 | London embassy K1 interview - October 31, 2002 | |
And why they gave me not one visa but two!  Written November 1, 2002I got home after 1am last night and was too brain-blasted to write sooner. This is going to be loooong but I'll put headers on certain sections so anyone who is only interested in certain bits can scroll down... TAKING TWO SMALL CHILDREN TO LONDON ...was a nightmare. The worst bits of it all were the crowds - and the hotel which was like a cross between fawlty towers and psycho. The crowds in the Tubes were much worse than I remembered them - walls of people who wouldn't let small children through to get off the train. Truly frightening. I am SO glad its all over. HALLOWEEN
6.30am We get out of the hotel as soon as it's light. No one there seems to speak English and the place is a death trap. I haven't slept. 7am Stumble across Starbucks at Marble Arch. Hot chocolate for the kiddies and soft easy chairs. The first time we have felt comfortable and safe since leaving home 6.30am the day before. Vanilla coffee reminds me of gloopy times with my fiancé in Dallas. 7.30am Off to the doc's which is just round a couple of corners from Starbucks - a 5 min walk. 10 with two tired kiddies and a lot of bags. 7.40am The queue is starting to form outside the doc's office. Nervous people exchanging info about their dreams, worries... MEDICAL
8am Doors open. Herded into waiting room. Each given a plastic folder with instructions. It also contains a listing of vaccination requirements based on age. I am cheesed off as the embassy's long list of vacc's isn't for everyone and my kids have had almost everything on the embassy list - including pneumoccocal and influenza, which I only now find out is only necessary for emigrating pensioners. Ho hum. Into the plastic file go: passport, vaccination proof, medical questionnaire which you hand in at the reception desk - try not to knock over their display stand as I did in my clumsy nervous state. waiting waiting....... Eventually my name is called. I go back out to reception, hand over the £215 fee for one adult and two children, get my passports back. We're sent downstairs to another waiting room. waiting... waiting... Nurse calls me into cubical. She ties a thingy round my arm and asks me to clench fist. I explain nervously no one has been able to get blood out of me without at least 3 tries and a lot of pain. She asks me about my plans. I turn round to look at her. I SWEAR THIS IS THE TRUTH, I was just in time to see her withdrawing the needle. Hand on heart I never even felt it go in! A ****** miracle. I thank her and inform her she is an expert and go back out to waiting room. waiting...waiting... Mad X-ray guy walks in and says, 'Will the lady with the two munchkins come with me?' He is funny and sweet and a great relief after all the solemn faces. He puts me in a cubicle while the girls look through slats and wave. 'Take off everything from the top of your head to your waist. Please stop when you reach the level of skin as I have to clean this place later!' We're all laughing now. I get a paper robe to wear. I tell him he is famous on the alt.visa.us.marriage-based newsgroup as he takes me into adjoining room and makes me stick my chin on a ledge and do the funky chicken stand. Then it's back to the cubicle. 5 mins later he calls me and the girls back through: 'Who wants to take a look at mummy's insides?' We look. He points out a big lumpy area and informs me I have a heart. We all grin. Back to cubicle. Doc comes out of her room - a really nice gentle lady who calls us in together. Kids - listens to chest and heart, say ahhhh!, a look in the ears, tells them to lie down, feels their tummy, makes them laugh. Tells them they're great. Tells me they have only one vaccination still to get - Hep B which they can't attend school without. Gives me a copy of the note she'll send to the embassy about this. (NB. On K1 I don't need to have sorted this out before we get to US BUT I WILL. I don't want the girls' first experience of the US to be a doctor's office and needles!) My turn. Listens to heart, chest. Tells me I don't need to finish my course of Hep B because it's not required for my age group (I'm 36 tomorrow). Tells me to lie down. Checks tummy, nothing lower. Thank you, God! Does quick breast examination - checking for lumps - takes about 20 seconds. Blood pressure. Tells me it's right on the borderline. I gulp. I have NEVER had a problem with blood pressure. I have been boringly normal all my life. She smiles and says it's probably just the stress of the day. We're all fine. Back out to cubicle to dress and then off to embassy. TO THE EMBASSY
Get here about 10am. There are railings up all down the Upper Grosvenor Street side of the building so we walk 2/3s way round it to find a gap and a man with a gun. He says we can't come in. I say but we're here for a visa. Wonder has there been a bomb scare. Has everyone gone home? He says people are only allowed in by invitation and I'm not on his list. I say, but I have a letter, and show him. His dyslexia clears up and he finds us on his list. Long walk back round to doors into visa unit. INSIDE LONDON EMBASSY
Desk. Guards. Baggage check and walkthrough bleeper just like an airport. Have we any phones, cameras etc. Yes. I hand him all our baggage except my papers and he gives me a ticket to collect them. Fiancé visa is a nonimmigrant visa but you need to head to the immigration section if you're there for a K1. Waiting room, chairs, few toys in corner. People waiting. They tell me to stand at a booth and wait for a man to take my letter. He eventually turns up and takes it. We sit. waiting... waiting... About 11.15 the last guy from the doc's comes in. He has all the medical reports with him to hand to the officer in a big envelope. Can't believe how quick they ran the tests (later I'm told London embassy is the only one in world that can do this so quick on same day). waiting... waiting... Girls are thirsty and bored. It's HOT in there. They go down to guards who let them rummage in their bags for crisps, drinks and toys. Nice guards. waiting... waiting... Name called. Guy takes my docs and photocopies - asks for them in order. He's not interested in seeing any proof of relationship. While I'm with him a guy comes up and whispers, 'They're negative - all clear'. I assume he's talking about the medical and am relieved. He has a tick-off form as he assembles the docs. Writes in red all over it, 'Ask about name change'. I reverted to a former name without deed poll. I have brought all the proof I can of how and when I did this and handed it in. They'll ask you about that, he says. Slightly alarmed at all the red scrawl. Back to my seat. waiting... waiting... Called up to the guy at the big booth. When he calls my name I'm on the floor near the booth playing crazy bones with my youngest daughter. So I pop up out of nowhere and he raises an eyebrow. 'Er... i was just playing,' I tell him, lamely. Raise your right hand. Do you swear everything you're telling us is the truth? He has me in an eye-lock. It is the truth but I feel confused and guilty. Daren't drop my eyes. Feel like I've been injected with sodium pentothal. Do I say, 'I do'? No idea. 'Yes', I say. He holds my eyes almost the entire time we are talking. He asks how I met my fiancé. Grills me about a former marriage, which I'm not expecting. Then the name change. Goes through the docs again with regard to that. Asks why I didn't use deed poll. I say lamely, 'because I didn't have to?' Don't know what else to say. My mind is blank. But it sems my answer is acceptable. He asks how often my fiancé and I see each other. I say last November, then Christmas, then Easter, then summer - I have proofs.... He's not interested in seeing the proofs. Makes me write my fiancé's name on a form, read and sign. Here comes the whammy, 'When's your fiancé's birthday?' I know it, we just had it. But my mind is blank and all I can think is I just missed my best friend's birthday because I was in such a state over this process. Wonder madly if he wants to know about Julie's birthday. Suddenly brain-fever clears and I tell him, August 2. He hands me my original docs and says, 'OK, your visas will be issued shortly.' Wander dazed back to seat. Did he just say that? Does he say that to all the girls? waiting... waiting... Name called again. Handed three big brown envelopes, which I'm told not to open and to hand in at the port of entry, and then our passports with visas in. State of shock. Other people waiting want to see the visas. We look. The girls are clearly recognisable. My pic on it is so blurred you can't tell me from President Bush. I'm worried. Anyone could use this visa. Maybe the port of entry won't accept it. I just want to leave now we have the visas but I'm unsure... I go back to the desk and wait till the guy's finished with someone else. Can't believe I'm questionning them. 'Sorry, I'm just a bit worried about this picture...' They take my passport away again and get in a huddle. Oh god I had a visa for two minutes and I gave it BACK!!! I'm sent away. waiting... waiting.... Everyone seems to be getting their visas and leaving. Finally I'm called back. 'You did the right thing,' I'm told. They have stamped 'cancelled without prejudice' right through my visa. Oh God! I turn the page. Second visa with clear photo. We're free to go. It's 2pm We have our visas! This is all really happening. But we're in shock, my girls and I. We manage to get to Pudding Lane to see where the Great Fire of London started, find something to eat, take a photo on London Bridge and then give up. (Horror journeys in tubes and crowds everywhere. Can't believe how busy it is in the middle of the week in the middle of the day). We get in a taxi and arrive at Euston hours early for our train, flake out with ice creams and comics. Home again home - 1am. The end... or should I say, the beginning!
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