angry. For many of us this is the most important thing we'll do with our lives. But I guess mistakes will happen regardless.

Hi guys, had my interview March 12th - I won't post the review here because it's a few paragraphs short of an epic novel but there's a VJ link in my sig - long story short, we had some evidence missing, which my better half is sending on a $50 service to get it here in Enger-land for monday. In theory, I send that via SMS courier, wait some days, and then we get our Visa. So I'm happy! But it aint over till the fat lady sings...

Good luck to everyone with interviews this month! It's not as bad as you think it will be! B)

Loved your eloquent report there...makes me feel a bit better about the interview. I'll be sure to photocopy everything now, just in case . I've got no idea what the 221 thing you guys are referring to is, though.

:: hugs! :: I'm so glad it went well.

Magpie.

The 221 is the section under the Immigration and Nationality Act that deals with suspended cases that are held up due to missing evidence. In this instance I got a blue form with check boxes for different reasons, and the consulate officer just ticked those that applied to our case and made a few extra notes for us. (On the same form is also a check box for Section 212(a) which is for a visa denial - this also voids any chance for you to use the Visa Waiver program. Let's hope none of us ever gets that one!) There's details on the form for how to use the SMS courier service to collect your stuff and then return your passport with a visa when the embassy's done with it.

I am sure you will get it resolved and get your visa soon well done!!

another heads up, check your visa when you get it, I received mine today and they have put the wrong passport number yeah well it is Friday the 13th, so now I have had to pay the extortion line to get a code, e-mail the embassy and now wait all weekend for a reply on what they are gonna do about it, hopefully they wont make me pay for another courier!!

Oh good! ANOTHER thing that can go wrong! Sorry to hear that, Stinky. Hope it doesn't mess up any of your plans.

Congrats on the approval! I toyed with the idea of a hotel. My mum even wanted to pay for a room at the Hilton for me! But I live close enough on the south east coast that i just travelled up in the early, early morning. I'm still tired now!

I think from your excellent description you were interviewed by the same CO as I was - nice guy, short hair, quite young?

Yeah, sounds like the same guy. He actually reminded me of someone who works at another branch in my company, who I really get on with. He was really friendly and totally not intimidating in any way. So that made it easier - I felt like I was talking to a friend rather than some evil person who has the power to destroy your dreams!

Well, I answered my own question too Here's how my interview went down: My Interview Review (VJ Link)

I don't want to be discouraging but make sure a) you check up on the SMS Courier, they took 4 days to deliver my docs and passport to the embassy from pick-up. b ) the embassy changed their website last week to say 221 required info is now being processed in 10-15 days not the 5 days thy said at the interview. (I was told the same) c ) I was told congrats provisionally pending the supply of my docs and have now ended up in AP.

The third point may have no bearing on you but be aware of the first two. This can increase you waiting tie substantially more than the 5 days you were told.

Thanks for the heads-up, Dairy. I'll be sure to keep on their backs . We have a one month margin for error but that's easily eroded when you add up all the time each bit can take.

And glad you guys liked the review! B)

I hopped on the tube after paying £7.20 for a day ticket and jumped on the northern Victoria line. It was the same journey I made the last month for my medical. I LOVE the London Underground. It’s London’s most redeeming feature. You can get a tube train every 3 minutes and be virtually anywhere in the city centre in minutes. I’m like an albatross when it comes to navigating by tube. Not that albatrosses are renowned for being good tube navigators. It’s just a silly metaphor that really didn’t need explaining.

I switched over and caught the Jubilee line north to Bond Street. Up at street level, I flipped open the compass Lauren gave me (yes! I actually USED it!) and consulted my mini-map (it was about 3” square) and headed south down Davies Street. Then turned right onto Brook street which led me right to Grosvenor Square. It was 07:10 and my appointment was for 08:30.

Ahead of me, I saw the US Embassy. I was disappointed. I’d been expecting some imposing looking building, with high brick walls around the outside and guards at the gate. Instead it looked like a 1960’s architect’s wet-dream. If you give me a couple of egg-boxes, I’ll faithfully recreate a 1/1000th scale replica of the US Embassy in London in about three minutes flat. The best bit about it was the flag, situated right at the centre at the front of the roof. The Star Spangled banner reminded me of driving down the main drag in Hoover with Lauren - these wonderful, impressive looking flags being flown proudly on every corner. It was strange looking up at it in the centre of London. But somehow it was like a beacon of hope, and I found a kind of comfort from the memories it stirred up. Lauren may have been 4000 miles away, but she was also very much with me, as she’d have liked to have been in person.

I walked around the Grosvenor garden, trying to kill time. I looked at the 9/11 memorial, then went over and looked at the Roosevelt memorial and the one for the Eagle Squadron (The RAF fighter squadron composed mainly of US pilots that operated in WW2 before America officially entered the war). Over a hedge I could see a queue beginning to form. After my experiences queuing up for Stephen Lynch’s show, I knew I needed to be IN that queue.

I got in line behind a woman in a wheelchair and her fiancé. They were on the K-1 visa too so we got chatting. We were both unsure as to whether we were too early! Unfortunately for her, her fiancé wasn’t allowed into the Embassy because he didn’t have any photo ID on him. I felt sorry for her but the embassy staff were very helpful and wheeled her inside (as she had two crutches that her fiancé had been carrying for her too). While I waited, I checked out the cops’ weapons. There was constantly one cop on the steps, armed with an MP5A5. The first guy had a basic model with iron sights and a 30-round magazine. He was later relieved by another cop who had a cool scope mounted on the top of his MP5 but only a 15-round mag. I’m guessing the second guy was a sharpshooter and the first guy preferred ‘spray and pray’. Some of the other police officers were armed with Glocks in holsters. All in all, they were pretty well tooled up.

After a bit more waiting, I went to security after showing my appointment letter. The two guys at security were pretty rude and unprofessional. I accidentally left my wallet in my pocket and the chime went off as I stepped through the metal detector. But neither of them noticed or seemed to care. There was no point in them being there unless their job was to knob people off before their interviews.

I found my way (because the signage was awful) to the Visa entrance and presented my appointment letter. I was given a self-adhesive ticket numbered ‘5001’. The Immigrant Visa’s all started with a ‘5’. That made me the second Immigrant Visa applicant through the door. I went up some steps and into a big room with a couple of hundred seats. I went and sat down, then spotted the lady with the wheelchair who I’d seen outside so I went and chatted to her. We weren’t talking long before her number was called. It was probably the furthest window from where we were seated so I offered to push her over to it as she was still holding the crutches. I told her it was my first time pushing a wheelchair but I think I did okay! I wished her good luck and went and sat back down.

Another 15 minutes passed and then I was finally called to window 1 (I got flashbacks from working at the McDonald’s drive-thru). Behind the window was a small Vietnamese-looking woman in her forties. She had quite an accent and that, combined with the noise of all the waiting people and automated window summoning, plus the 3” of bulletproof glass she was behind made it nearly impossible for me to hear her. First she asked me to put my fingers on the fingerprint reader for identification purposes (they always remind me of those things on Men In Black that remove your fingerprints!). Next she asked for different bits of documentation and seemed impressed that I had EVERYTHING photocopied.

Then came the bit I’d been worried about. The I-134. The original for the co-sponsor was still on its way to me, and I explained that I only had faxed copies, although I had the originals that Lauren herself had filled in and had notarised. The woman asked if Lauren was working and I said "yes", then she shrugged it off and said “don’t worry, you won’t need co-sponsor” (I hope you’re all doing a Vietnamese accent in your heads!). I suspected differently though. They have those poverty guidelines there for a reason!

I was sent to pay my non refundable Visa fee which, under current exchange rates, is £95.00. Then I returned to window 1 and was handed the X-ray from my medical and told to be seated and wait to be called again. By the looks of things they only had 1 or 2 consular officers doing the Immigrant Visas, as I had to wait around 30-45 minutes to be called. Just as I was looking at the display screen that shows all the windows and queuing tickets, and imagining my number being called to window 16, I heard “Ticket 5001, please go to Window 16”. (On Saturday I’m gonna try that with the National Lottery numbers!)

At window 16 I saw a friendly American man who asked for some of my documents and then asked some questions about how Lauren and I met. I froze up when he asked me where she worked! I couldn’t remember the damn name! “Uhm… I know it starts with an ‘M’” I said. He was probably thinking “McDonalds?” until I explained what the business did. It’s amazing how nerves can make you forget stuff that you KNOW. Even if he’d offered me £100 (or a refund for my non-refundable visa fee?) I wouldn’t have been able to give him that name! But he was happy with my answer anyway, because I knew quite a bit about what she did at work. He asked about my work too, and what I’d be hoping to do for work in the US. I didn’t tell him ‘storm-chasing’ - that’s just what I tell my mum.

Finally he reached my I-134 and addressed its deficiencies. My lovely fiancée is JUST under the 125% line for the number of people that will be in our household, so we do need the co-sponsor. I neglected to say “But the Vietnamese lady said- !” Lauren also needed to have sent a copy of her tax return as well. The consulate officer was very helpful though and explained exactly what we needed to do to complete the process. All we needed was either a tax return from Lauren showing an Adjusted Gross Income above the 125% mark, or an original co-sponsor sheet with proof of identity of the co-sponsor (passport or birth certificate), plus a copy of their 2007 or 2008 tax returns.

Once I have assembled all the required documents, I just needed to ring SMS couriers (the Embassy’s contracted courier service) and they arrange to collect them from me and take them to the Embassy. There’s a 5 working day turn-around and then the docs and my passport, complete with Visa are sent back to me. The only limiting factor is how quickly we can get the documents together. The consulate officer answered a few of my questions, then congratulated me (provisionally!) and wished me a good time in the States. We chatted briefly while I packed up my documents, and he told me to “practice speaking reeeeeeal slowwwww dowwwwwn in Aaaaaaalabama!”

I left the Embassy at 09:30, relieved at having had a largely positive experience. My only dismay came from (obviously) not being able to walk away with a Visa just yet, but also that the consular officer hadn’t even asked to see any of the photos of Lauren and I that I’d had printed especially for the interview. In fact, he asked for no evidence whatsoever of an ongoing relationship. But it’s cool. It all went a LOT better than I’d first feared, so I have no reason to grumble!

Is the signature page faxed or original?

I have the signature page original for my fiancee's docs, just not for the co-sponsor. I only have faxed copies of the co-sponsor sheets.

Hopefully we will just get an RFE. Seems weird to be praying for one after all this time dreading it!

I have my interview Thursday 12th, first thing in the morning. My fiancee left out 2 pages of the I-134 when she sent it to me and we only realised last night. She managed to fax me over copies of the missing pages of the I-134 and intends to send them to me by very-fast-international-courier.

In the mean-time I have to attend an interview at the London Consulate with plenty of supporting evidence, but an adhoc I-134. The first two pages are the originals but the last two, the co-sponsor ones, are faxed copies. Has anyone had any similar experience with this? Are they likely to just deny us? (As it was too close to the appointment to try and change it.) Or will we simply be RFE'd at this stage?

Ugh. K-1 Visa. It's just one thing after another!

Is it possible they've mixed your case up with another applicant's? If the things you say about the evidence you gave and how well you know each other are true, then it sounds like they may have made a mistake somewhere along the line. Their reasons for denial don't seem to fit. I'm not sure who you would take this up with though. Perhaps call USCIS and tell them that you feel a grave mistake has been made with your application, like a total mix-up.

Good review, Magpie!

Dip_Sticks, does your hubby LOOK like he fights? LOL! I find that such an odd question. And I'd be SOOOOO tempted to give a joke answer, like "What?! You expect us to FIGHT for our visa's now? That's barbaric! If I'd have known this in advance I'd have subjected myself to some kind of harsh training regime...."

I didn't get asked anything other than medical stuff. I'd heard before I went to my medical that they do sometimes ask stuff like that, and that they are even expected to comment on your mood/demeanour. But yeah, other than that it was pretty much just medical business.

I'm going to gamble with UK passport photos and see how far I get.....Not had my medical yet, so a long way to go

Knightsbridge doctors will accept UK sized passport photos. I've heard that if you give them US sized ones they just trim them down to UK sizes. But you WILL definately need US sized ones for the interview at the embassy.

At 2:10pm I walked to Bentinck mansions. (Laurence+Lauren, the photos were really helpful here)

Happy to be of service! If it made even ONE person's journey less confusing, it was worth my time!

I'd only been waiting for 5 minutes when a nurse called me.

Same with me. The wait times weren't long at all, I was really impressed.

He gave me a blue cotton robe, separated himself and I with a curtain, asked me to strip from the chin to waist and put on the robe.

No fair! I didn't get a robe! I guess you got the preferential treatment because you have boobies and I don't!

I was shaking when it was time to have blood drawn, but it was really needless in the end. She put the strap around my upper arm, made me clench my fist, told me to 'keep still or my vein would break and we'd have to start over' I tried to keep my eyes on the ceiling. Really quick and professionally done. I wondered if she'd even started when she was finished.

You did really well. If she'd said 'keep still or my vein would break and we'd have to start over' to me, that'd be all it'd take to finish me off! I HATE stuff like that!

Good report, Furious! Bet you're glad to have all that over and done with! Best of luck for the interview now!

oh SNAP.. I said the same thing.. apologised for having a boring life!!

Damn. I thought I was being witty. She probably hears that EVERY day! D'OH!

Good luck on your medical, Furious! Hope it goes as smoothly as mine!

I’ve dreaded the medical since I first read about the K-1. Not only is there the blood test, but the fact you might learn you have some horrible disease you never knew you had. Still, it’s gotta be done, right?

I left home this morning just before 9am. It’s one of those times I really appreciate only living 2 hours from London. I’d spent the night previous suddenly remembering things I’d need to take along to the medical. Like my passport, vaccination records, and a passport photo. I double checked that I knew where I was going - Bentinck Mansions on Bentinck Street. It was the second of the two possible locations shown on the pdf from the embassy website.

I travelled in to London Victoria as I live in the South East. Then I took the Victoria line north one stop to Green Park, followed by another one stop journey north on the Jubilee line to get to Bond Street. Upon reaching street level I became painfully aware that the maps provided in the pdf document are pretty rubbish. Bond Street, the closest station, is on the very edge of the map. This makes orientating yourself very difficult as you‘ve essentially only got half of a map. Also, many roads are missing and there’s not a lot of detail. The map doesn’t quite capture the kinks in the road so what you’re looking at in the street doesn’t translate to what you see on the map. I’d recommend going to streetmap.co.uk and printing off a map at 1:2500 scale - at this level of detail, all roads are marked, even the little dead-end ones, and it also shows large shops like HMV for use as landmarks.

I took the liberty of photographing a simple route from Bond Street Tube station. From Bond Street you can come out on either side of Oxford Street. If you’re on the side with Footlocker, you need to be on the other side - the one HMV is on. Marylebone Lane forks onto Oxford Street opposite Footlocker, so there’s actually two turnings you could take (the map I had only showed one), both leading to the same place. It’s basically just a back-road and looks like this:

(note the multi-storey car-park with the lattice design on the side)

The end of the road looks like a dead-end, but keep going. The road continues on an offset but again the map doesn’t show you this. Wigmore Street is the intersecting road. At the end of Marylebone Lane you should be able to see the ####### & Lion pub:

Once you get to the end, standing on Wigmore Street and opposite the ####### & Lion, look to your half left and you will see that Marylebone Lane continues on the other side, curving around to the right. You need to keep going down that road:

(the road the cyclist is going down)

Continue down Marylebone Lane, and you will come to Bentinck Street, which crosses it left to right. Knightsbridge Doctors is in the building on the right corner nearest you. Take a right on Bentinck Street to get to the entrance:

The front of the building looks like this:

(I took this from across the street, opposite the road I’d come down. The door the lady with the pink stroller is emerging fromis the one you want.)

As you can see, there’s no big signs advertising their location, so it’s best to go by door numbers if you end up approaching from a different direction.

The door works on a buzzer system. Usually they just buzz you straight through, but when I arrived they said they were on a lunch break and to come back about 12:45. I must say I wasn’t impressed. I guessed this was my first taste of the snotty, arrogant conduct I’d read about in some of the other VJ reviews. I stood off on Wigmore Street for half an hour, counting cycle couriers and Japanese tourists, then came back for another try. This time I was buzzed straight in. At reception, I was asked to provide my medical questionnaire and passport photo, passport, and vaccination record, and then was asked to take a seat in the adjacent waiting room.

I didn’t have to wait too long, although I was prepared and had brought a couple of books with me! Soon I was called to see the nurse, who told me what vaccinations I was lacking. It was only the MMR that I needed, and I opted to have it there and then at a supplemental cost of £35. I’m okay with jabs - it was the blood test I was dreading! I was told I might come out with a fever, sore throat and lumps around the neck over the next few days. The nurse seemed quite professional, and certainly willing to answer questions.

After that I sat in a different waiting room for a few minutes until I was called by the radiologist. I was told to remove all clothing above the waist and press my chest against the plate with my hands in the small of the back to make a chicken-like posture - this is to get the shoulder blades out of the way. I knew the plate would be cold from reading another VJ post. But the doctor was cheerful and warm-hearted which more than made up for it! The lights went off, then on again and it was all done.

I returned to the first waiting room and watched a few other people get called. Then an attractive young lady called me and I followed, assuming she was a receptionist. She was in fact the doctor! I thanked whatever gods were smiling down on me for having given me a cute blonde doctor. In the room she sat me down and gave me a quick medical history interview - “Have you had this” and “Have you done that” - and I gave all ‘no’s, then apologised for having had a boring life!

The doctor asked me to remove my shoes, then she weighed me and measured my height. I guess she got a kind of ‘average’, as I wasn’t slouching but neither was I standing up as straight as I could have. If I had, she might not have been able to reach the top bar! She clocked me at 183cm.

She then asked me to stand behind a curtain and remove all but my boxer shorts. When I was finished I peered around the corner and caught her browsing on Facebook! I told her I was ready and she told me to lie down. My heart was pumping, getting a real workout, as I had no idea what tests to expect or when the blood test was going to happen. She took my pulse from my wrist - I’m guessing she rounded it to the nearest 100 bpm - then put the blood pressure thing on my arm and pumped me up to about 1300 psi. After that she listened to my heart with a stethoscope. All the while she didn’t say a word, until she announced she was going to lift the top of my boxer shorts. She asked me to cough and I did, while she checked for signs of any hernias. Again, without saying a word, she put a strap round my right arm. This was the bit I feared most - the blood test. I resigned myself to just let it happen.

Amazingly, I didn’t even feel light-headed afterwards. Perhaps she took more than one vial of blood but if she did, I didn’t notice her change bottles. I don’t know if lying down helped, or whether it was being almost naked and/or in the presence of an extremely hot doctor. Either way, it was a blood test masterfully administered!

As many others have stated, the most painful bit is paying! My bill came to £215 in total. I left the doctor’s feeling so very happy. Some of the reviews I’d read had been quite negative. I’d gone in there expecting to be treated abruptly and rudely and had been treated very well indeed. I guess there’s something to be said for that - if you go in there expecting poor treatment, anything better is a bonus. For those of you yet to take your medical, I wish you the best of luck and hope that you are blessed with the same level of care I received today!

I will probably be decorating the new house, working in the garden (if it isn't too hot), start up my crafting again and maybe do some volunteering. There's also a couple of newcomers clubs and an NCO spouses club on base I might join so I can meet new people.

The biggest thing I wanna do is learn to drive. I'm 28 and don't even drive in the UK. I tried it last time I was in Alabama and loved every second! I can't wait to start driving over there. Then I can be a much more useful hubby!

Whereabouts in Alabama are you going to be?

We'll be in Birmingham, or thereabouts. Not a million miles away from Monty

I will probably be decorating the new house, working in the garden (if it isn't too hot), start up my crafting again and maybe do some volunteering. There's also a couple of newcomers clubs and an NCO spouses club on base I might join so I can meet new people.

The biggest thing I wanna do is learn to drive. I'm 28 and don't even drive in the UK. I tried it last time I was in Alabama and loved every second! I can't wait to start driving over there. Then I can be a much more useful hubby!

thanks... good luck on ur medical i will let u know how it goes...my friends are so sweet and are coming along with me for support..

I'm trusting you guys and taking UK sized ones. If it's any different, you'll read about my experience on the medical report I write for VJ later on today!

Awesome! Now I can update my timeline! I did think also, for those not fortunate enough to have access to the internet at home, all of this information and the forms would be a bit difficult to come by. I'm sure the Embassy would send them out if requested but it's just more time added to the process. Well, I guess this is the 21st century...

Lauren: "doesnt seem right does it? that we got to do all this bull**** paperwork and we get one little measley paper"

LOL! My thoughts exactly!

Is Packet 3 from the London Consulate simply a letter? I was expecting like an actual 'packet'. I have received a letter asking me to assemble documents and visit 2 web links to see which documents I need and to arrange a medical. Is this packet 3? Or is that yet to come?

Thanks all who replied to this! I'm now a LOT more confident with my packet 3. I think it's good to pool our info and experience at this point! It's one of those moments that you just wish to have everything ready to go so that you don't add unnecessary delay to the process.

While we're on the subject, is everyone using the new ACPO Police Certificate? Apparently the old subject access forms are no longer valid. It's something that almost caught me out until I stumbled upon it by accident. I'd already arranged the old form, and now I'm waiting for the new form to come in. It's £35 but a lot quicker turnaround - 10 days as opposed to 40.