Difficult to believe

It really doesn't pay to be orgnized in fact it costs!
Finally the day of the "visa interview" arrived.

I had everything gathered together in preparation for the journey to the US Consulate and the interview. Heeding their advice Sue and I arrived with more than half an hour to spare- it took nearly all that time to get security checked and logged in and up to the 6th Floor. We chose not to take our bags and bits in with us as one needs to leave them securely at the front desk anyway.

We were totally unprepared for the process really- it is the third time we have gone through it but it took three hours!!! It was a bit of a nightmare really. The visa interview itself took about 2 minutes but we had to wait first for our paper work to be seen and filed and then to have have the interview and finally to make payment so it was the waiting that took up the three hours.

They have changed the cost of one part of the process on Monday (the day before) and so wouldn't accept the postal order for a greater amount. They gave me the option of paying by credit card- on the website they say they don't accept credit cards! or posting the new amount in.

I had to come home and return the postal order I had to the post office and buy a new one. I paid for everything on Friday at the Friday rate as I had to pay another amount then.... I didn't want to leave it all to the last minute- the day before the interview besides which I was down at Aireys Inlet and wasn't sure whether I could do all the money paper work at the little post office there.

So home I came .... The original postal order was for $147 and the new one needed to be for $136.50 but with the charge for the new postal order and the express post envelope to get it back to the consulate I got $1 back! Ain't bureaucracy grand!

Sue and I went at the same time and the waiting for our turn meant that Sue's parking meter ran out but fortunately she wasn't fined.

While we were whiling away the hours- read me trying to distract Sue as she got more and more impatient - Sue came to the realization of why they wouldn't let you bring any sharp objects into the area.... she decided it had nothing to do with the Consular staff being worried that the sharp objects would be used as weapons against them but in fact it was so that the people waiting didn't slash their wrists in frustration and sully the carpet with their blood!

I am now sitting with fingers crossed that they get the postal order, don't know how else to handle it really. This was supposed to be easier than this- it was complicated by the fact that I had an appointment with a publisher at 12pm and was late for that. A day I'd rather do without!