Hey Guys,
Finally had my interview last Tuesday and all went relatively smoothly!
We had to fly in on the red eye flight from Perth as I had an exam earlier in the day to attend and that was the first flight over I could take. We were a bit worried that the flight would be late however it was early so got in around 6:15am. Once we got our bags we caught the train into the city (expensive one way trip!) and dropped our suitcases off at the hotel. Fortunately we had around an hour before the consulate opened so we spent some time wandering through Hyde Park before going to the MLC building and waiting in the lobby until 7:50am.
We went up to level 10 (marked consulate at the bottom of the lift panel) and sat in the waiting area as they were still closed. Shortly after the security guard called everyone up that had an interview and asked us what our visit was for and we said diversity visa. He checked to make sure our phones were off and handed us a bag to put our phones in, then we went around to the left so the ladies at the counter could check our documents and place these into pouches. Then we were ushered through security where we had to remove our jackets and everything in our pockets and moved through the scanner and checked our electronics into storage. Once through we had to wait in a little seating area for the lift and were escorted by security up to the interview area.
After going through the security door we took our number from the ticket machine and sat down and waited to be called up. Which was immediate as we were the first ones there and had our first meeting with a lady to check all of our documents. As I was applying via job experience she checked over the paperwork and handed back the example job listing I included. I'll list all the documents I included in this later. We had our fingerprints scanned and I was given my passport and an amount to pay which I had to take over to the payment area. This is the part where my credit card company rejected my payment and I had to be given a pass to get out, I went back out through security grabbing my phones and called them. This process took 15 very anxious minutes but thankfully the lift on US currency payments got lifted and I was able to successfully make the payment.
I took the receipt back to the lady who first served me and was advised that everything was ok and to take a seat as I'd be called up for my interview next. As the payment had taken some time the consulate was no longer empty so we had to wait a while whilst I nervously watched the people at the counters to see if they had my paperwork. We saw a few happy people walking away during this time and one person that had missed out due to the wrong country of chargeability. Finally we were called up, we held our hand up and made an oath that all our information was truthful and had our finger prints scanned again. The interview was relatively short and simple, just went through and confirmed our details, whether we'd been married before, if we had any other children and what my job was. I'd answered with my job position and how long I'd been working in that role for, he confirmed my recent job change and then advised us that we'd be receiving our visas in the mail. We stood there dumbfounded and asked if we were successful and if there was anything else, he replied no and we just left.
We had our interview on the Tuesday and we've received the passports back on Thursday. Overall that was extremely anticlimactic.
In terms of paperwork I brought for my work experience.
Resume
Job offer letter from current role
O*Net listing
Letter from previous employer detailing duties and length of tenure
Letter written by myself listing experience, job titles and income levels
University enrolment and results
Now we just need to decide where we're living and when we're going!
