A truly upsetting day in London

[wherezdabearz 0]

I can see why you must feel disheartened but glad to see that you're getting some perspective. I know it's hard to wait, but you'll get there. Just hang on in there!

Best of luck

Alison

[Gladdy 0]

I must admit when I woke up yesterday, I has positive thoughts, despite my situation with my visa....

and my positivity kept me going.......

it kept me from not having a panic attack on the most crowded tube trains I've ever seen (and being claustrophobic that isn't easy) going to the embassy...

and through the zero temp when waiting outside the embassy, when it proceeded to snow slightly (ask Tom to confirm this one, it was bloody freezing)

it also kept me going when I had to wait an hour to hand in my documents.....(after entering at 11 am)

however the positivity started to dwindle after this..........the waiting and waiting was endless. I can't remember when I stopped listening or looking at the board telling people to go to booth no. x. I watched one after one immigrant visa applicant (that arrived after me) handed their pink form and then go out the door with happy smiles, only to sit and wait and stress....

this continued until 4 PM, THEY MADE ME WAIT 4 HOURS IN THERE AT THE END OF MY TETHER. I realise that there are a lot of applicants, I have been there before to get a tourist visa.... but why so long??, it was cruel to make someone wait so long without not knowing how things would go. I sopke to another man who had been waiting since 1 pm and he had three young children with him, and the poor things were so tired and upset.

anyway after having been called I spoke to a nice man who spoke positively and this raised my hopes..... until they all came crashing down and he said that I would need to submit a waiver. I asked him why and he said that my previous convictions constituted CIMT and that I HAD TWO of them, and if there is more than one involved then this applies (any other person in the same situation should remember this)

By this time I didn't have the energy or strength to disagree with him and that I had checked in the US dept of state official guidelines which state that having more than 1 conviction does not necessarily indicate a visa deniel etc...

and so I paid my money and handed over our waiver......... I'm sorry if this sounds sceptical guys but I really wonder some times if there are "border line" cases and that they say you need a waiver just for the revenue it generates.

anyhow just when I thought "get me out of here" the guy then had to take my fingerprints. This was the low point of the day.......... it made me feel so like a criminal......... and it unearthed feelings and thoughts that had happened from a previous matter that happened a long time ago and should have stayed buried in the past, where they belonged. It didn't help matters much when he said it was standard procedure.

and so at 4.30pm I walked out of there absolutely broken..........

I'm sorry If this message sounds so down guys, it was just a terrible day, and it helps to share things you know. I know things didn't go too bad, just plan B eh? I mean we had a good waiver (hopefully) prepared and I'm putting this in the back of my mind now for a while............ i just wanted him to say "approved" so much it overoad my rationality.

It great news to here about Tom, and I hope there are many more approved's to come... but for now I'm gonna have to go to "pending"

good to luck to everyone out there, I'll be taking a "backseat" for a while

best wishes to all VJ members

Paul

Hi PAUL,

For the benefit of anyone on here who finds it in themselves to pontificate over

anyone who suffers a bad time at any stage of these proceedings I would like to bring their attention to a poem I wrote which is on page 2 I think of this forums opening pages and its under my name (gladdy) posted at the date and time shown here.

We all have different ways of dealing with things that affect something we are trying to acheive and the knocks that we can suffer along the way but if we are all in the same boat then any leak will surely sink us all or if there is one person that feels it in themselves to rock the boat then it will capsize and take everyone with it. So my idea would be that if that one person is set on doing that then the decent thing to do would be for them to jump overboard so that the rest of us can survive. Then again those that choose to take everyone else down with them are usually those that have little courage or the ability to look towards their fellow travellers and consider their feelings and do something totally unselfish to maybe give others the will to survive. "THANK YOU" I am now stepping down off my soapbox.

[pax 0]

What?

[daisy16 0]

What?

eh?

ummmm, tell us what you really think