The Visa Interview

It was beautiful, a 15 day long vacation to Kerala and Andamans with my hubby and I didn’t realize how time just flew by. Before I knew it I was back in Bangalore and getting prepared to go back to work and do what I was employed to do. It was a cool Monday morning and I was kind of excited to get back to work, to catch up on all the gossip that had happened in the past 15 days. As usual I first opened my mail box to catch up on all the work details and there I saw a mail from my Project Lead asking me to apply for my US Visa and another mail from my HR to send her a scanned copy of my passport. At this point of time I was completely clueless about what was going on until my Team Lead updated me that I might be travelling to US soon with three of my other colleagues.

I had to immediately rush to my parent’s house in the middle of work hours to get the passport and almost half the day went by commuting from office to home and vice versa. I was excited about the whole thing but I was kind of worried about the whole Visa procedure. In my mind there was this picture of a big carpeted room with a huge teak table, on one side of which sat a group of three to four interviewers and on the other side sat the people with appointments for the interview and there was this big queue to get inside the room. It was only later that I learnt that it was a really crowded place with umpteen number of counters like the one’s in banks or railway stations.

I’m quite famous for my procrastination and as usual I was just hoping that this whole Visa interview thing be delayed but much to my disappointment I got a mail from my HR almost immediately about booking my interview date. All the other guys who had to appear for the interview including me were discussing with each other about scheduling our interviews on the same day so that we could travel together. Unfortunately my visa interview got scheduled for the 24th of November and I pretty soon learnt that I would be travelling alone. The only thing running in my mind at that point of time was about travelling alone to Chennai as it would be the first time I would be travelling all by myself. I could have asked my dad or Santosh to come along but something stopped me from doing it, it was this whole “I can do it by myself” thing. Some people were saying that since there was a weekly quota for the Visa, I would definitely get it as I was going on the first day of the week, it comforted me to a certain extent.

The next couple of days just went by in searching for the documents that I had to take and arranging them. I also learnt that I needed to carry an updated resume since I was applying for a B1 Visa and I couldn’t think of updating it since the resume I had was the one I had prepared in College for the campus recruitments. It was a pain in the a$$ updating it. We were all assured from the HR that we would get the visa as our company was enrolled with BEP and the US Consulate had all the information about the company. She also pointed out that no one had got rejected till now after the company had started the BEP process. This information was comforting in one way but I also believe firmly in Murphy’s law, if I happened to get rejected by ill luck it would be so humiliating, to be the first person to have gotten rejected, so I was tensed as ever.

Finally it was time to attend the Visa Interview. My colleagues had all attended their interviews and they didn’t have any problem whatsoever in getting the Visa. I was the last one in the boat. I had to board the 6.30 AM flight to Chennai so I woke up at 3.30 AM. I would be lying if I said I was not nervous because it was the first time ever that I was travelling all by myself. Once I landed in Chennai everything was such a cakewalk. I took a cab to the VFS office, waited in the Stars and Stripes lounge till my interview. Once at the US consulate I realized it was not as I had imagined, my colleagues were right when they said the counters resembled railway station counters. It was funny how I had gotten tensed for absolutely nothing. The whole process took about 1.5hrs and the interview hardly lasted for a minute. Just a day before I left for Chennai, I was watching this movie called ‘Pursuit Of Happyness’ and I remember Will Smith giving himself a small clap when he finally manages to get a job in the firm he had been interning for. I was greatly inspired by that scene and had decided that I would give myself a small clap if I managed to get my Visa. I know it’s a pretty silly idea. I could in no way compare my situation to Will Smith’s in the movie but it would be my way of appreciating my confidence of travelling alone to a different place for the very first time and getting what I came there for despite people around me being apprehensive and also for not being afraid even for a minute. And I did just that after coming back to Bangalore, I gave myself a little clap.