US visa
So I am supposed to travel to US for a week to attend a few meetings and had to get a US visa. I must say I'm appalled at the mismanagement of the whole visa issue process in the US embassy in London.
We were given an appointment for 12:30 so we arrived at about 12, only to see about 150 people queuing before us. Apparently, they give appointments at the same time to about 50 people but can realistically process about 25-30 through the security system and whatnot, so the queue keeps building up. We had to queue outside the embassy for over two hours in the cold and drizzle, with the baby too.
When we finally got inside, we were all cold, wet and hungry, but, again, you are not allowed to bring any food or drinks inside the embassy, so the only option was a tiny joint inside the embassy building selling cold and musty sandwiches at ridiculous prices
. We had to wait another hour for the visa interview.
Thankfully, the interview itself lasted only about 2 minutes, but then came the part about getting your passports back. Apparently, they deliver your passport only through a particular courier service, which charged me about 40 pounds to deliver the passports from the embassy to my place , which is about 20 minutes away. The breakdown was: 15 pounds for normal delivery, 25 extra for delivery before 9AM, which, of course, most people have to take, because you need to go to work - right?.
I don't know if this is the same in other places - if it is, the US visa people really need to get their act together. One also cannot help but wonder if this is a deliberate ploy to discourage people from applying? It would seem to me though, that, this is exactly the sort of thing that discourages regular guys from going through the process, and encourages illegal immigration!
We were given an appointment for 12:30 so we arrived at about 12, only to see about 150 people queuing before us. Apparently, they give appointments at the same time to about 50 people but can realistically process about 25-30 through the security system and whatnot, so the queue keeps building up. We had to queue outside the embassy for over two hours in the cold and drizzle, with the baby too.
When we finally got inside, we were all cold, wet and hungry, but, again, you are not allowed to bring any food or drinks inside the embassy, so the only option was a tiny joint inside the embassy building selling cold and musty sandwiches at ridiculous prices
. We had to wait another hour for the visa interview.
Thankfully, the interview itself lasted only about 2 minutes, but then came the part about getting your passports back. Apparently, they deliver your passport only through a particular courier service, which charged me about 40 pounds to deliver the passports from the embassy to my place , which is about 20 minutes away. The breakdown was: 15 pounds for normal delivery, 25 extra for delivery before 9AM, which, of course, most people have to take, because you need to go to work - right?.
I don't know if this is the same in other places - if it is, the US visa people really need to get their act together. One also cannot help but wonder if this is a deliberate ploy to discourage people from applying? It would seem to me though, that, this is exactly the sort of thing that discourages regular guys from going through the process, and encourages illegal immigration!
posted by Biswa at 2:25 AM
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