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| London, United Kingdom |  Review on December 3, 2011: |
MrsP2010
Rating:  | Review Topic: IR-1/CR-1 Visa
I woke up at 4:30am to get the train in to London, got to the embassy queue at about 7:30am, there were a good 30 people already there. The queue is a confusing huddle of people right at the front of the building, and it looked like it started in both directions. We started getting let through the security hut at around 8am. I got in to the place, got my number (looks like I was the second I-visa to check in! yay!) went to the loo and then sat down by the screens.
The room is big, with the left side made up of windows so you can look down over the square outside. There's tonnes of rows of chairs on both halves of the room facing towards a row of screens that come up with a big yellow display each time a ticket is called.
After what can only be about 10 mins, my ticket got called and I had to go to window 13. The lady there asked me to identify my packet of paperwork from the photo attached to the front and asked me if the photo was recent. She asked me my husband's name, and then she started ticking things off a checklist. For those of you wondering, the reason this takes 10 mins is that you have to stand there while the woman wanders off, fills in paperwork and annotates things. She also had a hard time opening my photos up because of her long nails. She looked at my passport and told me they couldn't use it, I asked her to check this, and then she came back and confirmed that the 'big boss' (I couldn't see him, he was hidden away in a special room I think!) said no. I asked if this affected the interview and she was like, "oh... umm, well I don't see why you can't continue, you'll just have to get a new passport before we can issue your visa." It was a fair point. I did fingerprints for her (cue sweaty slimy fingers) and then she asked me a bit about my overstay after my wedding - it seemed like she was concerned for me. I told her it was 141 days, which shouldn't be a problem as per the research I'd done, and she said it wasn't her place to inform me on this but that I should have gone down a K1 route to 'save all this trouble'. Well thanks lady, now I'm panicking more than ever!!
I went and sat back down and waited for round 2. Because the first lady had questioned me more heavily than I anticipated, I was shaking like a leaf. I honestly don't think they know just how stressful this is. It felt like huge tremors of fear kept snaking down my spine, and was staring at the door and watching the N-visas finishing up and leaving and wished I could do that too.
About 45 minutes and one unread copy of That's Life! later, they called my number. I walked down the corridor and over to window 14 where a young woman with a stern face awaited me. She didn't smile when I said hello and this made me nervous. She asked me a couple of basic questions about Bobby and what he did (as suspected she questioned me about why I said a different job to what he'd filled in, and I explained his changing of jobs), and then got straight into the dates I had filled in on my form for when I was in America.
It seems that I didn't actually reference my point of exit to Tijuana anywhere in my file, so the lady and I had a long discussion about where I'd been before it clicked with her that the entry stamp I got in July 2010 was me returning from Mexico. At this point it sort of turned into an interrogation about what I did in Mexico and how long I'd stayed. She maybe asked me 10 questions on this and got shouty with me. At this point I was convinced she was about to deny me as she seemed a bit personally annoyed by me.
Then she suddenly dropped the subject of Mexico and asked a few more questions about he wedding. When did we get engaged? When and where did we get married? Who was there? What were their names? Who else came? What did we do afterwards? How long have we been married? What was the date of the wedding (I noted she'd already asked me this one).
Then she reached over to pull out a blue form. I swear if I hadn't been leaning so much on the ledge that my legs would have given way. She started writing my name and case number on the top, and I was beadily watching where she was going to tick (was this going to be a cold, hard refusal??!). She asked me as my passport could not be used, was I going to get a new one? I said I was, and then she filled in the top box ('We're refusing you') and then the second box ('You can overcome the refusal above by doing the following...') and then the box on the back (Passport) and then put a great whopping star next to the bit that said to ring them when I'd got my new passport so they could taxi it back to put the visa in. I asked her to clarify does this meant I'd been approved pending a new passport? And she simply said 'yes'. I thanked her, and left, walked back along the corridor and up to DX secure desk, asked them if I still needed to pay (apparently not - I need to pay when I ring them) and then through the door of glory back to the outside world.
In summary then, WTF. It was an awful interview, although I think mainly brought on by my own stupidity. I'll be happier when I get the new passport in my hands with the visa in it. I think the interview woman could have been much nicer about things, but I guess it's her job. I hope she never has to put her marriage and life on the line for scrutiny like that, and if she does I hope someone is a bit more understanding than she was to me.
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Consulate / USCIS Member Review #8805