A day in US embassy - I

- Vidhya Krishnan

In the last 2-3 years I have heard all sorts of incidences about difficulties in getting an entry to US for even short stays. I have seen students refused a visa to attend a conference (for even 5 days). I have heard about people who got rejected to enter US for work permits, tourists etc.

Last year in December I had to go for US visa on official purpose. I applied for business visa and got an interview date after six months. After six months of waiting I got an early flight and flew from Bangalore (No US embassy in the Silicon valley of India!) to Chennai for the interview. Chennai was already in floods. Luckily, the embassy area was not in floods. As far I could see there were people who had come for the US visa interview. People started queuing up before an hour of their interview time. There wasn’t any shade or shelter. One has to stand in the queue on the pavement.

When it was time for me to stand in the queue, I wondered what to do with the bag I took with me. Inside the embassy only the relevant documents are allowed. There wasn’t any cloak room to keep one’s belongings. I asked a police man there. He said, “ Don’t worry, I will take you to a place.” He took me to a tea stall at the bottom of the road. I said, “I don’t want tea.” He said, ”You can keep your belongings in the tea stall and pay him some bucks. He will take care of your things.” I didn’t have any other option other than to leave my bag in the tea stall. I thought to myself, smart people who make use of the situation to earn their living. One can’t even take any food item inside the embassy. I knew it would take a long time to finish the interview. So I grabbed my sandwich and had it while walking towards the queue.

to be continued................