A long and boring day but everything went exceptionally smoothly and successfully.
My interview was at 9.30 so I arrived at the embassy at 8.40 after dropping my electronics off at Goulds. There was already a massive crowd but this moved fairly quickly and I was inside the embassy after 30 minutes. It was incredible how many people didn't know/read about the no electronics and were turned away and sent to Goulds... literally dozens.
Once inside I took a seat and tried to read a newspaper but failed miserably as everytime a number was called out I would look up! After a 2 hour wait I was called forward to window 1 to sort out all my paperwork where I was greeted by the infamous Dragon Lady.
My opinion of her is that she is just ruthlessly efficient rather than mean. But waow was she firing through all my documents. It was a very surreal experience where she asked for all the different documents in rapid succcession which resulted in my very neatly organised folder being a mess all over the table. My best advice here is to have your documents in the order they are listed on the site as that's the order they ask for them and it certainly helped me out.
The only issue was my passport photographs, which I had had professionally done by a Snappy Snaps. She said they couldnt be accepted as the background wasn't exactly white (slight grey tinge) and they were matt finished. Luckily I had spare photos (UK size) which were glossy and she accepted. Her banter was minimal but she worked it all through and then told me that 'This case is very straight forward, there shouldn'y be a problem here' which really settled me.
I then sat down and waited another 2 hours until I was finally called for my actual interview. After reading sample questions on here I felt it would be a breeze but the guy certainly grilled me a bit. When I arrived he was flicking through the pictures we had submitted in the I-129F package. Questions were:
1. What is the name of your fiancee?
2. When and how did you first meet?
3. How did you know she was 'the one'?
4. Why is she worth moving over to the States for?
5. When did yo first meet?
6. You seem settled here, wth a good job and secure future, why did you both decide to move to the States? Why not stay in the UK?
7. What do you hope to do/work as in the States?
Phew! Did you notice the repeated question of when we met? It was an enjoyable experience, he gave little smiles at my answers and you could tell he was giving me a hard time just for fun. He then discussed when we had met each other and we discussed different trips together. Afterwards he uttered the amazing words of 'I am fully satisfied with this case and I am delighted to say you have been approved!' We then said I had to promise him that I would go to a Mountaineer football game and we had a good informal chat about that which was really nice.
Walked out of there on cloud 9. Signed up for the courier service and then left 4 and a half hours later after just 2 five minute interviews!
Consulate / USCIS Member Review #9734
Review on May 28, 2012:
