This Visa is brought to you by the letter L

L is for .....

...line (waiting in) - the 90 minute line I had to wait in, in sub zero temperatures this morning, outside the American Embassy before spending a mere 10 minutes between waiting in various lines, actually being interviewed for my Visa application.

...letter paper - that bizarre size of American stationery, of which I currently possess a ream related to my Visa application, which was prepared by a very expensive lawyer, and the Visa people spent about 2 minutes looking at.

...L-1A - the visa classification I have been granted for the next three years of my career in the US. Apparently it is quite a good one, and means that it should be much easier to get a green card if I want it.

...land Of Lincoln - one of those sometime hard to explain "tag" lines that all American states have. This one at least makes some sense, apparently Lincoln was born somewhere in the state of Illinois.

As I mentioned above, the process of getting the visa itself was remarkably simple. I have been working with a visa lawyer employed by the firm to get all the paper work together. That all came through on Thursday, and it was literally a couple of hundred pages of letters, supporting documentation, forms, etc.

I should go back a little actually to the start of the process..

About three weeks ago, I had to call the Embassy to arrange an appointment. The phone was answered at some call centre in deepest Scotland, charging £1.30 per minute for the privilege. (That's about $2.50 for my new colleagues, now we know why you are one of the richest nations in the world!). I was offered a very quick appointment, normally it takes up to 8 weeks, I think cos no-one wants to go to the US in the Winter!

I received a 8 page letter, detailing some very strict things I had to do, which I mostly ignored, as the visa guy was going to do it all..or so I thought..

Fast forward to last week..

Monday - I went to pay my visa application fee, on the approved form, at the approved bank. £60 ($113) per person..just for the right to apply, not refundable even if the visa is refused.

Tuesday - I find myself in "Snappy Snaps", one of very few UK companies who apparently have the technology to take the correct size picture for the process. £8.99 later ($17) I have two 2" square pictures, in which I am facing the camera square on, my head measuring between 1" and 1 3/8" from hair to chin, not smiling, with at least 1/2" of free space above my head.

Thursday - My tree arrives by express mail, and I read the various documents, finishing on Saturday morning, I find that some of the forms are incorrect or incomplete..so I get myself onto the web site to fill out the forms again, which admittedly only takes about 20 minutes, although trying to remember every time I have left the country in the last eight years, where and when was a little tricky..must stay home more!

Today (Tuesday) - When we showed up for our 8:30am appointment this morning (at 8am), we met a queue of people who had been queueing since before 8am for their 8am and 8:15 appointments. We eventually made it out of the freezing wind at about 9:30am. On the plus side, we did meet some very nice people, a musician going to play in NYC in a very traditional orchestra with original 19th century instruments, a guy working in NYC who had to come all the way home to renew his visa, and a nice young lady off to do Camp America as a swim teacher for her second year in a row.

Searched, scanned and stripped of any electronic devices, we were allowed into the inner sanctum that is the visa processing centre. Given a number and asked to pay a further £10 ($19) for the pleasure of having our passports returned to us at the end of the process, in about a week or so.

We sat down, prepared for a long wait, according to the documentation, but thanks to the variety of different queues for different visa classifications, we had our 1st screening within about 10 minutes, not even long enough to finish my tea. The man at window 6 checked our forms, glanced at my tree, took away our passports, forms, pictures, and postal envelope, and said they were all OK. Good Job...Your Work Matters!

Returning to our seats and tea, we settled in again, still expecting the long wait, only to be called after one chapter of my book, for the "interview". The interview, it turns out, was a stand up chat with a very nice lady, who asked about 5 questions, generally relating to owning my house, what my job was, how long I had done it, and when was I coming back; glanced over my tree and promptly returned it to me.

3 minutes later - whilst stamping the forms, she declares that we are approved..Job Done, and I still have my tree as a souvenir.