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Yipeekayay!!!? Yup, you guessed it, my visa has been granted.
On Friday 27th, after staying over at ma an pa's, I left derby on the train with dad to do battle once more at the US embassy. We arrived by train all well and good and on time, our mission was then to get the underground, two stops to bond street, the first train went fine, it was when we hopped onto the 2nd that a voice came over the tannoy saying that the train will not move from the station until further notice. Aaaaah, it was 1025, my appointment was at 1030. We jumped off the train and legged it through the station and out onto Oxford st, the rain was falling heavy and I was thinking... "here we go again", after a few moments of dad running into shops asking directions (all to no avail as the people working in the shops weren't from London (!!) and had no idea) and me trying to find it on google maps we eventually orientated ourselves and legged it a few streets to the embassy, fortunately it wasnt too long ago that I was here last and could remember certain locations. As we walked through grosvenor square I could see that there was a huge queue already and was no need to panic about being 10mins late. Dad waited until I went through security before going to wait in anticipation in the nearest pub. After getting through security I went into the main building then took my number, sat down and waited, and waited and waited. They eventually called my number out and I went to the first desk where they took my prints and paperwork and told me to wait for my interview booth. I sat down and started going over and over the questions that are going to be asked and the answers I need to he giving, then it the hypnotic electronic voice my number got called, I got up and made my way to the booth, when I got there there was already 2 in front of me, the first was just finishing and I was craning my neck to see if the officer was the grumpy git I had before, as the guy at the window left I shuffled forward and i made out that it wasn't the old bloke and thought "yes, first obstacle sorted ", the guy in front of me was being questioned as to his purpose in the states, to which he replied in a very posh accent " I am a professor at Oxford and am wanting to go and study and teach patriotism at California university", I think even the officer was a little taken back by this and obviously the guy got his visa stamped without much further questioning. "I bet this ain't his 2nd attempt, i thought, maybe I should change my story to something similar and sail through like him?" I walked forwards to the counter and was met with a considerably younger officer who looked at his computer screen and then asked those pertinent questions i was anticipating, I fired back at him my muchly prepared answers and they seemed to be fine, he took them all and continued with his tapping away. Then, out if nowhere he said "you were here just last month where a colleague recorded you were not authorised for this visa, I can't see how in only 1 month your circumstances have changed enough"!!! At this I fired back that I did not have evidence to support my status last time but this time I do (and put forward my sabbatical letter), he glanced at the envelope then glanced back at me without looking inside it and said "wait there I need to speak to someone", I thought, oh well that's it then, he is going to speak to Ol'grumpy b****** and going to return to refuse it again....my heart sank. He sat back down some 2 mins later (it felt like 10) and continued tapping away and I was looking at him almost wanting to bang on the glass shouting "AND....AND..", he then looked up, my heart missed a few beats, and he said (in im sure what seemed almost angelic tones) "we are going to authorise your visa on this occasion, however, you must make sure you leave the USA on your departure date, if you try and stay you will get federally removed and will not ever be able to return". "Get in", I thought, then i walked away from the desk in haste in case he changes his mind (or grumpy ol' b****** sees me and changes it for him) as I was queuing for the courier payment I was thinking of what he said about not trying to over stay my welcome and thought. "are you kidding mate, I most definitively won't be staying any longer than i need to and due to all the crappy red tape the US has put me through will definitely be the last time I will want to visit your country anyway"!!?). I made my way out to meet dad in the pub (who says that he spent the first hour in a coffee shop and was only on his first pint, not sure about that !!) and told him the good news, I was buzzing to say the least. We had some lunch in the pub and then for the rest of the day we went to see parliament n big Ben etc before getting on the train and returning to Derby. We got back into the station, walked out and straight onto the bus back to Ma n pa's house. It was then a 3 hour drive for me to Shell Island for a birthday / goodbye weekend shenanigans, I arrived there just after 10pm put a beer in my hand and smiled a relieved smile.
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Chris Sharman Absolutely fantastic.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You tell em Son. xxx