Visa Process

As promised in the previous post, this will consist of details of the much nerve wracking Visa application process.

If you have no interest in the visa process or you would like to find out for yourself how it goes, then I strongly advise you to skip reading this.

I’d firstly like to say that there’s honestly nothing to worry about. As long as you have a clean record, you do exactly as you’re told, bring the right documents and be truthful, you’ll be absolutely fine.

Pre Appointment

I received my visa petition (or notice of action) on the 22^nd of April. Two months before my arrival date. As soon as you receive this, ring the embassy up immediately to book your appointment. Be sure to have a credit/debit card, the petition and your passport at hand, as they’ll ask for a payment and your passport and petition details. The call lasted me about 10 minutes, and it’s around £1.23 per minute, but you’ll have all this information on the sheet and in yummy’s documents.

After booking your appointment, you’re advised to fill out the DS-160 form on the embassy’s website as soon as possible. (Seriously, do it as soon as you can – just get it out the way, you’ll feel so much better for it)  I’ll warn you now, it times out a lot so be sure to save. Mine timed out every 5 minutes or less. It can be very frustrating. You also have to supply a photograph at this point and be sure to read the requirements as they’re quite specific.

Make sure you download all the relevant documents on yummy’s site as they do help a lot, and go through the checklist on the embassy’s website for what to bring to your appointment.

Appointment Day

I booked the appointment for 8am – I believe the earliest time slot available.

As I mentioned in the previous post, I stayed in the Travelodge in Covent Garden (£89 a night, not including breakfast but check out was at 12pm which was a bonus).  We left the hotel at about 7:05am, and caught a taxi just outside the building. The taxi cost us £6.40 or £6:80, definitely under £7.

We arrived at the embassy at approximately 7:20am and queued outside.

My appointment confirmation was checked by an embassy worker outside, and then my passport was checked by another worker.

They let a few people in at a time to a small building, just outside the embassy, for security checks. I strongly advice you, if possible to just bring your documents and nothing else. It really slows the process down if you’re fiddling about with bags and you’re strictly prohibited from bringing mobile phones or any other electrical devices.

So after going through the security checks, I was then led through by some signs, to the reception of the embassy where they hand you a ticket with your number. This was given to me at 7:42am.

I then went through to a room where there are television screens and waited for my number to be called out. I was the 10^th person in. When my number was called out, I went up to this little window where I handed in my documents (including passport) and they took my prints from all fingers and thumbs. I was then asked to sit down again, and wait for my number to be called for the second time.

When my number was called for the second time, (and this time, in no particular order) I went to another window, where I had my ‘interview’. It was basically a few simple questions, such as what you intend on doing when you’re back in the UK and what are you going to be doing out in the US.

I was then told my visa was approved and was sent to the courier service desk, back in the waiting room.  Queue was about 5 minutes long. You just confirm that your visa has been accepted and you have to pay £14.80 (if I can remember rightly) to have your passport and visa sent back to you. There are additional costs if you want it before 8am (approx £30) and 12pm (approx £26). This must be paid for by credit or debit card (they do specify which ones). Cash is not accepted.

After the courier fee was paid, I was then free to leave the building. That was at approximately 9:15am.

We then took the tube from Oxford Circus to Holborn, back to the hotel. I believe we were back before 10:10am, or at least around that time. We did stop off at a Starbucks for a take away coffee, along the way. To be honest, I do think if you’re not too tired and like walking, you could probably walk back to the hotel in less than half an hour (Providing you’re familiar with the way).

Dress Code: I just wore jeans and a jumper. The majority people were in ‘normal’ clothing. As long as you’re not scruffy and have some tidy shoes, you’re good to go.

So, I think that’s about it. The whole process (including the wait outside) took about 2 hours. If you have any questions, please feel to ask.

Disclaimer: All information provided in this post was correct at the time of submission. Please check regularly for updates in Yummy Jobs documents and the US Embassy website.

The Big Smoke

Image taken from here

Firstly I’d like to apologise for not posting in a while. I’ve been sort of busy. Yeah, I’m sorry. This ‘busy’ excuse is getting repetitive and I’ll try not to use it too much, out in the Sunshine State.

So last week I went to London for my visa appointment (I’ll do a separate post on the whole procedure etc, after this one). I stayed for two nights in a Travelodge in Covent Garden. Okay, so it was pretty basic (as to be expected from a Travelodge – not a snobby remark) but I really could not complain about the location. I would stay there again, just for it’s convenient location.

We went down on Tuesday. Had a bit of a walkabout around Covent Garden, Soho area and China Town. I’ve always wanted to visit there.  We then proceeded to seek out a place to eat.  Earlier on in the day, my dad had asked me to search for a Mexican place called Wahaca, but I had no luck. Cut a long story short; on our walk back to the hotel, I spotted this Wahaca, so we tried there. I’m so glad we did. It was excellent food and service. The price was pretty reasonable too. I had chorizo and potato quesadillas (I’ve since made these at home, from Thomasina Mier’s cook book; Mexican Food Made Simple, who coincidentally is the founder of Wahaca) and black bean tostadas (From the tapas style section) and I washed it down with a classic margarita. If I happen to find myself in that area again, I’ll certainly be going back.

The following day, we had nothing arranged. We had been sick the previous week so didn’t really have the chance to arrange any outings. Instead, we wandered down to Trafalgar Square and then checked out the National Gallery. The rest of that day is a bit of a blur, I’m afraid. However, in the evening I met up with Siobhan (Who I’ll by flying with). After wandering around looking for a place to eat, that wasn’t packed, we ended up in Cafe Rouge.

Thursday, the final day, was visa day. I was awake at 5:45am. I won’t go into too much detail here, but we go to the embassy around 7:20am and out at around 9:15am. Siobhan and I also met Amanda at the embassy who’ll be starting the same day as us.  It’s nice to know that we’re all feeling the same nerves and excitement.

After the Visa business was out the way, we headed back to the hotel and I went to meet my parents. I really wanted to check out the Primrose Bakery which was somewhere in Covent Garden, so we made a dash for it before having to check out. Turns out it wasn’t really that far from my hotel. I bought a few cupcakes to sample. I really liked the cookies and cream cupcake. Well mainly the sticky meringue style frosting with crumbled up oreos.

Cupcakes from the Primrose Bakery. Coconut, Chocolate & Cookies and Cream.

That’s about it for my London adventure. I really love London, from what I’ve seen of it. I definitely want to go there more often when I’m back in the UK.

In other news, I’ve finished one of my jobs and there’s One month left until I depart. I’m feeling a mixture of nerves and excitement. I’m more excited at the moment, but I’m sure a bout of nervous will smack me before long.

I’ll be posting on the actual visa process tomorrow. Until then, good night.