Finally, our US visa appointment is here after weeks of waiting and hopefully after today we can carry on our travelling. We are up early and after our previous bus experiences opt to walk to be sure of arriving 15 minutes early for our appointment as recommended. We arrive hot and sticky after our 40 minute walk in proper clothes (shirts, trousers and shoes!) in the humidity even before 9am. We walk to the security guard on the gate as we had been previously instructed and let them know we have a 9 am appointment. There is a whole queue of about 20 people already sat in a bus shelter type arrangement beside. We quickly learn that this is the visa queue as we had feared. So now we get to sit outside, in the shade but with no breeze in the humidity.
It seems that there are many people assigned to each 30 minute timeslot even though Kevin and I were given successive 9 and 9.30 am slots. We are finally admitted inside at 9.10 am and to our first security stop, my bag is searched and all the men have to remove belts to pass by the airport style scanners. I retrieve my bag from the xray machine and we head out the door. I am halfway out when called back, Kevin is not allowed to wait for me and sent through the fenced courtyard to the next door. I have apparently unwittingly tried to smuggle a 2cm safety pin into the building in my bag, but luckily have been found out and it is confiscated before I can reek havoc.
I am directed to the next door, where Kevin is currently passing through another metal detector / xray scanner perhaps in case you received something through the fence. I am slightly disheartened to see a room full of people, but Kevin is sent to stand in a queue straight away. I am not allowed to stand beside him but have to wait until he is at the window. At his turn we duly both report to the available window, but are told there cannot be two and Kevin goes to sit down, she goes through the form which I have apparently incorrectly completed. I am told we then need to go to window B when it is free. At window B, Kevin and I report for our electronic finger printing and are then told to proceed to the cashier. We pay our $131 each and are told to take a seat. We are not sure quite what comes next but were expecting an interview of some sort. It then dawns that there are only 1-2 people doing the interviews, one primarily sees the US citizens from a separate queue. There must be 40 people already waiting infront of us on the seats. Luckily there is a TV and CNN is showing though this quickly becomes very repetitive. Just after 11.30am we are finally called to a window and interviewed for about 2 minutes, we have to show our boat registration and a bank statement and we are told we are approved! We receive two numbered cards to collect our passports tomorrow with a 2.30pm timeslot.
Relieved that it is all over but rather annoyed by the organisation, we make our way back to the boat. We are now clear to go to the US for hurricane season and will be going as far as New York by the end of August. We have Kevin’s daughter Alex coming out for 6 weeks, nephew Sean for 2 weeks and my sister Donna and brother-in-law Mark for 2 weeks. I now spend the afternoon on the internet trying to book flights and call them to confirm.
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