I went to the U.S Embassy in London today! Gosh, what a stressy day for absolutely no reason.

The night before I checked I had everything I needed and more in my plastic wallet - it weighed a ton. I had about 6 2" x 2" passport style photos of myself, documents showing funding, evidence of my student status and all the other documents listed on the checklist.

Dress wise, no one was wearing anything particularly smart. There were a few people in shirts, but most people were casual. It wasn't exactly a job interview, so there was no need to bring out the tie!



I wore a simple outfit that I'd wear everyday which consisted of a black long sleeve top, black and white slim fit trousers, chunky heeled black boots, a nice necklace and a fitted lilac coat. It was relatively smart, but as this is the kind of thing I wore casually I felt comfortable.




It was a good job I felt comfortable for the 4 hour car journey from Plymouth to central London. I would have been dying in my tight America Apparel riding pants!! Me and my dad got really irritated on the way up as we followed what the Sat Nav said and followed the A303 instead of going via the M4/M5 and we ran into heaps of traffic on the motorway. Every few minutes the woman kept saying "DELAY, an extra 10 minutes has been added to your journey... an extra 15 minutes has been added to your journy..." I was freaking out, our estimated arrival time was now 10:30 and my appointment was supposed to be at 10! Gaaaah!!?


The Sat Nav sent us all over the place to try and get round the traffic, we nearly gave up as we seemed so lost. But she didn't let us down in the end and got us into central London and we had actually made up a bit of time, our estimated arrival was now around 10, phew! London roads are so awful though. I hope to never live there!

Map of the surrounding area of the U.S Embassy. We parked in the "P" in the green bit next to where it says 'PARK'. The Embassy is in purple.

So we got to our destination, which was the car park underneath Hyde Park, just outside the congestion zone. It was around £11 for two hours, not bad for central London. We had to cross about 6 rows of busy, busy traffic then walk down a street, cross over and there it was. Gone 10 past at this point. We rushed round to the front of the building and to my delight there was a huge queue of applicants! Phew, all that worrying about being late and turned away was for nothing!


Although I don't suggest purposely being late, if you're 15/30 minutes late due to traffic, I'm sure they'd still let you in.

We were basically queued up outside the Embassy waiting to be seen in a pop-up tent. Guards with big guns everywhere! My dad waited with me for this bit, but no one is allowed to assist you in the Embassy. While we were waiting a man came round with plastic bags to put phones and metal items in (so yes, you are allowed phones in the Embassy - I know this is much debated). A woman then asked to check we had the correct documents before going any further which were:

- valid passport
- DS-2019 form (certificate Yummy Jobs sent)
- DS-160 confirmation page (the confirmation of your visa application with barcode and your picture on)
- SEVIS payment proof (the $35 payment, print this out as soon as you pay)
- proof of appointment date and time (preferably with barcode but I just printed the summary page after I scheduled my appointment)

These were the only things they wanted to see! I had another panic at this point as the women held up an example of the proof of appointment page and it was completely different than mine...

HELP

 But thankfully she said it was fine, they only wanted to see everyone got seen fairly, I guess.

Phew again..

The man in the pop-up tend checked these documents and marked my name off on a sheet. I then went over to a security man who looked at my passport and pointed me to line up behind three more applicants who were now waiting to go into security.

Four of us were let into this small room that was set out just like an airport security station. I had to put all my things in a plastic tray which was sent through an X-Ray machine while I walked through the metal detecting arch thingy. A boy in front of me had a razor in his bag so he was told to go outside, throw it away and come straight back (why take a razor to the embassy?!) and  girl had a metal fork so she was told the same. I know most applicants have probably just spent the past however many hours on a coach so they naturally had to take all their belongs with them. But just to save time, I'd say clear your bag of all bits and bobs before going in. There's also a pharmacy and several other places nearby that store belongings for a small fee. Since we had the car I took my normal big bag with all my razors and forks in (lol) and left that in the car and took a small clutch just for my phone and a bit of money in it into the Embassy. Then there was no fear of having something I shouldn't!!


So I then went through another door and I was back outside but inside the gated grounds of the Embassy. I followed the signs and made my way into the building, passing more guards. Here a woman behind a desk asked for those same documents and stuck a label with my name and interview number on it. I then entered a big room filled with seats, packed with applicants and a large screen at the end that kept popping up people's interview numbers. You had to go up to the corresponding window when your number appeared, a bit like in Argos! I sat down and the screen was on something like N350 and I was N483 so I initially thought oh God, I'm going to be here a while. But it went really quickly! Each number popped up every few seconds. When my number was called, I went to the window where another woman, this time American checked my documents, did something on the computer and took my finger prints. I then had to queue again to be interviewed. This wait must have been about 5 minutes - really quick. The interview was really quick too, less than a minute perhaps! She just asked me a few questions about what I was doing at Disney and uni, wished me a fantastic summer, said my visa was approved and that I'd receive my documents back in a week! Done, I'm outta here!

I was sooo tired and wasn't in the mood for shopping so I met my dad and we walked up Oxford street (just round the corner), to say we went there, along Park Lane and through Hyde Park on the way back to our car. It was nice to see some of these places that you hear and see so much on TV!

Exploring London after the interview - Hyde Park

I e-mailed Louise to let her know I had my appointment and she said to remember to input my appointment onto DOC and let her know when I get my passport back. I opted for the free of charge delivery at my local DXS courier point. The Embassy e-mailed me with a link and tracker number to track my delivery. It's estimated to be delivered 21st March so that's really quick!

Just to summarise: I started queuing about 10:15 and was out by 11:15, that's pretty good going as I know some people can be in there for hours. And as a final note, again, mobile phones are allowed in the Embassy and laptops and not! I know the website isn't that clear :)