So today my visa arrived!! One more thing checked off the list, final thing really, it's such a relief.
Yes, the postie brought it today, a Sunday, sorry Uncle Vernon!
I thought I would therefore write a post about my experience with getting a [student] visa, bear in mind that I only needed to go through this as an ESTA only lasts 30 days and doesn't let you study.
Before you can even think about booking your ticket to London, you need to, receive a form from the university you will be studying at, apply for and pay for SEVIS and the visa itself, at which point you will be directed to booking your appointment. Once you've googled all the bits, all of the relevant sites pop up and it's a pretty simple process.
For your actual interview, be prepared for the fact you are going to be waiting around LOADS and for a loooooooooooong time. I waited about 3 and half hours between arriving and leaving.
For my appointment at 11, I arrived at the embassy at 10:15am ish, in a smart casual outfit but without any technology (because that it what I'd been strictly instructed to do) and joined a line of other smart/cas dressed people ALL WITH THEIR PHONES AND IPODS. I was so annoyed. I'd just paid a tenner in Euston Station to leave a basically empty bag, bar my phone and iPod, in the left luggage for over 3 hours. Not to mention the boredom! Though, my Watchmen book helped with that. Lesson to learn: check first, or you'll waste a tenner and not have any contact with anyone, including the friends you were planning to meet afterwards.
Luckily for me, none of this was really an issue as I finished early enough to get back to Euston (a 40 min walk away) and contact my friends then. And the boredom was dealt with due to me taking a book as well as the little (very expensive!) shop in the big room you have to wait in and that you have to watch a big screen up ahead to see your ticket number come up so you know to go to the first and then the second booth for 5 minute interviews to check your details, what visa you want and why you want it; pretty simple.
And now I have it and it's alllllllll goooooooood!!
Yes, the postie brought it today, a Sunday, sorry Uncle Vernon!
Before you can even think about booking your ticket to London, you need to, receive a form from the university you will be studying at, apply for and pay for SEVIS and the visa itself, at which point you will be directed to booking your appointment. Once you've googled all the bits, all of the relevant sites pop up and it's a pretty simple process.
For your actual interview, be prepared for the fact you are going to be waiting around LOADS and for a loooooooooooong time. I waited about 3 and half hours between arriving and leaving.
For my appointment at 11, I arrived at the embassy at 10:15am ish, in a smart casual outfit but without any technology (because that it what I'd been strictly instructed to do) and joined a line of other smart/cas dressed people ALL WITH THEIR PHONES AND IPODS. I was so annoyed. I'd just paid a tenner in Euston Station to leave a basically empty bag, bar my phone and iPod, in the left luggage for over 3 hours. Not to mention the boredom! Though, my Watchmen book helped with that. Lesson to learn: check first, or you'll waste a tenner and not have any contact with anyone, including the friends you were planning to meet afterwards.
Luckily for me, none of this was really an issue as I finished early enough to get back to Euston (a 40 min walk away) and contact my friends then. And the boredom was dealt with due to me taking a book as well as the little (very expensive!) shop in the big room you have to wait in and that you have to watch a big screen up ahead to see your ticket number come up so you know to go to the first and then the second booth for 5 minute interviews to check your details, what visa you want and why you want it; pretty simple.
And now I have it and it's alllllllll goooooooood!!
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