Planning a trip to America - part 8 - Interview.

When I had fixed the appointment time for the interview at 10am, I didn’t know that there would be more than fifty people seeking the appointment at the same time. I didn’t realize that the interview for Visa was not only for Mumbai folks, it also included people from all the consular district surrounding Mumbai from west of India. I had paid Rs250 and had the comfort of waiting in the air-conditioned ‘Stars and Strips Lounge’ at Tirupati Apartments and there was bus facility to transport me to the venue at my appointment time, but those who did not want to pay that amount would be standing in a queue, on the road, outside the consulate. Therefore, when I alighted from my 'Stars n stripes' bus, I was surprised to see hundreds of people standing in a queue that was as long as one kilometer, all standing under no shade, in the hot sun, leaning against the wall for comfort. It pained me to cut that queue and walk in as a privileged client.


I walked into the building, through the glass doors and through security point. Here, they checked my documents again, leaf by leaf, looking desperately for some clues to boycott me, finding none; they let me in after a brief body massage with that metal detector. There was a bigger surprise inside the waiting hall. There were more than hundred people waiting before me. The room was packed with people, all staring at the non-function able indicator on the wall and straining their ears to hear the roll of call. I was directed toward a desk, who again checked my documents, then arranged and returned my passport, appointment letter and large envelop (that would be used for posting the passport if I was approved for the visa) and a token number. There was now another big queue to wait before I could sit down and wait for my turn. This queue was for tracing the ten finger prints.

At 12 noon, I waited for my turn. The number indicator was out of order; people depended on correct pronunciation of the number for their turn. Sometimes there was announcement of one number, and sometimes in groups, they were announced in three languages according to the selection of the people, in Hindi, English or Gujarati, surprisingly they did not announce any numbers in Marathi (Consulate in Maharashtra and no announcement in Marathi? Somebody should protest. hahaaa).

Surprise, can you imagine? Nobody chatted! Everybody was in deep thoughts, looking listlessly, some smiling, some staring and some just praying, but there was no conversation amongst people. Maybe they were equally exhausted like me.

Finally at 1pm I heard my token number announced and I walked inside a cubicle to talk to the officer, seated on a high chair behind a huge glass, talking to me over a mike.

10am was my appointment time; my turn comes at 1pm.

She has already decided that I do not qualify for US Visa because I am single, unemployed (according to them), have no ties attached and is visiting a relative who has a retail business. Chances are that I might make US my permanent home and never return, thus stealing a job that truly belongs to US citizen. My intention of just visiting America as a tourist is not very entertaining to her. I need a handsome bank account and powerful salary slips to show her that I can support myself. She is not even interested in seeing any documents that I had so neatly compiled and was waiting to show her. She has made up her mind. Probably there are certain quotas of refusals per day and it will be easy to include me in that list. I want to tell her that America is outsourcing its jobs in India, why would I want to go to their country to seek jobs? People who live in India have comfortable lifestyles, with live-in maids, and warm loving people. I, for one, have traveled around the world and have never been refused visa before in any country. I have already made up my mind to make Mumbai my permenent home and will never opt to live anywhere else in this world. The only reason one should be refused visa is if it a security threat to their country. I am the most harmless person. I like traveling and like to explore new places. I have also visited America before. During my last trip, I was able to explore only New York, Boston, South Carolina and Albany. This trip I was looking forward to visiting Chicago, Texas and maybe a road trip up to Mexico border.

My mouth is parched. I am hungry and am waiting to end these formalities. I am exhausted and I have no energy to argue.

Moreover, I am not too desperate to make this trip.

Planning a Trip to America ~ Part 7- at Stars and Strips lounge

The day of interview finally arrived. It was scheduled at 10am. I had to go with valid proof of my journey, valid documents, and appointment letter (downloaded from the net.)

I got up early (it said very clearly on the rules page, that if I missed the appointment then I would spell trouble). The first fear that gripped me was what if the alarm did not go on. I know, I know, 10am is not early. But for me it is because I am a late riser. And I had to go to the other side of the city. That means I need to leave two hours early and one hour I would need to get dressed, so the perfect time would be to get up at 7am. I set all the clocks in my house at 7am, plus my mobile phone and also told my two friends to call me to wake me and nobody betrayed me. Morning, at 7am, I was mobbed with too many wake-up calls.

Got dressed up and headed towards south Mumbai. The traffic was too much. Why do they have so many signals on Mumbai road? Or rather, why do they have so many cross-road junctions everywhere? On the days when you wish to hurry, your transport is likely to halt at every signal on the road and you are destined to be caught up in traffic jams. Braving all this hassle, I reached the embassy building at 9:45am, just fifteen minutes before my appointment time. I approached the attendant outside the Visa Application Centre (Tirupati Apartments) and I was directed towards ‘Stars and Strips Lounge’. Two fierce-looking men sat at the desk outside the lounge that checked my receipt of Rs250 and gave me coupons for entry, drink and snack. I was then directed towards the locker room. (As I mentioned earlier they did have a locker room for their distinguished guest, and they had wasted my one full day when I was carrying a camera the other day and nobody would help me) I deposited my handbag, mobile phone and all my belongings into the locker room. I was allowed to carry my wallet and my documents. These formalities took so much time that the bus that was supposed to take me to the other venue (at American embassy) for interview had already left. I was feeling guilty at arriving so late.

I was asked to wait in ‘Stars and Strips lounge’ I looked at my watch, it was 10am. I approached those fierce-looking men, informing them that it was past my appointment time and I was getting late and could he arrange to reach me at the venue that was about ten minutes away. He informed me that I had missed my 10am bus and would have to wait for the next bus. Cursing myself, I entered the lounge and headed towards a small kiosk in the room. There were soft drinks, tea, coffee, cakes, croissants, sandwiches, etc. I had no appetite for eating anything in the morning; I used my drinks-coupon to buy coffee. There were more than fifty people in the lounge, all the aspiring visa seekers, killing time by watching the cricket match on TV. Cricket does not interest me, so I just sat there, staring into the space or at people surrounding me. Young girls praying silently, young men fidgeting with their folders and documents, old men, women, some of them in deep meditation, all hoping that they would not be refused their visa. The atmosphere is very tense and vibrations no good. The time ticks slowly, and at 10;30am the bus finally arrives to transport the next batch of people to the other venue at American Embassy.

To be continued….

Planning a trip to America -- part 6- Submitting Visa application papers

Breach Candy (also known as Bhulabhai Desai Road) is a place closer to famous religious monuments like Haji Ali Mosque and Mahalaxmi temple. It also has a Breach Candy hospital, an elite Breach Candy Club, and eateries which are quite popular with the expats.

Breach Candy is a hip place and shoppers’ paradise. This is the place where American embassy chooses to have its two venues, one for submitting visa papers and other for holding their ‘interviews’. The venue for submitting the papers is surrounded by the row of shops selling trendy clothes, watches, sunglasses and has some elite supermarkets that sell exotic foods that may not be available in other parts of the city. On any other day, I would enjoy walking down this street, window shopping but on the day of submitting my visa papers; I was in no mood to do anything else.

I returned to this venue the next day again, this time sans camera. (as I mentioned earlier that I had to waste one day because I had camera in my bag the previous day) the security guard checked my bag, silenced my cell phone and satisfied that I was an innocent citizen just seeking visa, I was granted entry to go through a narrow gate, down the steps into a heavily guarded office. I looked around noticing that there was no piece of art that would have attracted my attention enough to click the pictures even if I had camera on me.

There were five windows and enough seats to wait for your turn. I was the only person entering this office and I submitted my papers. The woman behind the window scrutinized my papers and was not happy with my photograph. They are very particular about the photograph. Photo format should be exactly as it is required. In my photograph some strands of hair were falling on my ears. She asked me to go to the photography cabin and click my picture in accordance to the requirement.

The girl in the photography cabin had a digital camera mounted on a tripod, a computer and a small printer on her side table. She clicked my photograph and then checked the picture in her computer, not satisfied, clicked one more picture and removed the ugliest photograph of me with a full charge of Rs100 for her labor. I must tell you that she was no good photographer With all my hair strung back behind my ears, droopy eyes and no smile to add the rosy-ness to the face, I resembled a terrorist and I was sure anybody would be refused visa with such expressions. Not even a second thought would ever change their mind. Silly!!!

Anyways, I returned to the window to deposit my photograph and the girl had enough time to go through my papers.

‘What do you do?” she asked me when I returned.

“I am a coordinator with a special school, I collect funds for the school, maintain two blogs for the school ( from my six blogs that I update regularly), counsel the parents of the special children, hold workshops for special teachers and am also a committee member” I said.

“That’s not a job” she said, handing me my papers she said, “Write here that I am ‘unemployed presently”

I looked at her from the corner of my eyes; wondering if it is necessary to show salary slips to confirm that I am not idle? I wanted to ask her but I was in no mood to argue. I took the application form from her and wrote ‘presently unemployed’ signing my name beneath those words.

Fully satisfied, she asked me if I would want to wait in comfort and without stress at ‘Stars and Strips lounge’ on the day of my interview. I was asked to pay Rs250 cash (no credit card is honored for this service) and to come just thirty minutes prior to my interview time.

To be continued……

Planning a trip to America - part 5- No camera please!

After organizing all my papers, fixing a date for interview online, and getting all the proofs to show the validity of the informations on the application form, I headed to the office to submit my papers.

Just submitting the papers should not be a problem. Right? But since problems follow me everywhere, they accompanied me to this office too.

The office rules states that following items are not allowed:

*All battery operated or electronic gadgets such as mobile phones, digital diaries, pagers, cameras, audio/video cassettes, compact discs , MP3’s, floppies ,lap tops, palm tops or portable music players.
*All ladies hand bags/purses. Only a small ladies pouch in hand will be permitted.
*All bags such as travel bags, back packs, brief cases, suit cases, leather, jute or cloth bags and zip folders. Only a plastic bag containing your application related papers will be permitted.
*Any food item.
*Sealed envelopes or packages
*Cigarettes / cigars / match boxes / lighters
*Any sharp object such as a pair of scissors, pen knives or nail filers

Okay, I did read the rules that following items are not allowed at the embassy for security reasons, but shouldn’t they have some lockers, somewhere at the entrance where people can keep their stuff if they have it on them?

Being a blogger, I normally carry camera with me everywhere and thoughtlessly, I was carrying one on that day too. The security guard refused to let me in and wanted me to deposit my camera else where. Where could I deposit my camera? I knew nobody in that area and going home/retuning back to the office would take me more that three hours. I was desperately asking for help, but nobody could help me, security guards said that they were helpless, ‘rules are rules’ they said and they had strict instructions to follow. damn!

This office is in a busy area and there are line of stores adjoing this office. Just next to the office was a supermarket that had facility of depositing the extra shopping bags of the people who entered the store for buying grocery. I dumped my camera into the plastic bag and approached the supermarket, depositing my bag at the entrance. I told him to hold on, I would be back and then I would shop at his store. But he refused to keep my plastic bag informing me that he had permission to keep the shopping bags of the people who were inside the store and not for the people who were seeking Visa next door. I tried several stores but none were helpful. I didn’t know what to do? Submitting the papers should not take more than ten minutes but I could find neither a friendly neighboring store nor any helpful security guards to hold on to my camera for ten minutes.

A young man standing at the corner of the street saw my desperation and wanted to help me. He volunteered to hold my camera till I was back. Should I trust him? How could I? He had no fixed stand. It was an expensive camera, what if he took it and walked off while I was inside the office submitting the papers. Where would I find him? I was weighing my options. He seemed sincere and kind (no doubt about that) but it was the risky to trust a stranger. Sulk* sulk*

I took a taxi home, I decided to return back the next day, without a camera.
I had wasted one more day……..

Ps: few days later I learnt that they did have facility of lockers for distinguished guests who waited in  'Stars and Strips lounge’.

More of that later……

Planning a trip to America - Part 4- Application form

This is the continuation of my previous entry.....
So, here I was, poorer by US131 dollars, applying for US Visa after obtaining the bar code.

Since I was applying for tourist visa, I needed to fill the forms DS156 and DS157 which, besides entering all the necessary data, like name, address and other details of my existences, also had some queries that required digging my grave for the lost skeletons.

For example I had to list all the countries I have visited in last ten years (Hello! I have visited so many places in last ten years that there was not enough space to list them all in that small dotted line. Over the last ten years I have traveled every year, some place or the other, Asia, Africa, Europe, and no embassy has asked me so many queries, neither at the embassy nor at the immigration)

And the next question: List all the countries that have issued me passport in last ten years (my last passport was issued in Madrid and my new passport is issued in Mumbai, now any stranger would wonder why my passport was issued in Madrid and what am I doing in India? Americans might think that I have no home that I might be a gipsy.)

Another question: Not including your current employer, list your last two employees… now this is tough to answer…I have never worked under somebody…ever, always been my own boss. When I started my career as a special educator, I was the head teacher, worked for two years and went traveling to Surinam, came back to Mumbai after four years and worked in the same school for another four years, again migrated to Spain and worked in my own retail store for another ten years, now back in Mumbai since last five years and I do blogging and social work….I have worked all my life but I have no proof, no paper work, no proper salary slip to show. What do I do?

Another question: List of all the charitable or social organizations that I belong to, or contribute or work with…..(Yes, I do work as a NGO with charitable institution for mentally challenged and do help the school in raising funds. There are many other things I do besides that like: blogging for that school,  holding workshops on teaching method for teachers, counseling the parents,and I am also the committee member and do take active part in decision making at the school, I normaly do all my work, keeping a low profile, don't like too much publicity, must I really brag???)

But, why do I have to write so many details in this application form when all I want to do is take one month holiday to Chicago and go for a road trip with my group of cousins?????

To be continued………

Planning a trip to America – part 3 - Pay before you apply

While visiting other countries in the world, all we need is valid passport, a booked ticket and photographs, but visiting America needs lots of planning and no agent can do it for you. You have to self-apply for the visa and that too online.

First things first…you have to pay before you apply for a visa. Yeah right! Did I hear some one asking ‘What if they don’t give you visa?’ Hahahaa…!!! Your money is gone down the drain, and it is not a small amount, mind you, it is rupees seven thousand plus….I am told that they refuse many applicants per day and swallow up their hard earned money to pay the salary of those insensitive people at the consulate.

Well. I went to HDFC bank to pay for the visa, no, not any HDFC branch, (there are so many HDFC branches in Bandra area, but none were authorized to accept the payments for the visa) the nearest HDFC bank was more than 10 kms away and during rush hour, it takes more than forty minutes to reach that bank.

In hot sun, I took auto and reached the bank. I was directed to a desk that was manned by two people stationed for this purpose (yawning away). I showed them the photocopy of my passport and they made a ‘USA MRV VISA FEE DEPOSIT SLIP’ (three copies) that had barcode sticker.

This is the barcode number that we are suppose to use to book our appointment online

Three hours wasted for just paying for the visa. (For someone who opts to use public transport in Mumbai city, the time wasted will be more than that)

to be continued……

Planning a trip to America - part 2 - The hassle

“You will get American visa easily” said my cousin, “You own a property, you have visited USA before and you have clean record. You shall have no trouble.”

“They normally don’t issue visa to person who is single,” said my other cousin “You might have problem there. They are very strict”

So, how come there are so many illegal immigrants in America??

I fail to understand why there is such a fuss about acquiring American visa (in India). What is the counsulate officer thinking while issuing visa?

America is the land of immigrants, According to the statistics, the United States accepts more immigrants than any other country; in 2007, its population included 38.1 million foreign-born persons (that is appr. 12.6 % of the total population.) and yet, there is so much hue and cry over this visa. People eagerly ask you the questions that are asked during the interview.

Some months ago, my friend had applied for tourist visa and she had received Visa for ten years. There was celebration in the house, there were smiling visitors, non stop phone calls, all eager to congratulate and learn the details of the interview that was held behind the closed doors.

Everybody who has applied for this visa has a story to tell, be it of acceptance or of refusal. There is a mourning period if there is refusal, and a day to celebrate on acceptance.

No other country in the world makes such a fuss over issuing a tourist visa like America (consulate in India). Not that I know of.

Planning a trip to America – Part 1- The party

My cousins and I have made plans to make a road trip from Chicago to Texas to Mexico border. We plan to rent out a caravan and drive through different cities, exploring each town, tasting the local cuisine, visiting the places of interest and above all, to spend some quality time together in a foreign land.

Now, the next part is to apply for US visa. While my cousins, who stay in different parts of the world, have no difficulty in getting visa, in India, it is a long and painful experience. I have previously applied twice from Surinam (when I lived there) and then from Spain (another home) and have already visited America without any discomfort. But now, since I am back in India, I need to apply for Visa from here but I have come to realize that the visa issued in other countries is much easier than getting one from India.