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| London, United Kingdom |  Review on March 5, 2015: |
-Shana-
Rating:  | Review Topic: K1 Visa
I took the bus 73 from Victoria station to Selfridges and hobbled my way to the embassy (had a knee injury) which was about a 5 minute walk. There was already a queue when I arrived so I joined in. This was probably 7:10.
At about 7:30 embassy staff began to put out signs and ask people what time their appointments were. Eventually a girl asked if there were any immigrant visas. I stepped forward and she signed my interview letter and told me to go stand in a small queue near a Chinese man (hah!) Turned out there were actually 2 lines that fit this description so I ended up in the wrong bloody Chinese man line. The man who was working the wrong queue asked me what time my appointment was and told me to stand in the line to the left of the tent that was set up (this I discovered later was incorrect information). It was a pretty long line so eventually suspecting I'd been jipped I asked the same girl and she apologised and said "I'm sorry, I already signed you in, stand in that line there closest to the barrier." If she had been that descriptive to begin with I would have been in quicker, so I was a little annoyed but didn't show it.
When waiting to go through I saw a girl came out the security booth with a pair of scissors and had to throw them away, causing a lady Behind me to comment on how silly she was for having scissors. Then another lady came out with what looked like a perfume bottle, the woman said something along the lines that it was stupid too because "no liquids are allowed in." Turned out to be false in my case, I got in with a bottle of water and some perfume. Could have got lucky with the perfume since it's a glass bottle.
Anyway. At 7:50 When I reached the front of the queue a man called me up and checked my passport, interview letter and DS-160. I stood in a smaller line then got called in to a little security booth where I took off my coat, scarf, put my folder in a basket and put my bag on the conveyor belt. All was fine and I went through the extremely heavy door and turned right. I exclaimed to a girl who had heard my conversation about the perfume (I was bricking it that I'd have to store it) and we had a brief chat walking up to the embassy doors around the corner. Guess she was a solitary type since she didn't give the impression she wanted to talk when we got inside!
I went through the doors and gave my DS-160, interview letter and passport to the nice lady behind the desk. She gave me the number I915 at 8:03 exactly and I took a left, up the stairs and went into the long waiting room. There's a giant screen at one end and loads of seats facing it, with post office style windows on the right and a passage leading to more of them on the right too.
At 08:45 I was called up and went to my window and a nice American man was there and congratulated me for my engagement. I very happily said thank you and he proceeded to talk me through what was needed. I made copies but he didn't want them, so for anyone reading this you don't need copies to give to them but better had make copies just to be safe! At 08:50 I was done and told to sit back in the waiting room until I was called up again for the interview. At one point a woman in a window forgot to turn off her announcement mic so got to hear her going through the process with someone. Oops!
At 09:25 I was called up for my interview. It was an older, fair haired lady who I had trouble hearing at times. She made me swear my oath (tried hard not to smirk since I found it to be all too serious) and she began the interview. She asked me:
Who put together this application?
When did you meet? (I said 13 years ago online and she said "oh, wow!")
What website did you meet on?
When did things get serious?
Have you met his dad (looking at affidavit)?
Does he have any siblings? (1 sister)
Does she have kids, is she married?
What does his mum do?
What does your fiancé do right now?
What did he study at university?
Is that his career goal? (He did film like me, couldn't help but see her grimace when I said yes)
Who's his favourite film director?
Who's your favourite film director?
Have you lived abroad? (Yes - Japan)
What did you do in Japan?
So you'll be living with his parents? What's your plan? (Living with them for a while then moving to New York)
Not LA? (He doesn't like LA!)
She then said everything looks fine and she's happy to say my visa has been approved! She gave me back my originals and said my visa will take 2 weeks to get to me. I said "wow it's the end of a journey!" And she said "well...almost!"
I took the door that was behind me (which is on the other side of the entrance) and was done at 09:30.
All in all, it was fine, the start of the day was a bit annoying because of the whole queue mishap, but I was happy once I got inside.
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Consulate / USCIS Member Review #16350