The walk to the embassy from the doctors takes about 10 minutes walking. It takes you past Marble Arch. When I arrived at the embassy I made my way to the Visa Section which is located on Upper Grosvenor Street. These days the embassy is guarded by police officers with machine guns. A fence surrounds the embassy about 30 feet from the building. Then there are concrete blocks about another 50 feet back stopping any vehicles getting near the building.

At the Visa Section there is a porta cabin which is being used as a Security Checkpoint. Here I was asked to show my appointment letter. A word of caution. No Appointment Letter, No entry to building, No consular interview, No Visa. When I was there people were denied entry for not having their appointment letter. So make sure you have it. After that checkpoint you walk up the steps and go inside the building where there is another checkpoint. Here they will take any mobile phones or cameras you may have. You will receive a little tag so that you can get them on the wayout. After this you either go up the flight of stairs to the left for non immigrant visas or those to the right for immigrant visas. Althought technically the K1 is a non immigrant visa I went right to the immigrant visa section.

When I got there not much was happening except some people waiting. I do not know how busy it can get but when I was there there were loads of seats but only about 10 of us waiting to get visas. There are 6 desks/booths. They are much the same as passport control or even a bank. There are no seats at the booths. Behind the desks there are rows and rows of files. Also at the back behind the waiting area seats there is a small window. This is the cashier. I assume for if you need to pay something. I did not go here as I already had my slip they gave me stamped at the bank.

Anyway I was called up and they asked me for the documents on the checklist. She asked for Affidavit of Support (I-134. I did not give them supporting evidence), Police Check (I gave photocopy also), Birth Certificate (Again I gave photocopy) and my passport. She also asked if I had a copy of DS 156. I hadn't. She said that alot of people don't have it. I had sent mine in 5 months previously. I had forgotten what form it was. I guess this will not be much of a problem now since you cannot open provisional files. It was not really a problem not having it as she just went and photocopied the one that she had. She seemed nice enough. I think she felt a little over worked though. I was then told to sit down and wait for the consular officer.

About 10-15 minutes later I was called up by another person. This guy was an American Consular Officer. He seemed friendly enough. Asked how I was and had a smile. (Immigration Officers could learn a thing or two from this guy). Anyway he asked how I met my fiancee. Where she worked at the moment. He did not ask if we had ever met in person as I think that it was blatantly obvious by the amount of previous visas that I have that we had. He then asked me to swear that everything that we had written on the forms was the truth. It was, so there was no problem there. He then returned to me my original birth certificate and my original police check. I had been quite late on leaving the medical and I had not walked particularly quickly. So by the time I had spoken to the Consular Officer it was after 12. He had told others that they could leave and come back for their visas after the blood test results came back. However since I was one of the last ones he said that the blood test results had arrived and that I was in perfect health. He said that if I wanted to wait the visa would be ready in about 15 minutes. So I just went and sat down again.
That was basically it. Way easier than I thought and definitely not worth all the worrying I did.

They make it sound harder than it actually is on the forms. I also had a lots of documents. I had to carry them all and it was quite a weight. Other people had hardly any. All they wanted to see was the Affidavit of Support, Police Check, Birth Certificate and Passport.

With regard to photographs. I went down to London with no photographs as they made it sound as though the pictures had to be a certain way and that you should get them taken by places they had named in their forms. Someone even told me that they had spent £20 getting the photos. The day before I had went to all the places listed and they were all closed as it was a holiday and it was too late by the timke they opened the next day. Anyway I managed to find a photo booth in the Bond Street Underground Station on the Central Line. It cost me £3.50. I just made sure that my right ear was showing. They accepted these photos no problem. So my recommendation is just get your pictures taken anywhere that offers passport sized pictures.

Me telling you not to worry won't probably won't help. However I found in my experience the waiting is the hard part. The whole process takes from 8am until about 12:30. Just in time for lunch. Anyway goodluck with your own interview.