We just got back from London tonight - we made a mini-holiday from the visa experience
Everything seems to have gone well.. I haven't actually got the visa in my hand yet (as it is delivered by Courier and we were still in London when they tried to deliver it) but the interview and medical were really straightforward, so hopefully they're not sending me an empty envelope!
We stayed at the Millennium Hotel which overlooks Grosvenor Square, and we could see the Embassy from our room. Compared to all the other buildings in the square the US Embassy is definately the ugliest!
We left our hotel at 7:45am. The place to queue is beside a portacabin on the south side of the Embassy. There must have been 100 people or more queueing on Monday (and about the same this morning). There were 2 queues - one for American Citizen Services, such as notary or passport changes etc. (queue to the left of the portacabin) and a queue for immigrant and non-immigrant visas (to the right)
The letter said not to queue but to go straight to the security person at the door - but we decided it would be best to wait by the 4 or 5 people waiting in the American Citizen line, than hang around near the front of the visas line (to save any argument with the 100 or so poor souls lining up)
At 8:00 a security person came out and opened the gate outside the portacabin. He asked people in the visa line to make 2 lines - one for immigrant visas and one for non immigrant visas. The non immigrant line was to be closest to the Embassy boundary, along the fence (where everyine had, until that point been queuing), with the immigrant line to be against the concrete barriers which were just across from that. 50% of the people moved across to the "immigrant" line - which seemed to have shocked the security person more than it shocked me! He then repeated that the new line was for "immigrant" visas only - and the non immigrant visas should have stayed where they were.
The immigrant visa queue reduced to about 30 or so (not too sure) but we ended up being the second couple in line, so I wasn't really looking behind me to see how many were there!
The security person asked for my interview letter, and to see our passports, marked my name off on his list, and told us to go through to the security office/portacabin. we passed through the metal detector, and up to the stairs to the reception desk. Any laptops, mobile phones or cameras have to be left there. To the left of the reception desk is the visa delivery courier place. I went there to "buy an envelope" which was £10 cash. And then we went up to the immigrant visas office - through a steel door which weighed a ton.
We ended up in a room full of blue charis and 6 booths with no chairs in front of them. A sign told us to check in at booths 1 or 2 - which we did, and the person asked for all our documents in the order they are set out in the letter. He accepted my photos and I had to sign my name down the side of one of them. (3 were needed - one is for the doctor) I took my photos at our local tescos, and I was nervous that I might be 1mm out or something from the required specification and need to go outside to get some from the photographers nearby, so thankfully htey were ok. He then told us to go to the back of the room and pay the cashier and then bring the receipt back to him. We went to the back of the room to a little window with "cashier" above it, paid the fee by Credit card ($335 or so) - took it back to the booth and then sat down. By this time it was about 8:10am - pretty good going I thought.
We were just sitting down to read the "GoingUSA" newsletter which was being given away free in the room, and I heard someone at the back of the room shouting my name, saying we had to go to booth 6. We didn't hear the announcement asking for us to go to the booth - but we were expecting a longer wait - so probably weren't listening! We stood (I was expecting, at least, a seat!) at booth 6 and put our right hands up to swear we were telling the truth, and then an immigration person flicked through the documents we had provided. He asked us how long we had been married, when we were thinking of moving, what jobs will we be looking for when we arrive, where will we be staying, and then said "ok, looks fine, go to the Doctors and if there's no problem with your medical the visa will be issued later today".
We were backout on the street at 8:30am!
We headed to the Doctors, which took about 10-15 mins to walk there and checked in at the front desk. Its a really nice office. I got a card to read and was asked to put my medical questionnaire, vaccination records, a photo and my passport in the plastic pocket and take it back to reception.
We went through to a lovely waiting room with a real coal fire, and I read through the first 2 or 3 lines of the card. I then realised I didnt have my passport - the Embassy had kept it (and I thought maybe they were supposed to). I explained this to the receptionist, who told me I should have got it back, and she called the Embassy to check this. As I had my photo card UK driving licence she accepted that for ID purposes, and told me to collect my passport at the embassy after the medical.
I paid the fee (£125 I think), signed my name - which had to be half over the photo and half on the paper form it was stapled to (difficult!) and then was given a different coloured plastic folder with all my documents in it and asked to take it downstairs and put it in the holder on the wall.
I went downstairs and put my folder in the holder. I sat down in the small room, and waited. There were 4 or 5 others there still waiting from 1st thing that morning, and some were called through for their blood tests after a few minutes. I waited about 30 mins and was then asked to go through to the little room which is right next to the waiting area and gave my blood sample, and I then had to go back to the small room and wait to be called for the xray. I went to the hobbits bathroom (gotta to be seen to be believed) and then got called for my xray about 15 minutes later. I was shown into a small booth and told to take everything off from chin to wait - stop only at the skin. I was then taken through for an xray and shown back into my little booth. The chap told me to keep my shirt off and wait to be called by the doctor. A few minutes later I went through to see the doctor and he did a quick inspection - looked in my eyes, ears, mouth, took my Blood pressure, listened to my chest etc. and then he started furiously ticking boxes all over a 2 page form he had - he told me he was an expert in tick-ology.
I was told to go back to my booth and get dressed when I was handed my xray, and told to come back to the office at 1:30 for the results of my blood test.
I think I was out of the doctors by 11:30.
I was really surprised how quick everything was. We headed back to the Embassy, skipped to the front of the queue (again) which by now still seemed to have about 100 people waiting, went back to the visa section and collected my passport. We headed off to Leicester Square to get some tickets for a show, wandered around for a bit and then went back to the doctors, and the girl at reception told me everything was fine.
It was a real anti-climax - if I actually had got the visa I would have felt much better, but I was left wondering - what if someone found a problem in one of my forms that hadn't shown up while I was at the Embassy? etc. etc.
I checked the visa services website later, and found my envelope was collected from the Embassy at 3pm.
I called the courier company the next day to explain I was still in London, and arranged to pick my envelope up at their local depot (which I will do tomorrow during my lunch break).
Once I get my evelope I'm sure it will seem more "real". Just now I feel that it's still not 100% over until I have that famous sealed brown envelope in my hand!
Hopefully tomorrow we can start to think aboout WHEN to move, get our house on the market, start to apply for jobs (now I can put in the applications that I have the visa) etc. etc.
I don't think its actually hit me yet that everything is ok, and we can now move over.
Good luck for next Monday Missy - it really is a breeze
I think most of the checking etc. is done well in advance, so by the time you get there, its a formality, as long as you can give them all the documents they need and pass the medical ok.
Anyway - its been a busy few days. We must have walked 1000 miles in London over the last 3 days (or at least it seems like it) so I'd better go get a good nights sleep - I'm back to work tomorrow, and I'll be thinking all morning about what will be in the package I collect from the courier company tomorrow lunch time
