Consulate Review: London, United Kingdom
Review Topic: K1 Visa
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| Event |
Description |
| Review Date : |
April 16, 2015 |
| Embassy Review : |
I arrived into Kings Cross at 8.30pm the night before my interview. I stayed in a Travelodge that is about a 10-minute walk down the road from the station, and settled in for an early night.
I woke up the next morning and packed my rucksack with my document binder, a book and my earbuds. My interview was at 9am, so I set off at around 7am, took the underground over to Bond Street (about 15 minutes from Kings Cross), and arrived at the Embassy around 7.30am. The queue outside was surprisingly small (based on what other people have reported), and moved fairly quickly. Soon after arriving, a woman walking up and down the queue asked me to remove my DS-160, interview letter and passport from my binder. She checked them and then told me to keep them out until I was inside. After about 5 minutes, I reached the marquee at the front, where they checked my papers again, stuck a sticker to my interview letter with my interview number on (I912, meaning I was the 12th immigrant visa that day) and admitted me through security. I was given a small plastic bag (similar to those you get at the airport to put your liquids in), and was asked to put my phone, watch and belt inside. Just to confirm, phones are absolutely allowed! After going through the metal detector, I picked up my stuff and walked round the outside of the building, up the steps and into the embassy.
I showed my interview letter, DS-160 and passport to one of the receptionists, and they asked me to sit in the waiting area for my number to be called. The waiting area is fairly large, and there are about 25 windows (similiar to those you'd find at a bank) that span the inside wall. At one end of the room is a bank of screens which display the cases that have been called, and the window they need to go to. Each time a case is added to the list, there's an annoying 'DING' sound. My initial wait was just over an hour. You'd think that being the 12th immigrant case would mean that it would come round quicker, but in actual fact the vast majority of cases being dealt with are 'N' numbers (which I'm assuming are non-immigrant cases). I tried reading for most of the wait, but it's difficult to stay invested in anything when everytime you hear a 'DING' (which is every 10 seconds or so), your head immediately jolts up to see if your number has been called.
Eventually I was assigned a window, at which I was greeted by a very pleasant woman. She asked for my police certificate, birth certificate, visa payment confirmation and photos. There wasn't really any small talk, but when she saw that our case was a K1, she smiled and congratulated me on us being about to get married. After about 2 or 3 minutes, she returned my photos to me and asked me to sit back in the waiting area until my number was called again. This time I waited about 20 minutes, before being called back to a window with an American woman already conducting an interview with another guy. I waited a couple of minutes until they were done, and she called me up to the window. She gave me back my certificates, and notified me that we were commencing the interview. The whole thing was really just a laid-back conversation, in which she asked me a few questions such as 'where does your fiance live?', 'when will you travel to the U.S.?', 'what does your fiance do for a living?'. It really didn't feel like I was under scrutiny in any way, and in between the conversations we chatted about various different things, such as how nice Minnesota was in the summer. After about 5 minutes, she smiled, told me I was approved and that my visa would be ready in 2 weeks. I walked out of the building feeling like there ought to have been more to it somehow - it just seemed so informal and simple (which is pretty much how everyone on this forum ends up describing it, yet you can't help but build it up to be something else in your mind). I called my fiance from the park outside, and we had a bit of an emotional moment 
The one thing I'd like to highlight is just how taken I was by the friendliness of the staff there. When you're sat waiting for an hour watching this huge list of cases be called up, you realise how repetitive the whole thing must be for the staff behind the windows. They see each person for only a brief amount of time, then it's on to the next one. That being the case, I was really taken aback by the small comments and conversation they make that give you the impression that they actually care about your case. To them you're just another number, but to us, it's a big life change. So for them to acknowledge that and make you feel like they actually give a damn really means something. I don't think that should go unappreciated. |
| Rating : |
Good |
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