8:45 AM. US Consulate in Vancouver. I’d finally applied for the US visa and I was at the consulate that day for the mandatory in-person appointment. I’ve never been to the US, despite living in Canada for seven years now. A few people, who have heard me reveal that not-that-deep secret, have had a jaw-dropping, wide-eyed reaction; “You’ve NEVER been to the US in all these years!? Even though you live so close?”
“I don’t have to,” is always my answer.
Truth is I’ve tried to apply twice for the American visa: the first time I didn’t finish the application because I got stuck on the section where the applicant is supposed to put a local contact and address. I had nothing to put, and because I was a student at the time, I certainly did not have enough money to stay in a hotel / motel etc., so I couldn’t use that option.
The second time I applied I managed to reach the section where I was supposed to pay. And again, because I was an international student I did not have a credit card (for reasons that are too long to be explained here) to pay the fees. My visa debit card didn’t work either. I had to resort putting the fee amount in a gift card, which worked just like a credit card. Unfortunately for me, I hadn’t properly converted US Dollars to CAD dollars, and because there were taxes involved, if I remember correctly, the card kept getting declined.
I couldn’t add any money on it either, as you could only do it once with a gift card, nor did I have any more money to add anyways. Even if I had managed to pay the initial application fee, I still wouldn’t have had enough money for another huge fee I’ll talk about later in this post. Just like that, my second attempt to go to the US was over, I thought that maybe this was a sign that it wasn’t in the books for me to travel there, at least not at that present moment. So I let it go and didn’t try again for four years, until the beginning of this month.
Everything naturally fell in place (a sign that maybe we shouldn’t force things to happen) for me to be poised for a trip to the US of A. I consume so much American content (including my very public obsession with Los Angeles and Houston), that it’s only right for me to see for myself what it looks like, right?
I applied for the visa online, and this time I had a local contact, a credit card to pay for the initial fee of 160$ US (about 210$ CAD). Then I had to schedule an appointment to conclude the application, which I did.
Luckily on the day of the appointment I was off work, and I was able to make my way down there stress free. When I got downtown, I did not know which way to go, as I didn’t have my phone (for reasons to be explained as well), so I made a judgment call. I was on the correct street and could either go right or left. I also had to choose wisely, as I was running late when I asked for the time (I use my phone as a clock). I looked both ways and decided to go left, because the left side seemed to have more office buildings and the US consulate had a bigger chance of being on that side. I was correct.
As I walked the pavement, carefully monitoring the addresses, so as not to miss where I was going, I saw, right across the street, a line up of people with uniformed guards at the front of the line. “Oh this must be it…”
I crossed and came to stand in the line just like everyone else. The first thing I noticed while standing there, was that people just don’t f*****g listen… A few days before the appointment, I received an e-mail telling me to not bring any bag, phone or weapon (LOL). It said that if I brought any of those things I would be turned away. I tend to listen to things like that, because I don’t like complicating my life unnecessarily. That day I showed up with nothing but gum and a lens cloth cleaner for my glasses in my pockets. I had all the required documents in a folder in hand.
But of course, humans being humans, came with backpacks, large handbags, strollers etc. Because of that, a security check that should have taken no more than five minutes ended up lasting fifteen, twenty and sometimes as much as thirty minutes long.
There were two lines, the first line was to verify that you were on the list of appointments for that day, after that they gave you a ticket and then you went to stand in the security line to get searched. When my turn came to confirm that I had an appointment, this old Asian man came from nowhere and interrupted me, saying he had an appointment at 8:45AM…. To make things even more annoying, because he had interrupted the flow of things by also handing a paper to the ladies who were charge of confirming scheduled appointments, it turns out he wasn’t even on the list, and in the confusion, one of the ladies thought it was me who wasn’t on the list… If looks could turn people into dust, he’d have been transformed then and there, because that’s exactly how I looked at him. “Why do you wait for my turn to start this nonsense? We all had an 8:45AM appointment, get in line…” is what I thought, but didn’t say, because I was raised right.
There was another dude who came and because he had some sort of authorization thought he could skip everybody, including the security line to get inside…it was just a whole mess of a morning.
I had come prepared so I was through quickly and smoothly and I waited in the line of people ready to go inside, because that was just the first of several security checks. We were then led into the building, but unfortunately I’m not going to tell you exactly how it was inside, because I don’t think the US government wants me describing the security and office details of one of their consulates with the public. Just know that security was tighter than UGK’s sophomore album, and that’s putting it very lightly.
When I finally got in front of the consular employee who was to serve me that day, I was informed (though I already knew) that as a citizen of Cameroon I would have to pay what they called a “reciprocity” fee, because apparently the Cameroonian government does the same to US citizens visiting Cameroon. The fee was 240$ US (305$ CAD) and I got a valid visa for one year, while everybody else who wasn’t from Cameroon got ten years. When I tell you being Cameroonian is a serious headache, I don’t think you’d be able to understand just how serious it is…
The biggest differences between the US and UK visa applications (the hardest visas I’ve applied for), is that for one, the US visa takes much less time than the UK one. After applying online and scheduling an appointment a week later, I finalized the application on a Tuesday and by Friday of the same week I had it. For the UK it took almost two weeks. The UK visa also required quite a few supporting documents including my old passports, while at the US consulate, all they did was ask me where in Cameroon I was from, where I was going in the US, and what I was going to see…They also told me right then and there (after I had paid the reciprocity fee), that my visa request had been approved and to pick up my passport at the designed delivery address in one or two days after receiving a confirmation e-mail. The US online application was also way less extensive than the UK one, and I guess the only big difference was the monetary one. In all, I had paid more than 500$ CAD for a one year visa, while the UK visa had cost me 255$ CAD. For that price, I’m gonna have to visit all of the US before August 2018…
It was a good day though; I had finally applied and gotten that coveted document / sticker in my passport. And being without a phone for a few hours was refreshing, as I got to do more reading, which I encourage everyone to do. It was hard at first, because I kept drawing my hand towards my pocket to pull out my phone, only to realize it wasn’t there. Sometimes you have to force yourself the hard way to get things done Is the lesson here I guess . Good day for sure.