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| London, United Kingdom |  Review on May 24, 2018: |
Jmatts
Rating:  | Review Topic: Direct Consular Filing
My husband's DS-260 (CR-1) application was approved at the new Embassy in London on 23 May. We found the experience to be totally straightforward, in line with previous reviews, all of which were very comprehensive. So rather than repeat what has already been said, here are a few things that we learned, or didn't know going in:
- Knightsbridge Medical are the slowest part of the London visa process. We left 7 clear business days between medical and the appointment and the report was only sent to the Embassy the day before our interview. The Embassy staff were unfazed by this and said that the visa was approved pending the medical report, but it is still caused frustration and a seemingly unnecessary delay.
- Spouses can in fact join you at the Embassy for your interview but they must bring their passport, and will be asked to show this before entering the Embassy along with the confirmation letter
- There is a small queue before security and we heard people being turned away/told to come back because they had arrived more than 1 hour before their appointment.
- As others have mentioned, we were initially directed to a lengthy queue, but were then immediately plucked out of that queue by a member of staff who spotted our DS-260 appointment confirmation letter and directed us upstairs to wait (with just one other couple) for our appointment slot, as we were 20 minutes early. There were no signs to indicate we had gone to the wrong 'lane', that we could see, but this was the most baffling part of the whole experience.
- We were second in the queue for immigrant visas, so we were called to the desk about 5 minutes after our appointment slot and my husband was asked for: marriage certificate (and copy), police certificate (and copy), his birth certificate (and copy) and my affidavit of support – none of the 30 other pieces of evidence we had prepared. He then paid the fee, we sat for another 10 minutes, then he was called up again to answer three straightforward questions about our relationship, after which he was told that the visa was approved pending arrival of the medical report (which we later found out that Knightsbridge had only sent the day before).
- I struggled to get any cell phone signal in the building on Three, but my partner's network Vodafone was okay. The embassy does have photo booths if you need them, and some soft-seating if you're going to be there a while, but I didn't see any coffee/snack machines other than a water fountain.
All in all we arrived about ~20 minutes before the appointment slot and left just under an hour later, wondering why we had allowed ourselves to get so stressed!
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Consulate / USCIS Member Review #23862