Getting closer by the day now.....to STARTING work!

Please note, any comments I receive that have the posters email in I will delete for their own benefit. October 15th 2008 I am now sitting at my computer in America and have loads of things to write, even though very little has actually happened. However, I shall start by going back to getting my visa at the US embassy, and in the next blog write what has happened since I have been state-side. When I got my letter confirming I was selected in the H1B visa lottery it said I needed to go to my US consulate and have my passport stamped with the work visa (all my family had to have their passports stamped, but only adults over 18 needed to be present at the consulate thankfully). There were two basic forms that needed to be filled out ONLINE and PRINTED OFF and taken with you to the consulate. One was for the family, and one for each individual. These are fairly lengthy forms and you need to be careful you don't die from boredom filling them out. However, you must do it, and you really really must take them with you. When my wife and I arrived at the US consulate in London there was a queue (sorry a "line") outside, of people having their paperwork checked before they were allowed in. Eventually it came to our turn and apparently, having been so careful and diligent in filling out and printing off the forms, I had somehow not done it correctly. Apparently the form you need for the family has to be printed off for each individual, but I swear it didn't make that clear. I can't give you a link to the actual forms because they are kept between a locked door on the consulates website, but if you want to look at the scary page before you enter, then I've added that HERE!! So, we get told by the girl manning the desk BEFORE you get in to the embassy that we need to fill out another batch of forms before we will be allowed in, and that there is a pharmacy around the corner that has internet access available. So we walk to the pharmacy which has 3 computers, all with shmucks like us that have filled out their forms incorrectly. The fee was reasonable, but enough to make the pharmacy owner a millionaire judging by the number of shmucks that then followed in after us. It took about 40 minutes to fill out the forms and print them all off, but which time instead of being early to our appointment we were on time. However, that was totally irrelevant once you get inside the embassy as time becomes a fixed constant in the universe. Oh, and at the embassy you are NOT allowed anything electronic. People were throwing iPods and cell phones and all sorts in the trash cans 9must be a few rich hobo's around that part of London), but we happened to have parked in a car park which keeps your keys or we might have been in the same predicament. And I was told later that the pharmacy will look after your electrical goods for 10 pounds an hour. But basically just don't take ANYTHING electronic - you will have to lose it otherwise. Then we go through passport control, customs, luggage check and immigration (only joking) and enter the consulate. We then go to another desk where another woman checks all our paperwork is correct, and she then gives us a numbered ticket. After about 20 minutes our number comes up and we go to one of the glass-protected screens (like in a bank) where a man checks all our papers again, fills out a form, stamps some papers, and gives us a new form and another ticket. Then time stops, and we sit, unable to leave, unable to phone the outside world, unable to do anything except buy drinks and snacks at the kiosk at the back of the room and hope our number comes up sometime before we die. After 3 and a half hours our number comes up. We go to another woman, this time at a glass-screened kiosk around the corner, and she again checks the paperwork. She then casually asks a few questions, and then, apparently not liking one of my answers says she just wants to check something. Fifteen bloody minutes later she comes back and says, "it's OK, your visas have been authorised". Phew, because I've sold my house, given my job up, and enrolled the kids in US schools, so I'm sort of glad you've granted the visa's! They keep our passports and we pay for the pleasure of them sending them back to us, which only takes about a week or so, depending on how much you want to pay to get them back. One WHOLE day spent at the consulate - don't expect anything less. At least not in London, which was BLOODY BUSY. OK, so we're good to go, yes. But there's a load more paperwork to get sorted once you arrive in the US. Farmacyst