Interview, moving back, and getting SS number

Just had my interview today and it went great To Brooke: I brought my wifey with me and im really glad that I did, at the final interview the guy was asking her more questions than me! 

Heres an account of all that happened in as much detail as I can remember. Sorry if its a bit of an essay, but im sure it might be helpful to someone:

Woke up at 3am and hopped onto a coach at 4am. Not fun 

Arrived at Victoria Station at 6am ish, got the tube to Marble Arch and walked up to Dr Phelans building. Chrissy and I had to wait around for just over an hour and over that time more people joined us, by 8am there were about 10 people.

8am - into the reception where I'm handed a pink folder with some instructions inside. We all head into the waiting room and get together our passports, 1 photo, medical questionnaire and vaccination record. Once its all together it goes into the pink folder then I take it back to reception and head back into the waiting room. About 20 minutes later they start calling people through, 1 at a time every 5-10 minutes. They called me into the reception where I paid for the medical, signed one of the passport photographs and signed another form or two. I was then told to go downstairs and put a green folder handed to me into a little tray, I then took a seat and waited to be called through for the blood test.

10 minutes later in I go, get poked in the arm then back to the downstairs waiting room for another 10-15 minutes. Next thing that happened was all of the guys in the downstairs waiting room were called through and we were all told to go into individual cubicles and strip to the waist. This done, we had to wait in our cubicles and were individually called through for a chest X-Ray. After the X-Ray i go back to the cubicle and wait for another 5 minutes before being called into the doctors office. There he takes my blood pressure, listens to my heart and so on. nothing out of the ordinary. After signing a form and being told I need one immunisation (Hep B) I collect my X-Ray (needs to be shown to immigration when I fly back to the US) go upstairs, get poked again, pay for the injection then that was it. Straight off to the Embassy!

As we approached the embassy I asked a policeman where I was supposed to go, since I had an appointment. He told me to go and see the guy with the blue clipboard who to my horror had about 100 people queing up to see him. So we went to the guy and asked him and thank god he told us to go straight through to the embassy 

We put our bags through an X-Ray then we head into the Embassy to buy an envelope for our documents. They also took my mobile phone which I wasnt allowed back until we left.

So in we go, I hand in my appointment letter and go and take a seat in the waiting room. maybe 40 mins to an hour later they called me up and I handed the guy all of my papers and signed my photographs. Once he had everything I went and sat down again for another 20-30 mins. This time I was called up by a different guy, both me and Chrissy went up to him and he got us to raise our hands and promise to tell the truth. He then just asked questions like where were we going to stay, what work we were going to do and what my joint sponsors job was (Chrissy's Dad). he then congratulated us and told us to wait for the blood tests to come in at 11:30am.

Everyones blood tests came back fine, so we were free to go! And that was it, about a 1000 times easier than I thought it would be, I was worried about minor mistakes on my I864s and the fact that Chrissy had signed a form before we came in when it was supposed to be signed in front of the interviewer. None of it was a problem though and everyone at the embassy was really friendly and helpful. Oh also, Chrissy's passport was needed but I think that was just for the notarisation of the I864.

So all in all, it was pretty quick. I filed my petition on the 20th of Feb, it was approved on the 5th March, 8th of March I got Packet 3, something like 3 weeks later I got my interview date, 11th May. Hope this is helpful to anyone  that has an interview coming up! Woooo!! im going to Yankee Land!! 

CONGRATULATIONS!!! Great news! Easy peasy eh???!!!

oh that's great news - congrats and good luck with the big move!

That's fantastic news! I'm glad it went so smoothly for you! Keep us updated on the rest of your move for sure.

Thanks everyone Now I have to sell all of my worldy possessions by then end of the month, should be interesting... (oh and im Rob for anyone that asks!)

I received a big envelope with my visa stuff in the day after the interview. I have it downstairs, its got a nice pretty colourful page with my details on (name, parents, occupation etc) stapled onto the fat brown envelope that contains all of my documentation. A good thing to note is not to open the package, though it says that in big bold letters on the package anyway    . I believe I take this with me to the US along with the chest X-Ray they gave me and once I enter the country and go through immigration they should post the greencard to my US address, before then im pretty sure I cant work and stuff.

$1000 is a bit steep isnt it? Which airlines have you looked at? Though saying that, getting 2 tickets to the US at the end of may is going to cost us £800-£1000 

I remember when I saw my credit card had been debited I was pretty excited,  as far as I remember it was a week or two after that I got my next set of documents. I didnt send my DS-230 originally though as I wasnt aware of that little time saver. Just hang in there, it'll come eventually

a very belated congrats but congrats none the less!! *cheer*

dont be surprised if they dont take your x-ray. Martin still has his. we might rip it open after a while and frame it lol. Hey - its a conversation piece isnt it!? "Visitor: What is THAT on your wall? Me: Yes thats my husband's insides! Lovely, huh?" hehe.

You can work as soon as you get your social security number. For martin its been a pain in the ass, hopefully your office will be better with a little thing called efficiency. When you walk through Immo at your US airport they'll stamp your passport with a temp greencard which is good for travel and work for one year. By then you should have your actual green card. It took martin about 2 and a half weeks to get his.

Best of luck with the move!
Sarah

Thanks MarsBar! You know I was considering opening up my X-Ray, since nothing says that I cant, but im worried they weill see its been tampered with and tell me im a dirty immigrant and cant come into the country So I think i'll just let it sit there, making me want to look at it. Did Martin apply for social security once he was in the country or did you put on your visa forms for them to get him a ss number?

dont open it! just let it tempt you for now. dont hand it over automatically at Immo either. Only if they ask for it. That way you too have a strong chance of getting a sneek peek at your insides! HOW COOL IS THAT!!

He checked on the form that he wanted the SSN just sent to him but we got impatient and ran off to the SSA a couple days after we arrived. The issue is that they said it would take 2 weeks (this was feb 11) to get the card and as yet it still hasnt arrived. We think it must have gotten lost in the mail but that also means this brand new SSN could have been intercepted for identity theft, which aint pretty. So we're appealing to the embassy in london's SSA unit to have a new SSN issued and sent off. You probably wont have any problems like that! I think it's rare.

Hey mars! Im here in the US now, everthing went through fine. We've been here for like 4 days so ill wait a week or so for the SSN to come through. I really hope it comes through, I think im ruled out of doing jsut about anything since that SSN is so important. Cant get my drivers license, cant get a gun, cant get a bank card, cant even get my damned fishing license! Anyway I still have my x-ray so I think ill take a look at that tonight. Ill make sure i tape it back up properly, just in case they need it one day Have you had any news back on your SSN?

Glad your move went great! How does it feel now that the hard part's done?

Regarding Mart's SSN - I made him call the Embassy in London to see what they could do and they offered some great news. We can go up to American Citizen Services any time and they'll process the request to replace his card and they'll even give him the number right then and there. The card would come from the US and it would take a couple of weeks.

OR, because the number is brand new and already lost without even Martin knowing the number, he could request the old one be put out of service and have a new one issued. The Embassy can process all the paperwork then and there as long as he has his actual green card with him. They'll give him the new number on the day and the card will come to us in the UK in a few weeks.

So thats what we're going to do - a new number. That way he doesnt run the risk of getting nailed because his identity was nicked.  (Mom's sending the green card by UPS. Should be here soon!). I'll post what happens at the Embassy after we get back.

We've been here for like 4 days so ill wait a week or so for the SSN to come through.

Congrats KingBeast!!!
Regarding the SS card - The second day we were here we went to the SS office and applied for Kev's SS card - even though we checked the box requesting one automatically. We got it in the post a week later. Once he got that he was able to take his exam for his drivers license, open a bank account, apply for a mortgage (yes - I will have to post more later on that) AND got a job (even before me  )
My advice would be to go directly to the SS office and apply there. Based on our experience, they will already have you in their database 

Ooh Missy! You have to tell us more about the mortgage thing and how you've managed to get some credit! Ive been wondering for ages about that.

I was lucky enough to have had a W-2 from 2003 with a tidy sum of earned income. I also added Kevin to a credit card some time ago and gave the credit card company his SS number when he got it. We also have a nice chunk of change to put down on the house from our house sale in England. We were pre-approved for a loan based on those things. They also did a mortgage check on our payment history from our UK mortgage. It is basically a no document loan. We are having a new home built and it will take another 5 months. By the time we enter into escrow we will have been working for roughly 6 months in the same field that we have worked in before. (Kevin got a job on the first interview the second week we were here!).  I have an interview tomorrow – fingers crossed!
My advice is to check with Wells Fargo - they have a ton of good info for people like us!

Sarah, when will you be here?

Thanks Missy. That info is great I'll be checking with wells fargo - my grandparents always banked with them on the west coast and I know they're popular with the expats. Im glad you mentioned their name.

Congrats on the interview for Kev and good luck at yours. Also a hip hip hooray for having your house built. Mind if I ask where in CA you're building? Id love to move to CA after a while but its so expensive at the mo. I hear building in the desert is a good way to go. Dont tell me youre on the coast - I'll be so jealous!

Wish I could say when we're moving. Just dropped a good for nothing estate agent and replaced them with another. This new one has sold this same house two times already so I hope that will be a driving force - they'd be able to say they sold it three times in a row.

We hope to be in the US by Thanksgiving but it seems like every time we put a goal on this move it gets blown out of the water. We can only wait and see. In the mean time Ive decided to go back to work (got an interview for next monday!) so hopefully that will help us feel the frusteration a bit less. We've been waiting and waiting for months now that we feel like its impossible to just be happy and settled in our situation as it is. Hopefully having a job would stabalize our frusteration a bit. Wish me luck!

Its funny - a big part of me agrees with the Embassy's advice on not selling up before you know the final outcome of your visa application. But at this rate I so wish we'd waited to apply until we sold or at least had an offer.

Sarah

Well good luck vibes are being sent to you for both the house and the job!!! We sold before our embassy appointment   
I wish we were moving to the coast  Actually I am from sacramento - so that is where i will stay for the time being. I need to be near my mom with all of her health Cr@p!