10 years business visa!!!!!!!!!

Now I have full authority to romp in the states. B1/B2 category 10 years multiple entry visa. What else could anyone ask for. Full recovery of the 100$ application fees. But god damn was there a major mismanagement case at the embassy at the time of my interview.

Interview time is 12 noon. I reach by 11:15. And there is a huge line waiting ahead of me. People having an interview time of 12:15 and 12:30 were ahead of me. Time's running out and the lin's not even moving. I asked around and some of the officials told me that it doent't make a difference if the interview time gets exceeded. So eventually at around 1:30 I reach the counter for verification of the form. After getting all the forms verified by the surdi sir inside, I went in the complex. I wasn't carrying anything that would be objectionable. No cellphone, no pen drive and no iPod. So while most of the people were busy emptying their pockets, I happily wandered in for my interview.

Inside, the first thing that had to be done was anohter verification, this time with finger prints. My guess is the prints were for their internal records database. I was given a number and was told to wait for my turn. Damn. There were a hell of a lot of people in front of me. So happily I was sitting and trying to catch on with some sleep, not that I didn't any, but just that all that waiting got me lazed out a bit. So eventually I hear my number being called out. I thought FINALLY!!!!

But nooooooo!!!!! I had to wait, this time in a line, again. And there were atleast 40 odd people in front of me. Yippeee!!!! What fun. Well waiting, and waiting, an waiting. I find myself in the front of my line. This time around I wasn't much excited. I was much too busy getting all my papers together out of my folder. "Next candidate please" was the call from the lady behind the wndow wearing specs and a cream coloured shirt, my guess is, in her early 30s. I approach her, not for flirting, but for the interview, and she asks me general stuff. I tell her that I am going for a conference where I'll be presenting a technical paper. I also mentioned that I was doing it on an undergraduate level, to which she replied that its pretty rare for UGs to go for presentations. I was trying to give her my papers but she never asked for even a single document. I finally managed to slip in my invitation letter to her, which she returned in less than 15 seconds. Now either she had already made uyp her mind that she wasn't gonna issue me a visa, or she had already done that, so she didn't even bother to ask for any papers. I was desperately hoping for the latter option. Then, all of a sudden, I hear a 'Thank you, next candidate please". Thats it. That is it. It was all over.

I came out, all of a sudden felling extremely famished. I had earlier enquired inside that I could either pick up my passport in person the next day afternoon, or I can wait for it to be couriered to me. I told my peon to collect it the other day, whi the hell would wait for a whole week.

I was sitting in the office in the evening the very next day. The courier guy came and suddenly asked for me. I recognised the envelope that he was carrying, which was similar to the one that my friend Sudy had also carried when he gave his interview in the Mumbai office. I knew that it was my passport. I tore it apart, got my passport, and started flippiong through the pages. And there it was, the beatufiful visa with my photo on one side and my name on the other side. Buut my eyes went directly to the last line in the visa - Date of issue 11Jan2007 , Date of expiry 09Jan2017. Aaaaaahhhh!!!! What a relief. In fact what a nice investment for the 5000 rupees visa fees. It can't get any better than this......