Practical advice for visiting the U.S. consulate
Fri, 12 Jan 2007.
I went to submit my papers for an Australian E-3 visa in the Melbourne Consulate yesterday. Here’s some quick tips.
- Reduce the amount of metal things you carry. There are two sets of metal detectors to go through and you feel ridiculous carrying your belt in your hands.
- While there is a booking system, that’s only to get general numbers. Once you get there, its first-come-first-serve.
- Be prepared for a long wait. I waited for an hour and a half.
- As soon as you sit down, swap pleasantries with the people you are waiting with. These guys obviously have something interesting to say seeing as they are applying for travel visas.
- Read over your visa documentation requirements about 8 times before you ever set foot inside the consulate.
- Is your photo a square or a rectangle? If it’s a rectangle, go get it done again. U.S. visas require a square 5cm photo.
- Don’t go insane and try to look for hidden messages from the Illuminati in the 3-minute video they have on loop in the waiting room.
Photographs you see as you go through the metal detector:
Each flag was subtly different
- George W. Bush with American flag behind him
- Dick Cheney with American flag behind him
- Condeleeza Rice with American flag behind her
Photographs hanging in the waiting room:
MLK was my favourite
- Statue of Liberty
- Miles Davis in concert
- New York skyline, complete with Twin Towers (I assume it was taken from the Brooklyn promenade)
- Martin Luther King Jr.
