By Colin
Sorry that it has taken so long to post this -- but at last, here is a post about my visa interview experience.
I had to stay overnight in London, so I booked an evening flight for the night before, and I managed to find a reasonably priced hotel that was around 20 minutes walk from the embassy.
I didn't sleep much the night before the interview, waking up at least once and passing the time watching wrestling on television.
On the morning of the interview, I was up in good time and made my way to the embassy with the help of a map that was provided by the staff at the hotel. I didn't bring my phone, because I had read that phones weren't allowed inside the building (this rule later turned out to have been changed, and it was now only large electronics like laptops which were prohibited). I arrived at the embassy around 7:30, half an hour before my appointment as instructed on my letter. There was already a large queue.
There was a delay in the K1 Visa people getting access to the building, because the staff inside weren't ready for them on time. I didn't mind, because it was a nice enough day. People outside were talking amongst each other, sharing their experiences of the process so far and talking about how nervous they were. This part didn't help me much.
Eventually our queue started moving and we went through a security check point. I then handed over some documents and was given a number to watch for, coming up on a screen. I'd estimate there were around 100 people waiting in the room, for interviews for various visas, with a steady trickle coming in throughout my wait. My number came up and I went to a window where I spoke to a woman from the UK who gave me a form to fill in which had questions on it that I had already answered several times on previous forms. I answered them yet again. I handed over documents and my passport with some more passport photographs and sat down again, waiting for my number to appear a second time.
This was going to be the visa interview. I was in a state of panic. I'm not good in interview situations at the best of times, and especially not if it is for something as important as that was. My number was called and I went to the window. It was an American lady on the other side of the glass, with a man shadowing her. She was really nice, and her approach helped to put me at ease.
I was asked only a few questions:
Who is petitioning your visa?
How long have you known each other?
Have you visited each other?
Have you met her parents?
Why are you going to the United States rather than her coming to the UK?
I think that was all, although the whole five minutes or so that the questions took to be asked is a bit of a blur. It all seemed slightly surreal.
After I gave my final answer, the lady said that she was pleased to tell me that my application was successful. I cried. I don't think she was expecting it, and neither was I, but after going through what we had so far and spending the amount of time and effort and the weeks and months of being apart from each other, I think it was an outburst of relief that it was almost over.
After the interview, I made my way back to the hotel and sent Victoria a message to let her know. She was awake, even though it was early in Washington, but she was anxious to hear how it had gone.
In preparation for the interview, I had printed off some pictures of me with Victoria in various places over the last two years and brought a letter that she had written to me as well. I wasn't asked for any evidence at all, though.
The next few weeks will be absolutely hectic, but I think the very worst part is over. New adventures await.
Thursday, March 19, 2015
Quick Updates
By Victoria
1. Visa Arrival
As mentioned in the last post, visas are issued pretty quickly after the embassy interview. The visa packet with Colin's returned passport arrived in Northern Ireland about a week after his interview in London in February. You can pay more for them to deliver it directly to your home, but Colin decided to pick it up from the airport facility where it had arrived and was being held. He doesn't have to do anything more with this except bring it with him when he makes his immigration flight to the U.S.
2. Selling the Flat in NI
The major piece of business Colin needs to close out before he moves to the U.S. is selling the flat (apartment) he currently lives in over in Northern Ireland. As of last week, it is now on the market...so now it's matter of seeing how quickly someone makes a good offer and a deal can be closed. We want to make sure this is taken care of before he immigrates because it's obviously easier to conduct this kind of business when you're still in the same country.
That's it for now.
1. Visa Arrival
As mentioned in the last post, visas are issued pretty quickly after the embassy interview. The visa packet with Colin's returned passport arrived in Northern Ireland about a week after his interview in London in February. You can pay more for them to deliver it directly to your home, but Colin decided to pick it up from the airport facility where it had arrived and was being held. He doesn't have to do anything more with this except bring it with him when he makes his immigration flight to the U.S.
2. Selling the Flat in NI
The major piece of business Colin needs to close out before he moves to the U.S. is selling the flat (apartment) he currently lives in over in Northern Ireland. As of last week, it is now on the market...so now it's matter of seeing how quickly someone makes a good offer and a deal can be closed. We want to make sure this is taken care of before he immigrates because it's obviously easier to conduct this kind of business when you're still in the same country.
That's it for now.
Thursday, February 12, 2015
K-1 VISA APPROVED
By Victoria
Colin had his interview at the London embassy this morning, and he was approved to receive the K-1 Visa!!
I don't have the details of the interview process he went through, so he will post about it sometime when he's not exhausted from traveling in, through, and out of London. Meanwhile, though, to answer some questions I anticipate people asking...
Does this mean he has the visa now?
No, not quite. It takes 5-7 business days for the embassy to do the final processing on Colin's application, and they will send him his physical visa packet in the mail (along with returning his passport). This packet has to remain untampered and unopened until he reaches his U.S. Port of Entry, at which point he hands the packet to the border officer and they examine it to give the final "yea" or "nay." (Yes, even with a visa you can technically still be rejected at the border, but I think that's really only in extreme circumstances such as finding contraband in the immigrant's possessions.)
When is Colin coming to the U.S.?
Once his visa is in hand, he can technically immigrate to the U.S. whenever he wants. However, we suspect it will still be a few months before Colin makes the leap over here -- he still has to settle out things in Northern Ireland like selling his flat and his car, deciding what stays and what comes here, etc. etc. So even though he'll have his visa within the next week, it will still be a little while before he uses it.
If he has to wait, does the visa expire?
According to the Department of State, a K-1 Visa expires 6 months after issuance. That should give him plenty of time.
We've read in other places that some people had to wait 3 months to even get their embassy interview scheduled, so I'm really grateful Colin was able to have and complete his in such a relatively short period of time!
Colin had his interview at the London embassy this morning, and he was approved to receive the K-1 Visa!!
I don't have the details of the interview process he went through, so he will post about it sometime when he's not exhausted from traveling in, through, and out of London. Meanwhile, though, to answer some questions I anticipate people asking...
Does this mean he has the visa now?
No, not quite. It takes 5-7 business days for the embassy to do the final processing on Colin's application, and they will send him his physical visa packet in the mail (along with returning his passport). This packet has to remain untampered and unopened until he reaches his U.S. Port of Entry, at which point he hands the packet to the border officer and they examine it to give the final "yea" or "nay." (Yes, even with a visa you can technically still be rejected at the border, but I think that's really only in extreme circumstances such as finding contraband in the immigrant's possessions.)
When is Colin coming to the U.S.?
Once his visa is in hand, he can technically immigrate to the U.S. whenever he wants. However, we suspect it will still be a few months before Colin makes the leap over here -- he still has to settle out things in Northern Ireland like selling his flat and his car, deciding what stays and what comes here, etc. etc. So even though he'll have his visa within the next week, it will still be a little while before he uses it.
If he has to wait, does the visa expire?
According to the Department of State, a K-1 Visa expires 6 months after issuance. That should give him plenty of time.
We've read in other places that some people had to wait 3 months to even get their embassy interview scheduled, so I'm really grateful Colin was able to have and complete his in such a relatively short period of time!
Tuesday, January 27, 2015
Medical and Interview Date
By Colin
Since my last post, I have been in London for a medical examination, which I passed without any problems.
I had to fill in a form that had general questions about my health (and which was very similar to one I had to fill in and bring with me to the appointment). Then I was back and forward to various rooms to do different tests and get various checks. I had a chest x-ray, got weighed and measured, had an eye test, had my ears examined and had a top-to-toe examination of my general exterior health. I also had a blood sample taken to rule out several diseases. The total time for the examination was around an hour and a half. This fitted well with my flight schedule home, and thankfully the process was easily completed in one day, as I had planned.
I was told that if I had heard nothing after 4 days, I had passed. I heard nothing.
The next stage is an interview at the American Embassy in London, which has now been confirmed for February 12. An overnight stay was unfortunately unavoidable, because the interview time is scheduled for 8:00 in the morning.
I thankfully had the opportunity to speak to someone at the medical who had already completed his interview, and he told me that it isn't much to be concerned about. The main thing he told me was to be there in good time, because there was a long queue even when he arrived an hour before his allotted time. I have a checklist of documents I need to bring, all of which I already have.
I'll post again after the interview - hopefully with some good news.
Since my last post, I have been in London for a medical examination, which I passed without any problems.
I had to fill in a form that had general questions about my health (and which was very similar to one I had to fill in and bring with me to the appointment). Then I was back and forward to various rooms to do different tests and get various checks. I had a chest x-ray, got weighed and measured, had an eye test, had my ears examined and had a top-to-toe examination of my general exterior health. I also had a blood sample taken to rule out several diseases. The total time for the examination was around an hour and a half. This fitted well with my flight schedule home, and thankfully the process was easily completed in one day, as I had planned.
I was told that if I had heard nothing after 4 days, I had passed. I heard nothing.
The next stage is an interview at the American Embassy in London, which has now been confirmed for February 12. An overnight stay was unfortunately unavoidable, because the interview time is scheduled for 8:00 in the morning.
I thankfully had the opportunity to speak to someone at the medical who had already completed his interview, and he told me that it isn't much to be concerned about. The main thing he told me was to be there in good time, because there was a long queue even when he arrived an hour before his allotted time. I have a checklist of documents I need to bring, all of which I already have.
I'll post again after the interview - hopefully with some good news.
Sunday, January 4, 2015
DS-160 and Medical
By Colin
The next stage for me was to fill in an extremely in-depth form online: DS-160. This is the official K-1 visa application for submission to your interview embassy.
I was asked questions about myself, including details of my previous visits to see Victoria, employment history, a basic outline of my education and endless questions about whether I have been involved in things like genocide, people trafficking, terrorism, recruiting child soldiers and other shady things. As with all forms, it is important to read all of the questions carefully and not presume that the answer will be no to all of them.
At the end, I had to upload a picture in the passport standard size, which proved to be a nightmare. Every picture I took myself, would NOT crop down to the specifications required by the online "help" tool. In the end, I went back to a photo shop where I got my passport pictures taken and they put the original onto a flash drive for me. I uploaded that, and it worked perfectly.
One other problem that I encountered with the DS-160 was the very first question, which asked the location from which I was filing the application. I selected Belfast (being the closest place to me), but I hadn't realised that the answer should have been London, since that was the embassy which was processing the application. I received an email asking me to fill in the whole form again, because I made that one mistake.
I also have booked an appointment with the embassy doctor in London for my medical examination, which I will attend this Wednesday (Jan. 7th). I've booked the trip so that I don't have to stay overnight, so hopefully I'll be okay for time, getting to and from the airport.
I'll post again later this week to go into more detail about what was involved for the medical.
Sunday, December 7, 2014
So When is the Wedding?
By Victoria
This question is by far the one I get asked the most, and I have been asked it constantly since Colin and I became engaged: When is the wedding going to be?
Short answer: It'll probably be a year or more before we have a wedding ceremony.
Long answer: We are legally required by the K-1 Visa to get married within 90 days of Colin's arrival within the U.S., but that just means we need to get an official marriage license/certificate issued to us within that timeframe. Because there will still be so much to do immediately after Colin arrives in terms of getting him a green card, getting him official work permission and a job, getting him a driver's license (which means teaching him U.S. driving), etc. etc. etc. -- ALL of which require more government forms, processing, and fees -- we just don't think we'll be able to simultaneously plan a real-deal wedding ceremony anytime soon (and when I say "we," I mostly mean me, because we all know who's really going to be in charge of that). On top of that, we would almost certainly have our wedding ceremony in South Carolina where my family lives, which means I would be doing long-distance wedding planning from where I currently live in Virginia.
Our idea, at this point, is to wait at least a year after we're legally married to have ourselves an actual (small) wedding ceremony. The timeframe is flexible, and I don't think we'll be making any major decisions about setting a date or anything until after things with Colin's immigration calm down.
Even so, we will likely have an informal get-together of some sort down with my family after our legal marriage, so we can still have a chance to celebrate!
This question is by far the one I get asked the most, and I have been asked it constantly since Colin and I became engaged: When is the wedding going to be?
Short answer: It'll probably be a year or more before we have a wedding ceremony.
Long answer: We are legally required by the K-1 Visa to get married within 90 days of Colin's arrival within the U.S., but that just means we need to get an official marriage license/certificate issued to us within that timeframe. Because there will still be so much to do immediately after Colin arrives in terms of getting him a green card, getting him official work permission and a job, getting him a driver's license (which means teaching him U.S. driving), etc. etc. etc. -- ALL of which require more government forms, processing, and fees -- we just don't think we'll be able to simultaneously plan a real-deal wedding ceremony anytime soon (and when I say "we," I mostly mean me, because we all know who's really going to be in charge of that). On top of that, we would almost certainly have our wedding ceremony in South Carolina where my family lives, which means I would be doing long-distance wedding planning from where I currently live in Virginia.
Our idea, at this point, is to wait at least a year after we're legally married to have ourselves an actual (small) wedding ceremony. The timeframe is flexible, and I don't think we'll be making any major decisions about setting a date or anything until after things with Colin's immigration calm down.
Even so, we will likely have an informal get-together of some sort down with my family after our legal marriage, so we can still have a chance to celebrate!
Monday, November 24, 2014
NVC Approval Received
We have a dual post for you today, since some things happened nearly simultaneously.
By Victoria
I finally received the National Visa Center (NVC) letter of approval on Thursday, the 20th. It's dated November 4 (it took 16 days to get here?!) and is a very simple letter stating that NVC has processed our petition and forwarded it on to the U.S. embassy in London. It also provides our official case number and the address of Colin's interview location...which turns out to be the London embassy. I guess he can't interview in the Belfast consulate after all (that's going to be annoying).
-------------
By Colin
I received my letter slightly before Victoria, on November 18th.
It contains the check list of what I now have to do, which involves form filling and gathering documents.
The list includes: Passport, Birth Certificate, and Police Certificate (to prove that I'm not a criminal).
Once I have completed the check list, I can arrange an appointment for a medical exam, which has to be done in London. I'll report back here once that process has been completed.
-------------
As it turns out, the London Embassy moves much faster than the U.S. government, seeing as Colin received his letter from the embassy before the NVC letter even arrived -- which means London had time to receive the K-1 petition from across the ocean, process it, and mail Colin's letter across another body of water from England to Northern Ireland faster than NVC could get a letter from New Hampshire to Washington, D.C. Who's surprised anymore?
By Victoria
I finally received the National Visa Center (NVC) letter of approval on Thursday, the 20th. It's dated November 4 (it took 16 days to get here?!) and is a very simple letter stating that NVC has processed our petition and forwarded it on to the U.S. embassy in London. It also provides our official case number and the address of Colin's interview location...which turns out to be the London embassy. I guess he can't interview in the Belfast consulate after all (that's going to be annoying).
-------------
By Colin
I received my letter slightly before Victoria, on November 18th.
It contains the check list of what I now have to do, which involves form filling and gathering documents.
The list includes: Passport, Birth Certificate, and Police Certificate (to prove that I'm not a criminal).
Once I have completed the check list, I can arrange an appointment for a medical exam, which has to be done in London. I'll report back here once that process has been completed.
-------------
As it turns out, the London Embassy moves much faster than the U.S. government, seeing as Colin received his letter from the embassy before the NVC letter even arrived -- which means London had time to receive the K-1 petition from across the ocean, process it, and mail Colin's letter across another body of water from England to Northern Ireland faster than NVC could get a letter from New Hampshire to Washington, D.C. Who's surprised anymore?
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