Second time USA B1/B2 visa application

Passport: Indian Passport
Embassy: US Embassy in London, UK
Visa Decision Time: On-the-spot
Visa Appointment Wait time: About 2 weeks
Passport delivery time: About 3 working days
Points to note

• No electronics, not even earphones/cables/key-fobs allowed in the embassy
• You can take a book and/or a snack, but no bags
• Time spent within the embassy: About 1 hour
• You need to complete your online application beforehand, and carry the confirmation page & payment receipt
• Passport delivery costs about £16, you need a credit/debit card to pay for it. No cash.

Documents that they looked at:

• Current passport
• Old Passport with old US Visa
• Application confirmation

I took a slew of documents, including bank statements, payslips, letter from my employer. They didn’t look at any of them.

Questions they asked in the interview:

• How long will you be in the US?
• Where did you get your last visa?
• How long have you lived in the UK?
• Where did you live before the UK? What did you do there?
• Are you married? Is you wife in the UK?

Hope this helps!

USA – Second Entry on a B1/B2 Visa

I recently visited the USA on a B1/B2 visa. I had got this visa 4 years ago for a business trip as a ‘Business Visa’. This year I visited as a Tourist. Had no trouble at all. The immigration officer at Honolulu airport was really nice too – he recommended restaurants around town and had a nice chat with us. Probably the most pleasant immigration experience I have had anywhere in the World so far.

However, flying within the USA remains as painful as ever. Long queues, inflexible officials, cumbersome security checks, crap service in American Airlines First Class – the usual. Seriously, the economy-class on most Asian airlines (Singapore Airlines, Cathay Pacific, Japan Airlines, Jet Airways, Etihad – to name a few) is way better than First Class on American Airlines. We were simply and rudely told by an stewardess ‘We do not carry vegetarian food on Domestic flights’ – and this was a 5 hour flight from Hawaii to LA.

Another annoying thing about US airports – the car rental agencies seem to be located a fair distance from the terminal. On two occasions, I had to drop off my wife and the luggage at the terminal (left her standing there with the bags) and then had to drive off to the rental place to return the car. Wife had to wait around for nearly 30 mins while I returned the car and took the shuttle back to the terminal. Lesson — if you have a rental car — plan for an extra 30 mins of delays.

But – Hawaii was beautiful. See attached photos.