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Immigration
Immigrant Visa
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My CP experience in London
Our DV experiences:
Qualification though birth in Africa for both myself and my wife, but currently living in London – my wife actually won the DV Number AF14xxx – 4th time lucky.
The Interview: We arrived at 7:30am outside the embassy (it was very cold but luckily not raining) – A line of people had already formed outside the embassy of approx. 30 people, but by 7:45am there were nearly 80-100 people queuing, just one line for both non-immigrant and immigrant visas.
At 8am someone came out of the embassy and starting splitting the line up based on appointment times to my surprise most of the people in the line were for 8am appointment.
Embassy staff checked our passports with heir own appointment register to ensure we were genuine, before allowing us through this is a very slow process as only person is doing all the checking.
Next we went through the x-ray (all phones to be switched off, cameras to be handed-in) then a long walk round the building for the visa entrance.
We were inside the building by about 8:30am, once inside the you are given a numbered ticket (there are two types: an immigrant and non-immigrant) our ticket was number 002; most of the others in the line were for non-immigrant visa these numbers started from 100.
The visa area is basically a very large hall with lots of chairs and windowed booths (like in a bank) all along the side where the documents are check and interviews conducted.
There are TV screens reading out which ticket numbers need to go to which numbered windows (1 – 25).
Within 10 mins were called over to window 1. A really nice guy asked us for our appointment letter (the KCC one). This is where we had our first slight hiccup, the 2nd NL letter also contains the out of date medical information which I removed and replaced it with the new one sent from London Embassy. He wanted the original medical instructions back.
After some panic searching of my document folders I realised that I didn’t bring them with me. After this he went away for about 10mins, at this point we were really getting worried, when he returned he just smiled and said “that it was OK but I should have kept the originals intact” – so make sure you don’t separate any bits of paper from your 2nd NL letter even the instructions pages.
He then went through the checklist enclosed with the 2nd NL and asked for the documentation in that order with copies for each. Note; He asked for two copies of the marriage certificate (I only had one, but he went and copied it, and informed me that normally they charge if they need to make copies but he was letting me off this time) so take extra photo copies just in case.
The other issue I had was my wife’s names are not exactly the same on her birth certificate, marriage and passport (it’s a culture/tradition thing), however the guy jut made a joke about it and seems to be aware of the reasons for the differences in our culture, so no problems there. He asked for police certificates, I handed over 3 certificates (myself, my wife and son) but he returned my sons certificate informing me that y Son didn’t need a police certificate as he wasn’t 16 at the time of 1st NL letter.
After this he asked for I-134 (financial support evidence), I didn’t have this but was using my own assets, so handed over my valuations, mortgage deed and letters from banks, etc. He then asked my 16yr old son to sign a piece of paper which effectively read “If he marries between the issue of DV visa and our POE, his wife would not be eligible for a DV visa” – not that he is going to get married at the tender age of 16. He also returned our X-rays to us.
He then gave us a slip of paper and asked us to pay the $3020 (for the four of us) and take a seat again; he also gave us a SMS courier form to fill-in. I paid the $3020 via credit card and received a receipt, within another 5mins was called up to booth 13 (for the actual interview) which is around the corner.
There was an American lady at window 13, who was going through all our documents. She took our fingerprints except my daughters who is 12 so she is exempt (in fact we found out that she didn’t have to attend the interview at all). Afterwards she look at my wife’s school records must admit this was our weakness as even I didn’t understand her school certificates and knew if anything is going to catch us out it would be proving she completed her schooling.
She spent quite a bit of time looking at the bit of paper showing her school certificates in the end she pull out a large binder and started flipping through it – at this stage we were really getting worried.
She then went off to see someone (I guess her supervisor or manager) I could see them at a distance looking at my wifes certificates and referring to various books eventually there were about a group of four of them discussing it and lots of shaking of heads.
When she returned she continue to go through the other documents then she asked my wife how long she has been a Travel agent (that’s her job) she replied nearly 20yrs this brought a smile to her face and seems to have relaxed her (she didn’t ask for any proof of this). She handover over all the originals and told us “OK that’s it, just hand the courier form to the SMS counter”
In total shock we asked, “what we got the Visas ?”, she relied “Yes” – you should get them in seven days.
As we walked away to pay the courier fee, I realised that unlike some stories I have read we were not asked to raise our hands and take an oath or sign any bits of paper, we weren’t asked to do any of this.
We were out of the embassy by 9:30am (took just an hour) though it felt a lot longer. At 5:30pm (same day) I received an SMS text message from the courier telling me that they have picked up our visas and will deliver it by 8am next day.
Received our passports and visa by 7:30am next day.
Summary:
So lessons to observe are: - Arrive early we were outside the embassy at approx. 7:30am - Kept the 2nd Letter intact - Ensure all the names match up otherwise its down to the consular to accept it or not. - Make multiple copies of every thing just in case. - Don’t try and hide anything from them – they will find you out. - The guy who collects and checks the documents is in-fact interviewing you as well, it just done very covertly. - During the interview stage – the consular does seem to try hard, to help you get the DV visas where they may be minor issues or border line cases. On the whole the US embassy in London is incredibly efficient and the staff very friendly.
Qualification though birth in Africa for both myself and my wife, but currently living in London – my wife actually won the DV Number AF14xxx – 4th time lucky.
The Interview: We arrived at 7:30am outside the embassy (it was very cold but luckily not raining) – A line of people had already formed outside the embassy of approx. 30 people, but by 7:45am there were nearly 80-100 people queuing, just one line for both non-immigrant and immigrant visas.
At 8am someone came out of the embassy and starting splitting the line up based on appointment times to my surprise most of the people in the line were for 8am appointment.
Embassy staff checked our passports with heir own appointment register to ensure we were genuine, before allowing us through this is a very slow process as only person is doing all the checking.
Next we went through the x-ray (all phones to be switched off, cameras to be handed-in) then a long walk round the building for the visa entrance.
We were inside the building by about 8:30am, once inside the you are given a numbered ticket (there are two types: an immigrant and non-immigrant) our ticket was number 002; most of the others in the line were for non-immigrant visa these numbers started from 100.
The visa area is basically a very large hall with lots of chairs and windowed booths (like in a bank) all along the side where the documents are check and interviews conducted.
There are TV screens reading out which ticket numbers need to go to which numbered windows (1 – 25).
Within 10 mins were called over to window 1. A really nice guy asked us for our appointment letter (the KCC one). This is where we had our first slight hiccup, the 2nd NL letter also contains the out of date medical information which I removed and replaced it with the new one sent from London Embassy. He wanted the original medical instructions back.
After some panic searching of my document folders I realised that I didn’t bring them with me. After this he went away for about 10mins, at this point we were really getting worried, when he returned he just smiled and said “that it was OK but I should have kept the originals intact” – so make sure you don’t separate any bits of paper from your 2nd NL letter even the instructions pages.
He then went through the checklist enclosed with the 2nd NL and asked for the documentation in that order with copies for each. Note; He asked for two copies of the marriage certificate (I only had one, but he went and copied it, and informed me that normally they charge if they need to make copies but he was letting me off this time) so take extra photo copies just in case.
The other issue I had was my wife’s names are not exactly the same on her birth certificate, marriage and passport (it’s a culture/tradition thing), however the guy jut made a joke about it and seems to be aware of the reasons for the differences in our culture, so no problems there. He asked for police certificates, I handed over 3 certificates (myself, my wife and son) but he returned my sons certificate informing me that y Son didn’t need a police certificate as he wasn’t 16 at the time of 1st NL letter.
After this he asked for I-134 (financial support evidence), I didn’t have this but was using my own assets, so handed over my valuations, mortgage deed and letters from banks, etc. He then asked my 16yr old son to sign a piece of paper which effectively read “If he marries between the issue of DV visa and our POE, his wife would not be eligible for a DV visa” – not that he is going to get married at the tender age of 16. He also returned our X-rays to us.
He then gave us a slip of paper and asked us to pay the $3020 (for the four of us) and take a seat again; he also gave us a SMS courier form to fill-in. I paid the $3020 via credit card and received a receipt, within another 5mins was called up to booth 13 (for the actual interview) which is around the corner.
There was an American lady at window 13, who was going through all our documents. She took our fingerprints except my daughters who is 12 so she is exempt (in fact we found out that she didn’t have to attend the interview at all). Afterwards she look at my wife’s school records must admit this was our weakness as even I didn’t understand her school certificates and knew if anything is going to catch us out it would be proving she completed her schooling.
She spent quite a bit of time looking at the bit of paper showing her school certificates in the end she pull out a large binder and started flipping through it – at this stage we were really getting worried.
She then went off to see someone (I guess her supervisor or manager) I could see them at a distance looking at my wifes certificates and referring to various books eventually there were about a group of four of them discussing it and lots of shaking of heads.
When she returned she continue to go through the other documents then she asked my wife how long she has been a Travel agent (that’s her job) she replied nearly 20yrs this brought a smile to her face and seems to have relaxed her (she didn’t ask for any proof of this). She handover over all the originals and told us “OK that’s it, just hand the courier form to the SMS counter”
In total shock we asked, “what we got the Visas ?”, she relied “Yes” – you should get them in seven days.
As we walked away to pay the courier fee, I realised that unlike some stories I have read we were not asked to raise our hands and take an oath or sign any bits of paper, we weren’t asked to do any of this.
We were out of the embassy by 9:30am (took just an hour) though it felt a lot longer. At 5:30pm (same day) I received an SMS text message from the courier telling me that they have picked up our visas and will deliver it by 8am next day.
Received our passports and visa by 7:30am next day.
Summary:
So lessons to observe are: - Arrive early we were outside the embassy at approx. 7:30am - Kept the 2nd Letter intact - Ensure all the names match up otherwise its down to the consular to accept it or not. - Make multiple copies of every thing just in case. - Don’t try and hide anything from them – they will find you out. - The guy who collects and checks the documents is in-fact interviewing you as well, it just done very covertly. - During the interview stage – the consular does seem to try hard, to help you get the DV visas where they may be minor issues or border line cases. On the whole the US embassy in London is incredibly efficient and the staff very friendly.
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