LMax

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.

I got mine too! 26th Jan, perfect timing after waiting so long! Congrats @iaiyam1 on getting yours too!

Morning - in theory i think it sounds good but i would caution you that there is always the potential to be placed in AP so if you do make any arrangements make sure they are flexible enough that you can remain in London if you were placed in secondary checks for an unknown period of time

Congratulations @Dxstat on receiving your interview notification! Still waiting on mine - not sure if they release them all at the same time/day so iv missed this months batch? Or if they could be releasing them periodically over today for example 🤔 Either way its great to see that things are moving - Congrats again!

Thanks @appleblossom - just thinking of all the scenarios - bit overwhelming knowing its close but also having no way of really knowing whats going to happen in the next few months. My contract job finishes soon so weighing up whether i should just get another short one into the new year and then i have a bit more control over what i doing even if i do get an interview date set for December. Lots to think about which is based off the slight unknown re timings and then ultimately even moving to the US how long it will take to find employment - weighing up all my options, thanks for your help!

Im probably overthinking but is there a world where they dont release interview notifications for this month? I know we are waiting for the end of this month in the hopes they do but could it be that they skip october and instead only do them from November - or even at all this year?

Has anybody else received this today? At my interview ill be updating the officer that since my application im now a UK citizen - so not personally concerned that ill face delays by going through the London consulate. Iv seen some conflicting information on reddit with people saying that they have been advised to contact NVC - even if they want to remain in London - through to people like myself who interpret it to mean i can ignore it and carry on with London. I wanted to get the opinions here based on anybody elses experiences or understanding of this Ultimately im taking it to be that they are working on allocating interview slots and we should have this through soon

Yes im just glad that it wasnt retrogressed because of this

@syvvs, the scheduling tool has been updated - its not showing any changes from last month, still on March 25

Nothing will happen until after the new year has started on 1st october

Im EB2 NIW - no job lined up. I didnt think there was much point if my interview isnt long after the contract ends (perhaps the wrong take to have?)

Hey@appleblossom i just wanted to pick your brain. Since my approved petition iv left the role i was doing and am now contracting. It will be likely my contract will have finished by the time i have an interview (if this is in say December). My current role is in a more senior position, pay is higher and i have more responsibilities. It's in the same field which my petition fell under and my job title for example demonstrates this. In preparation for the interview and being that i will be finishing my current position in the next 6 or so weeks what should i bring to the interview? I have my contract and the job description but do you think the officers will need anything else? Should i ask HR to provide a letter of reference or is what i currently have enough? I can bring payslips etc though im sure they are more interested in the actual responsibilities i have rather than my monthly take home pay?

Yes I’ll keep you posted when I get mine, hopefully they do it early October for an IL in December atleast!

Hey @iaiyam1, have you had your interview or notification of your date yet?

You use this tool - https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/visa-information-resources/iv-wait-times.html#:~:text=The Immigrant Visa (IV) Scheduling,specific U.S. embassy or consulate Just select the employment preference and enter London - this is a new tool but they seem to update it early in the month Sorry correction to my earlier post they are doing March not April

Hey @Adamson12, they have only just announced they are processing interviews for those with DQ dates of April 2025. Your close, you'll probably get a notification in October if not earlier. Either way you shouldnt have to wait too much longer

That’s great to see @iaiyam1!! Very relieved to see it was a short retrogression. Hopefully you get your IL notification soon, likely in October I’m guessing. Definitely keep us posted, I’m hoping they reverse the FAD retrogression and I’m current again come October

Hey @Researcher786 - Congratulations on your GC! Thats great news Can you please share a little of the questions asked at the consulate Congrats again!

The IV Scheduling tool is showing for London embassy they are only scheduling cases with DQ up until May 2023, massive retrogression backwards. I understand the tool is relatively new but does anybody have any insight into how quickly they think it might move forward? I’m originally from NZ so is it worth transferring my case back there to go through the embassy there??

Thanks @appleblossom, im hoping ill be moving over by Christmas Not worried right now about the delay but if i can be over there by December sometime ill be happy. My sisters due to have her first baby (a little girl) around the 6th January, so will be amazing to be reunited over in Seattle before she arrives!

@iaiyam1 No im back on the waiting train, my date retrogressed in the latest visa bulletin Dont think ill be waiting for long till im current again, but ill be following here to see how long it takes for people to get interviews this month

Yes hopefully next week but also hoping we get something in the next few days!

Hey, no nothing yet

If you haven’t bothered to fill out your timeline, don’t be surprised when people can’t give you helpful answers. It’s frustrating seeing the same questions pop up from folks who give zero context — when we’ve all said repeatedly: just fill in your timeline. I get that spreadsheets are easier to sort through, but this forum isn’t just meant to be a database — it’s a community. And timelines are how people know where you’re at. Google Sheets are only useful to the handful of people who already know they exist. Newbies don’t, and then it’s chaos — same questions, no answers, and nothing to go on. It takes five minutes. If you can ask a question, you can fill in a timeline.

Hey @UEDD, embassies have different processing times and notification dates so your friends lucky to be going through an embassy a bit faster than Londons. It's not an exact science to figure out when London will release their dates but i looks like they have already done this for June so you will perhaps be told in July There are a few of us (myself included) who are waiting for their interview notifications so it really depends on the number of people in the queue waiting to be told as well. I suspect because there was a big jump for those now current in June there will be a small wait to process those going through London Please fill in your timeline - you'll find the link on your comment above beside the photos link