On Wednesday I packed up all my proof, forms, certificates and photos and headed to London for my appointment at the US embassy.
Getting the appointment was a bit of a struggle. I hit an odd time at the embassy, they were swapping from a snail mail process to an online one and then their government malfunctioned and closed down for a few weeks [to probably play GTAV]. This also coincided with the Royal Mail going private and all the joyous postage problems that have followed.
I was expecting my appointment letter to come around the beginning of October. When I hadn’t heard anything I called and was told an appointment had been issued and I would receive notice of it within the week. Two weeks later I had nothing so I called again and was told this time that there was no case attached to my file number. A panic attack inducing statement.
Much googling later I found and online query form and sent a simple email explaining when my medical had been, when my paperwork was submitted and asking when I was likely to hear something.
They responded within a few days to tell me that I was scheduled for the 7th at 0800 and that this had been sent in writing.
Finally!
The letter never turned up and still hasn’t. So I packed everything I could think I would need and set off to London with my mum in tow.
The interview was a lot less formal than I expected. I kind of got the impression that everything was set before I had got there and that this was just formalities. Of course I could be wrong, people probably do get rejected at this point, I’m just good at being oblivious so seriousness. Seriously, ask my boss!
I was in the embassy for two hours and ten minutes, plus queueing outside for 30 minutes. I was being “interviewed” for about 2o minutes, at the very most, which was split in half. The first half checked my certificates and took a payment, the second half asked the questions and gave me the approval.
Now to begin to set dates, pack my stuff up and start saying my farewells!
Flop! 