Indra’s Drishtikona (Viewpoint)

Our date with folks @ American Embassy..:-)

Posted : January 25, 2005 at 6:09 am [IST]

For the past few weeks, myself and Anand were working on getting ready for our Visa interview at the American Embassy. Sometimes, I felt as excited as I did when I faced some interviews during my professional career or for the entrance examination to IIT, Kharagpur. In those days, the performance in the interview was crucial. We followed the advice of the TT Services. Anand also got some tips from his friends who had done this for their parents before. He probably spent a lot of time collecting all the documents and may have even taken certain obligations along with a whole lot of heartburn. For example, Fedex charged US $93 for the packet sent to us with all the documents. I didn’t have much to do, but I went through the papers including the DS-156 form. I had to raise a number of questions as I am a bit of a perfectionist in whatever I do.

To give you an example, the web generated receipt had some important things to remember while filling out the application forms. ” If you have no response for a question, put “none’ or “nil”-do not draw a line or write “n.a” or “not available”. Anand had put “N/A”, so I had to ask. However, TTS confirmed that to be ok. Further, Anand was under the assumption that DS-157 was only required for visitors in a certain age group. When I asked TTS, they told about the latest change and that it was indeed a required document. Since Anand had not sent it, I downloaded the PDF from a website, took a print out and filled it out. I am not sure if you know this, but it turns out that DS-157 form requires the visitor to write their name in their own native language. Needless to say, I happily obliged. Many of the questions were irrelevant but we still had to comply with the rules laid out in the form. We also took some pain to explain to the technician at the Photo studio the specifications of the photographs that were required. I went to HDFC Bank asking them for Demand Drafts. The bank issued “Manager Cheques” to me. That caused some worrisome moments, as the next three days were holidays. Finally the technicality was made clear by some of my friends and also confirmed in time by TTS.

Anand’s list of things that I had to carry also included a letter from me declaring the purpose of our visit. I drafted the letter as given below:

Our Request for B1/B2 Visa for visiting USA

We have not gone anywhere since I retired. We did travel earlier, when ever we got opportunity. For all the years after the retirement, we have not been out abroad. We plan to visit USA mainly for a change and to live with my sons. We shall be staying with Anand Sharma, who works for CISCO in Santa Clara. Naturally, at our age this is the only way to get some happiness and pleasure. Fortunately for us, he is still unmarried and can take care of us. He may be getting different assignment next year and get busy. So we have decided to be with him for some time. We also wish to see some places of interest in USA about which we have heard a lot. We shall be traveling with return tickets. We shall leave USA any day if we start getting bored, or we sense we are burden on our sons or on the government of USA taking the first return flight to our heaven (Janambhumi-homeland). We hope you shall be granting us the necessary visa so that we can make the trip.”

My entire family went back and forth on this draft via email and telephone calls. In the end, I carried the letter drafted by Anand, given below:

Our Request for B1/B2 Visa for visiting USA

We have not traveled overseas since I retired. Before retirement I used to travel extensively overseas. We plan to visit the USA primarily for traveling and to stay with Anand, my son working in Santa Clara, California. Anand is very interested in spending some time with us and traveling to some places together. He may be getting a different assignment next year and perhaps get much more busy. So we’ve decided to stay with him for some time and give him company. We do wish to see some places USA that I could not visit during my active career - along with Anand. We hope you can grant us the necessary visa so that we can make this travel to the USA.

And so yesterday (24th January 2005) the D-Day finally arrived and we went to the American Embassy for our interview. We started off standing in line and waiting for our turn and. I am sure I am not alone when I say that I absolutely detest “standing in a line” for anything. Anyway, when our turn came, I was surprised to find myself standing on one side of a thick glass protected counter during the interview. Frankly, I was expecting a cubicle kind of a setting where and we’ll be offered some chairs. Frankly, it was somewhat difficult to hear the Visa officer properly through the tiny hole at the bottom of glass shield. So, what did he ask? Well, suffice it to say that he never asked us for any document, not even I-134, the affidavit of support. I unnecessarily thrust a copy of the letter from Anand’s employer (Cisco) to the officer who was interviewing us. All in all, I felt it should have been better organized by a country that is the only superpower of the world today. However, I maintained my cool as directed by my eldest son Rakesh. As per his suggestion, I was dressed in a formal attire. Yamuna was even more prepared than me. Perhaps all that played a role, however small.

In the whole exercise, two things were of immense help. With internet connection, I could get my queries answered fast. My son found the following suite very useful: Immihelp.com. Second, as my sons were working on the documents for us, I decided on lending a helping hand to one of my friends who was also getting ready to visit States. Many queries raised by him to me solved my problem too.

If everything goes as per plan, we should be getting our visas sometime this week.

- Indra

Category: Government Policy/Administration |