Friday, 19th June 1998
Received the Notice Of Action! Our I-129F was received
by them on the 15th June and the Notice Of Action was issued on the same
day. Pretty good eh? The form says that this kind of application
takes between 15 and 21 days to process! So far we're looking at
the end of June or early July, let's see!
Thursday, 24th June 1998
After calling the automated progress phone number that
Vermont INS had issued us with, we were approved on the 24th June!
Also on that progress report, we were told that the Notice Of Approval
had been sent out to Liz. We have used the I-824 form (application
for action on an approved application or petition)
so we will have to wait and see how long it takes for Vermont to cable
the information to the US Embassy in London.
Thursday, 9th July 1998
Liz sent her notarized Affidavit Of support to me including
a letter from her employer stating her annual income, her job description,
a statement to say her job was permanent and safe etc., a letter from her
bank showing date her account was opened, total deposits for the last year
and her current balance. The letter was also notarized by the bank.
She also sent bank statements and her Tax Return for 1997 though these
are not asked for by the Embassy.
Thursday, 2nd July
1998
Uh Oh!!! Received a second set of UK/85 papers
through my letter box this morning! After a frantic call to the Embassy,
I was told that it was standard procedure and the UK/85 papers would be
sent out automatically regardless of whether or not I had previously sent
them to the Embassy. However, the covering letter that came with
the new set of UK/85 forms had a Case Number for our application and was
dated the 29th June. We filed the I-824 and paid the fee of $30 together
with our application but in truth, we didn't need to do that with the Vermont
Service Centre as they cabled the information to the London Embassy anyway.
Our timeline from Approval at the Vermont INS to the US Embassy in London
writing the letter issuing me with a Case Number was just 7 days (including
a weekend).
Thursday, 9th July 1998
Yes!!! I had another package from the Embassy today,
this time it was my interview date and instructions for the medical, details
of how to get to the Embassy and a few other instructional papers.
My interview is scheduled for the 29th July 1998 at 8am. I have everything
I need for the interview and I'm waiting with baited breath for that day
to come along!!! :o) We're almost there!!! The whole process
will have taken just 46 days from Liz filing the I-129F Petition to me
getting my interview date (and VISA I hope!) at the US Embassy in London!
Wednesday,
29th July 1998
Well on Wednesday 29th July, I
had my interview at the Embassy in London. It wasn't without it's worries
though as you will see as you
read on...
11:30pm (Late Tuesday Evening
on the 28th July)
After just 4 hours sleep, I got
up to freshen up, get dressed and ready for travelling to catch the coach.
I had a bite to eat and spoke to
Liz before leaving which helped
to calm both of us down a little! My dad was coming with me to the
interview, it was something that
would help him understand what
Liz and I were going through and it was also company for me!
1:15am (Early Wednesday Morning
on the 29th July)
I had arranged to meet dad at his
house and my brother was going to drop us off at the coach station in Wolverhampton.
I had elected to use National Express as they arrived at Victoria Coach
Station in London at 6:15am. My brother dropped us off at 1:45am
and the coach was due in at 2:05am. Well we waited and waited...
at 2:40am we still had no coach and so I decided to give National Express
a call and find out where the coach was! The ladie's reply was "it's
running late, he's just coming in off the motorway and will be there in
10 minutes." The coach didn't arrive for another 25 minutes and was
exactly 1 hour late! We had no apology from either the driver or
his mate and no explanation as to why they were late.
The coach was pretty full already
and as you might expect, folk on it were trying to sleep through the early
hours of the morning. This
was all okay, but almost everyone
on the coach had slipped off their shoes! The hum was gagging to
say the least! We shifted a couple
of guys over and sat at adjoining
seats and the journey proceeded.
The driver of the coach seemed not
to be bothered to make up any of his lost time as he drove around at well
under the speed limits for
the roads we used. We picked
up and dropped off at several locations, some of those were airports.
At around 6am the coach grinded to a halt by the side of the road, the
engines silent and the driver making several attempts at trying to restart
it! Something was wrong!!!
Suddenly, the hour I had lost to
begin with was turning into a much longer time, I was getting VERY late!
I was worried beyond belief, it started to look as though I wasn't going
to make the interview! It's at that point that you sit there and
contemplate staying on or getting
off and taking matters into your
own hands! Well, directly opposite the coach was a hotel and we gathered
up our things and darted over there to see if we could organise a taxi.
We were about 40-50 miles outside of London and the time was now 6:30am.
By sheer luck we happened across a taxi driver inside the hotel who was
rubbing his hands together as he glanced across at the stricken coach!
"how much to take us to Marble Arch?" I was expecting £90
or there abouts... his reply was "£45 and I'll take you there myself!"
The only thing was, he had to wait for one of his cars to come in!
At 7am we hit the road and caught all the London traffic as we travelled
into the heart of the city. The cabby was pretty dammed talkative,
helpful and appreciative of my predicament and he really did the best he
could do to ensure I got there as quickly as possible. We arrived
there at 8:15am and the cabby more or less drove us to the door of Dr Phelan's
practice and then he bid us good luck and went on his merry way.
8:15am
We arrived at Dr Phelan's practice,
a very expensive looking house in a wealthy part of London, a terraced
house, but impressive just the same. The door wouldn't open with
a push and a sign read "Ring the bell and wait for the buzzer before pushing
the door" I did exactly
that... nothing... I rang again...
nothing! We stood there what must have been 2 minutes and I
rang the bell a 3rd time! The buzzer
sounded and the door opened!!
There stood a angry looking Dr Phelan! (maybe the constant bell ringing
wasn't such a good idea after
all!) after apologising to
him profusely, we were ushered down stairs to the waiting room where a
gathering of about 12 people were sat.
We sat down on the front row, directly
in front of the receptionist. The lady at the reception desk peered across
at me over the top of her glasses and said "are you here for the Embassy?"
I said yes and she asked me to come to the desk. She asked for my
passport, my
medical questionnaire and any vaccination
record I had. I gave her these and she gave me an information sheet
to read and told me to sit back down again. The sheet explained that
they wanted to take a blood test for AIDS and for Syphilis and it was telling
the applicant that their consent was going to be asked for, pretty standard
stuff. I returned the form and returned to my seat. What did strike
me as strange was the different ways folk were dressed, some in shirts
and ties, some in smart casual and some even in shorts and T shirts!
It seemed to matter no more or no less as to how the applicant dressed
for the day.
8:45am
I was called by the nurse who asked
me to go into a room and sit in a chair. I removed my jacket, rolled up
my shirt sleeve and was told
that she wanted a blood sample.
"Make a fist and straighten our you arm please" she remarked to which I
did. She stuck a needle into
the bend at the top of my left
fore-arm and took a blood sample, she was pretty good at doing this and
I hardly felt a thing. She put a
plaster on over the spot and told
me to roll my sleeve back down. She then showed me the syringe containing
my blood to confirm it
was mine and had my name on it.
I was then told to return to the waiting area.
9:10am
I was called by Dr. Phelan (I'm
assuming it was him) and told to go to a cubicle and strip from chin to
waist of all clothing including
jewellery. There were about 8 or
so cubicles with louver doors that provided some privacy. I hung
my shirt & tie on a hanger provided
in the cubicle and walked to an
x-ray room. I was told to stand with my chin on a plate facing away
from the x-ray machine and hitch
my arms akwardly backward on my
hips, sorta chicken style! A moment later I was asked to return to
my cubicle. Actually, the Dr. was very chatty and said "we have quite a
few applicants to get through today, but you're one of the easy ones, you're
marrying an American! What some folk will do to get to America!"
and he laughed... I just sorta smiled and tutted at him! After a
couple of minutes I was told to go through another door and there sat a
female doctor. She asked me to sit and then looked through my vaccine
records (which the receptionist had copied onto her notes from my records)
and said "you have had all the necessary vaccinations and you don't need
any more today". I was asked if I felt in good health, told to open
my mouth and she looked into it with an inspection gadget (with a light
on it!) and also into my eyes. I wasn't asked to say the rudimentary
"aaaahhhh" or anything. She stuck a stethoscope on me and listened
to my innards in about 4 places, took my pulse and that was it! After
that I was told to get dressed and go back to the waiting area.
9:50am
I was called again by the nurse
who handed me my x-ray and was told that I didn't need to show it at the
Embassy, but would need to
take it with me on my entry into
the States. I was then told to proceed immediately to the Embassy.
10:15am
We arrived at the Embassy and there
were no queues outside or anywhere. On entering the large glass doors,
we were greeted with a
security desk and were told to
walk through one of those door frame style metal detectors. To the
left of the desk was the Non-Immigrant section and to the right and up
a flight of stairs was the Immigrant section, the section we were to go
through. The Immigrant section consisted of a seating area and about
8 Bank style booths. Non of them were very private and were all sorta
offset with each other to give a little privacy from the next booth.
I handed my interview sheet to a very stearn lady at booth 2 and was told
to sit and wait.
10:50am
I was called up to booth 4 and
a Korean (I think) lady opened up my file in front of me. Just then
she began swearing under her breath
and thrust all the optional forms
at me and told me I hadn't filled them in! "What???" I said "I've
already done all of this!" She wasn't at
all interested and told me to do
them again and gave me a pen! I was very angry, frustrated and nervous,
my hands were shaking and it
made it so difficult to write on
those stupidly small OF-156 forms! Luckily for me, I had brought
a copy of all of them with me to the
interview and I just had to literally
copy them again but it really was so annoying. She came back to the
desk and said "how's it going?"
I said "it's going slow!"
She said "well write quicker!" and walked away. Another 10 minutes
later and she asked me the same question
to which I sternly replied "ITS
GOING SLOWLY!" She said "I'm joking, muttered something and walked
away again!" Amidst all of
this I was trying to give her my
passport, the AOS, bank letters, employment letters, police checks and
birth certificates including copies
of all except the AOS and passport.
Finally I was done writing and was asked for my two photos to which she
stapled to the two OF-156's and then I signed both forms. I was then
told to sit and wait for my interview.
11:45am
I was called up to a different
booth and a different lady this time. I was asked to raise my right
hand and swear that the information I
had given and I was about to give
was true to the best of my knowledge and that it was a federal offence
to give false information. I said I did and then I had to sign a
document to say so which she countersigned also. I was then given
all of my original forms back including
the police check, the letters from
Liz's employer and her bank and also my Birth Certificate. Then I
was asked the following questions...
Q How did you meet?
A On the Internet
Q How long have you known
each other?
A Since April of '96 but
we became romantically involved in October of that same year.
Q Have you ever met?
A Yes, she flew over to see
me in July of '97, I flew there in October '97, December '97 & March
'98
Q Does she have a full time
job?
A Yes she does
Q Do you have a job waiting
there when you arrive?
A Yes I do
Q What is your current job?
A I straighten the chassis
on accident damaged trucks
Q What is your job in the
USA?
A Working with computers
Q She has two children so
there will be 4 to support?
A Yes, that's correct
Q When do you intend to travel
to the US?
A I intend to travel on the
13th August '98
Q Do you realise that this
is a one entry only Visa and that you must get married within 90 days?
A Yes I do *smile*
After which I was told to sit back down and wait.
1:15pm
After what must have felt like
years, I was called up to another booth and the same Korean girl who was
a little short and rude with me
handed me my brown envelope!
She also gave me my passport with the special Visa sticker in it.
This sticker fills a page inside of the
passport (mine was stuck in the
middle of my passport) and had an image of one of the three quarter view
photos of myself that I had
given to them for the Option Forms.
I was given two other forms which were really just information regarding
my vaccinations and information regarding entry into the USA with the visa.
Other than the trouble I had with
the Embassy losing my paperwork, it really was very easy and a straight
forward process! The waiting
around really does get to you so
be advised and take a good book! I sat there twiddling my thumbs
the whole time but the end result is
so worth it!!! :o)
Thursday,
13th August 1998
The previous times I've flown to
the States, I've always flown from Heathrow, this time I opted for Gatwick
purely for financial reasons. On reflection, I should have paid the
extra and flown from Heathrow to avoid the M25 London Orbital "Car Park"!
My dad and my brother had insisted on taking me to Gatwick as this was
pretty much the last time I was going to see them for a while. After
setting off at 5am from the West Midlands, we hit the London M25 and stopped
dead. An accident had restricted everything down to one lane so we
got off there at the next available exit, only to be caught up in construction
traffic! We eventually arrived at Gatwick South Terminal with just about
one hour before my plane took off!!! After taking a quick breakfast
with my dad and my brother, I began to make my way to the departure lounge
and queued in the line for my flight. As I handed over my passport
to the lady who was checking us onto the plane, she remarked
"this is the third K1 visa on this plane!".
The six and a half hour flight was
pretty okay considering I had already spent five hours in the car on the
way to the airport. After filling out the WHITE I-94 form and customs
form, we landed in Boston at 1:30pm (US Time) and we were shuffled off
to passport control. Two customs officials where checking to see
if everyone had filled in their forms before we even got to the passport
control. I asked which lane I was to use as I was entering on a K1,
I was told to queue at the same lanes as the other folk visiting on the
Visa Waiver form so I did just that. Actually it went through pretty
quick as they had about 30'ish booths all taking care of the passports.
I got to the booth and the Immigration Official asked me for my passport.
I handed him the brown envelope, my passport and the I-94. He remarked
"oh big day today huh?" to which I replied "yeah, you could say that!"
He opened up the envelope and looked through the enclosed documents, he
was quite thorough. Inside were various forms including the original
I-129F form and the optional forms that I filled in at the Embassy.
After the guy had finished stamping my passport, he called another guy
over to escort me to another area where they have a permanent INS section.
There were a about 8 people waiting already, some of those were clutching
their x-rays. I was
called ahead of all of those people
and was told to fill in a form, fairly simple stuff. After that the
guy took me to another room where they make the EAD
cards. I had my fingerprint taken (right hand, index finger) and
then had my photo taken, same three quarter view pose.
He then sandwiched everything between a double sided
clear laminate which is the same size as a credit
card and that was it! The card is valid for 90 days from the date
of issue.
Friday,
21st August 1998
We went to the local Social Security
Office to apply for my number. Liz had previously
downloaded and printed off the forms via the internet
in PDF format. The site can be found in our links section under Social
Security Online. The form I needed was the
SS-5, it's very easy to fill out and pretty short. I could have just opted
to fill it out at our local SSO (Social Security Office) as
the forms are available from there also. We found the extra time
to read and understand the paperwork useful.
I filled in my paperwork using the downloaded and
printed PDF file and after waiting just half hour or so, we were called
up to the desk. A friendly lady looked over the paperwork
and asked to see my passport and my EAD card.
After a few minutes she told me that I would have
my Social Security Number within 5 to 10 days through the post. That
was it, very easy and very painless. I should be starting
my new job in early September so I should be all ready
to go!
Regards and Best Wishes for Your Own Futures...
Liz & Gary