London Embassy status

[davidmartin_uk]

Hi Folks

Thought I would give some general feedback on The London embassy scene that we got from our London Lawyers yesterday.

Yes things are speeding up. Processing January submissions now and interviews are coming through quicker. Staff shortages on the e2 side have been addressed.

The guy who does the interview, Glen has a business background and seems on the ball as far as business questioning is concerned.

The embassy has said that handing out only 2 year visas was a mistake but that is unlikely to be rectified in the near future.

Because of the large number of renewals that are going to come up the renewal process is being completely overhauled. London lawyers have been asked for comments on the best way to proceed. Nothing decided as yet

The e2 interviews are conducted over 2 time periods. Individuals getting e2 status with a company are seen first. The registration of e2 companies are seen last. That’s why we all have to wait so long. They see quite a few e2 individuals but only about 2 company registrations a day.

A recent application that our lawyers processed was for a HUGE some of money. The CEO waited till 4:30 pm like everybody else. Interesting indictment on our current culture of celebrity is that celebrities are taken in before the embassy opens for us and processed super quick. So invest a billion dollars in the US economy & wait all day. Be the wife of a famous footballer and get straight in!!

Dave

[Susie]

Hi

Thanks for sharing this what appears to be postive news. I do hope the staff shortages have now been address, we have heard this before and been promised an 8 week processing time by Dec 2006, well this just did not happen, so truely hope they have now got their act together

From my understanding the first time E applicants are given a 2 year visa and renewals should be given a 5 year renewal

Not sure if you watched the Trevor McDonald show "Florida Beached" and heard what James Lavine said about the renewals. He mentioned that the embassy used to always give 5 year renewals then all of a sudden started to only gve 2 year renewals and to him, this is a how the emabssy has worked, in other words , fits and starts.

I do hope any renewal's from now are given 5 years. How can anyone plan to expand their business in such a sort 2 year time frame

[timjotom]

Thanks for posting an update.

Good Luck next week let us know how you get on. Let's hope they change to five years before next week!

We will be thinking about you.

[Grumpy]

good luck, all roueting for you