OK, here’s an account of the day of my visa interview at the London Embassy on January 31, 2006:

I set my alarm for 6.30am and left my house about 7.15, I met my next-door neighbour Ian at the station on his way to work so we sat on the train together and talked all the way to our destinations. I got off at Bond Street and realised I was an hour early to be able to go into the embassy so I thought I would make sure I knew where it was and how long it would take me to get there. I’d been to the embassy in 2003 so I recognised the way…

After I had walked there and back, I went into Starbucks and passed the time with a Chai tea latte. At 8.50 I made my way to the embassy and got in the queue to go through security. After entering the embassy, a man who worked there ushered me over and gave me a numbered ticket and said I should sit down and wait till my number was called.

About 15 minutes later my number was called and I thought I was gonna be sitting there for hours. So I went up to the booth and she said,

“OK. Can I have your application form?”
I was like, “Erm, what?”

And she realised I had a non-immigrant ticket number and I needed an immigrant. SO I went back to the man who gave me the ticket in the beginning and told him I needed an immigrant ticket. He said I had to sit back down and wait again. About an hour later my number was called!!!

I was called up to a different booth and gave all my documents to the man behind the window. He gave me back my x-rays [that we taken at the medical examination earlier in January] and said I should take them to America. Then he said I need to sit down again and wait till I’m called up for ‘the interview’. 30 minutes later a man’s voice came over the loudspeaker and asked me to go to desk number 13. This man checked over more of my documents and got me to sign something and took my index fingerprints, then asked me to raise my right hand and said something along the lines of:

“Do you swear you’ve told me the truth and all these documents are correct?”

And I said “I do”.

Then he signed some stuff, told me I’d receive my passport on Thursday or Friday and that I could go if I didn’t have any questions. And that was it!!!!! He didn’t even ask me any kind of questions about anything. It was so easy.

There we go, I think that’s about it.

» Emily