Approved!

The last time I held a similar number was about 3 years ago when I got my L1 visa. And just this morning, I found myself at the US Embassy again, this time to renew our B1/B2 visa with my brother. Since my brother's graduating from college in March and my mom just retired from almost 30 years of work late last year, it's about time to take another family vacation - we're off to the US this summer! Of course it won't be the same without my dad, but with what we've all been through, I'm sure he won't have it any other way. My brother and I needed to have our visas renewed (it's expiring in March) so until we're 100% sure, we haven't really made any plans yet.

Our interview was at 7:30 am so we arrived at the embassy around 6:30. There were still a lot of people but not as much as before - surprisingly, there was no line outside. The whole process from pre-screening to the finger scanning was relatively quick. We were already inside the interview area just before 9am. My brother and I were pretty confident and calm since we were just renewing our visas - we have our requirements in place, no hidden agendas (we simply want to have a vacation) and with our travel record (I've been in and out of the US every year for the past 4 years and my brother has been to the US as well for our family vacation back in 2001), I can see no reason why we would be denied.

So we patiently waited for our numbers to be called. We sat close to the consul windows so we can pretty much hear what's going on. And that's when we started to get a bit nervous since all the applicants before us were denied! Some were already telling their whole life story, showing all sorts of documents, reasoning out and all...but to no avail. There was a whole family of 4 who didn't get lucky enough, an old lady who just wanted to visit her sister and even a guy who wanted to go to the US to be with his wife who is about to give birth - all were denied! And looking at the other windows, people were going out with their passports in hand and the blue paper which pretty much indicates why they got denied. Waaaah! I have to admit that I was getting pretty nervous already and my brother, who's having the interview for the first time (it was still the drop-box thing 10 years ago), was getting anxious as well.

We tried our best to stay calm and bottomline, just be honest with our answers. After what seemed like an eternity (but it was just about 20 minutes or so), we were finally called to Window 2. The consul was an asian guy (who I think was the same consul who interviewed me when I got my L1 visa) and thank God, the interview was quick and sweet. Didn't even last for 5 minutes. He only asked us what we will be doing there, who was our point of contact (it's our cousin in NJ), how along I've been with Accenture and what year and course is my brother in. And with that he simply said 'Your visas are approved. Proceed to Air21'. He didn't even ask to see any of our documents. Whew!

What a relief! It sure felt good to walk out of the interview area WITHOUT our passports. We then headed to the Air21 booth and arranged to have our passports delivered. And so after about just 2 1/2 hours, we're set for our US summer vacation! We're hoping we'd get another 10-year multiple entry visa just like before.

I can't wait for summer! :)