Visa Woes

Height of frustration or height of patience? I forget which hurdle I passed first, but its been an infuriating few weeks with me checking monotonically at the US Visa application website if I can get a better date for my B1 Visa. I need to travel within a month and the Visa interview date is on a leisurely July 9th.

I fail to understand why the Consulate insists on a face-to-face meeting for getting a business Visa, of all things! And its the third time I am applying for one - my previous Visa's have long expired, they being valid for just 1 year.

Its not as if I am trying to surrupciously enter their country and seek asylum there! I am supposed to go there for doing business for an American company, for heaven's sake! How ironic can it get!

I have had to apply for other visa's - UK, Schenghen and hardly faced a problem.

I guess its something to do with the paranoid Americans. I dont mean to demean them in any way, but most of their rules and regulations defy simple reasoning and plain common sense.

If not for the presentation I am slated to give, I wouldnt have cared to go! Aakhir Dil Hai 100% Hisdustani! :-)