The Visa Timeline

This was posted elsewhere, but I'll add it here so that I can always remember how much of a royal pain in the arse it was to get a visa.

15/01/09 - Sent I-130, Petition for Alien Relative along with the the relevant forms to the embassy in London.
29/01/09 - Received e-mail confirming receipt of I-130
05/02/09 - Took the wee guy to the US Consulate in Edinburgh to apply for US passport and consular report of birth abroad.
11/02/09 - Received the US passport and consular report of birth
28/02/09 - Recieved notfication of approval of my petition
03/03/09- Sent Police certificate application, certificate received within a couple of weeks.
23/06/09 - Received email from Embassy to go ahead with DS-230 part I (main form). Had to phone embassy to get this and my case number, as their records said that they sent me a letter on 23/02/09, which I never received.
16/07/09 - Sent DS-230 part I
02/11/09 - Dogs are collected and make their way to the states after much paperwork, phonecalls, e-mails and money spending.
03/11/09 - Cassie and Davie leave for the USA ahead of me to get settled.
01/12/09 - Sent DS-2001 document checklist - the bit that says that I'm ready for my visa interview.
07/12/09 - Underwent medical in London
06/01/10 - Recieved interview letter
20/01/10 - Visa interview - Successful!
26/01/10 - Visa delivered
04/02/10 - Cleared immigration  in Memphis, TN, all went well.
23/02/10 - Arrived back in UK to sort out house sale and other bits and pieces.
03/03/10 - Social Security Number received in mail
04/10/10 - After giving up on selling the house, end up renting it out very quickly.
06/10/10 - Plane tickets bought

The account of the medical and visa interview as posted on an immigration forum -

Medical

"I had my medical on Monday and all went reasonably well. The story goes as follows:

Left Falkirk at 7am to get a flight down to London Luton followed by an Easybus into town. But for a shaky landing and showing the bus driver the wrong ticket, this part went without a hitch and I was in London 2 hours before my appointment.

I then got lost looking for the doctors office, but found it by accident after I'd given up and went looking for lunch. After wasting a bit of time I went up for my appointment 20 minutes early.

I handed over my papers and info at the reception desk and went into the waiting room. About 10 minutes later I was handed another form to fill out. After handing this back I was quickly seen by the nurse who goes over the vaccinations, she said I needed MMR and Tetanus as I hadn't had them in the last 10 years. I was surprised about this as I couldn't see anything that said I needed to have them in this period, and thought my doctor's letter covered all of this.

Anyway, I was offered the chance to get my vaccinations there for £60 or get them at my own GP. I chose the latter since I was ill the previous week from my swine flu vac and didn't want to risk the same fate on the way home, and since it cost £60 and I'm Scottish. The nurse then filled out a letter for me to take to my GP, which I have to fax back to them with a doctors signature once I get my jags.

I was then whisked straight to the x-ray room where the cheery x-ray guy did his thing and I was back in the waiting room by 14:38 (my appointment was for 14:30)

Nothing much happened for the next 20 minutes, although I had a quick chat with someone who's off to Mississippi. The doctor then called me in and got me to sign some stuff and then weighed me (ouch), measured me (height) and she got me to remove my shirt, kept a straight face, and did the usual stethoscope-y things and "breath in and out" stuff, took a bp reading, then the blood test, and then got me to lie down and poked my stomach a bit, got me to cough, and then politely asked to see downstairs, and with a quick flash I was done.

It was then back through to the waiting room (with shirt on of course) and 5 mins later I was asked to go through and pay, and then it was back outside to run down Oxford street in the rain to catch the bus, which I caught, and after another shaky landing I was back in my "still for sale" house by 9:30pm.

So pretty uneventful. My medical stuff will get sent to the visa folk once I fax down the relevant vaccination info. All I need to do is convince my GP to give me them."

Interview

"Well, I got back from London last night happy in the knowledge that my visa was approved. It was a nervous couple of days, but at 1pm on Wednesday I felt daft for ever worrying, because the interview was so straightforward!

I travelled down from Falkirk on Tuesday by train, and after settling in at the hotel (on Sussex Gardens, about 2 miles from Embassy) I walked down to the Embassy to make sure I knew where I was going for my interview in the morning. The place is really easy to find, it’s huge!

I left the hotel at 9am for my 10am interview, after going through my docs for the 10th time. I made sure that I had no electronics hiding anywhere and then made my way through town, getting in line outside the embassy about 9:20. There was a pretty long queue outside, and the immigrants and non-immigrants all queued up in the same line. Before the line there was a (very grumpy) guy at a podium who checked everyone’s letter and got really annoyed at anyone who had electronics. After that I joined the line and was there for about 30 mins until I got to the front, where someone else checked my letter and my passport.

From here I joined a smaller line outside the small guard room. They let people in 4 at a time to go through the metal detectors. There is a sign on this building which says you shouldn’t take guns or time-bombs into the building. This isn’t mentioned on any of the other literature, but I left my weapons at home anyway, and relied on my hand-to-hand combat skills to make my way through London.

It took about 10 mins to get through here, and then I made the short walk around the building to the visas entrance. I gave my letter to the receptionist, who put some stickers on it with my number, I-867.

Then it was up to the large waiting room, which is a lot like an airport lounge, with two banks of chairs with screens suspended in the middle, and I took my seat (at about 10:05) and waited for my number. In the meantime I took all of my documents and copies out of the poly pockets I had them arranged in (the TV screen told me to do this). I was called up to window 13 (uh-oh) after about 30 mins. I had my fingerprints taken (electronic scanner) and then he asked for my passport and my DS-230 part 2 (which I had filled in and ready) and 2 photos, and gave me back the DS-230 part 2 to sign.

Next he handed me a yellow form to take to the cashier’s desk (window 12). I handed this over and paid, and then took the receipt back to window 13. My x-rays were waiting for me on my return, and he told me I should keep these in my checked luggage when I travel. From here he asked for my BC, MC, police certificate (all with a copy) and then my affidavits (sponsor and joint sponsor) he then asked for the tax transcripts for both, to which I gave him my wife’s and then a letter from her granddad explaining why he doesn’t have to file, with a printout from the IRS website to back this up. He didn’t need copies of these. I was then handed my pink form for the courier and told to wait for my number again.

I was barely sat down before my name was called out (now everyone knows who I am) and I had to go back to 13, I thought that had been a bit too easy, but he just had a quick question about my name change when I was a kid.

It was then back to the lounge for the wait. There seemed to be about 30 non-immigrant visas processed for every immigrant one, and the I-numbers on the screen were about 10 away from mine, so I grabbed some lunch and sat behind someone who just happened to be 2 numbers before me, and people-watched (yep, forgot book). If you want to be nosy, immigrants have pink courier forms and non-immigrants have blue ones.

As there are no clocks in the hall, and since my watch and phone were in the hotel, I didn’t have any idea how long I was waiting, but I reckon it was 2 hours before I was called again. I passed the time watching my fellow I’s leave via the courier desk (which means they got their visas).

I got my call and went up to window 16 for the main “interview”. The relatively cheery American lady asked me to do my fingerprints again, and then asked me to raise my right hand to take the oath about not lying. After this it was more of a chat than a Q&A. She asked about what I was going to do for work and where we were staying, and then about my name change. She was stumped when she asked why I changed my surname to my step-dad’s. My answer was that I changed it because I wanted to. There really wasn’t any other answer to give. I talked about the family for a bit and then she said that everything was OK and to take my pink form to the courier. I said “is that it then?” and she said “yes, everything is fine” and that was the end of it."

Clearing Immigration

"Well, I sucessfully negotiated the POE a couple of weeks ago! Although there wasn't much negotiation as it was pretty straightforward.

My POE was Memphis, where I will be living. I arrived there at about 5:30pm after my flight from Edinburgh via Schipol. I was near the back of the plane so I arrived at customs close to last, and just went to the visitors line as there was no-one around to ask, just behind I guy that I thought looked lik Kevin Spacey in Amsterdam but was nothing like him up close. It took about 30 minutes to get to the front and there were only 3 other people in the hall by the time I got to the officer who looked like John C Reilly in Magnolia. He took my passport and Mysterious Brown Envelope and then my fingerprints, and kept them and told me to go into the waiting room.

There were about 10 people in there, so I set myself up for a wait. However, I was called up before most of them by a guy that looked like the fat guy in the US Office series. He seemed like a bit of a grumpy dude since he was shouting at children about 30 minutes earlier, and he lived up to his reputation when taking my fingerprints as he just about broke my bloody fingers! He told me off for not relaxing my hand. He then got me to sign a couple of things and then told me to sit down.

I assumed that this was the precursor to some sort of interview, and when I was called out 10 minutes later I was rather surprised to get my passport back with a handshake and some congratulations from the not-so-grumpy-now guy.

I then went to the baggage claim to find my stuff all on a trolley ready to go, and was at the baggage claim waiting for my wife to pick me up at about 6:30pm which was a wee bit earlier than she could manage :-) No one else looked like an actor until I went to a wedding reception last week for someone who looked a bit like Vince Vaughn.

So that's it, I'm now a US permanent resident. I'm back in the UK to get my house sold, but I'll be going back around every 3 months until that's sorted. "