Friday 19 August 2011

71 days to go!

So I haven't posted on here for almost a month - good restraint by myself I feel! Things are actually moving on now - I recieved my official visa petition on the Walt Disney World Resort headed letterpaper and I've booked my visa appointment at the Embassy which is on 1st September - 2 months to the day until I start working for the Mouse again!

This meant I had the joy of filling out the online form again. Last year, this took many hours and lots of swearing as the website persistantly crashed and I had to use photoshop to get my picture to the exact measurements. However, to my pleasant surprise, the website has improved and comes with a photo tool which makes the aforementioned uploading of a photo much more easy. I even managed to get my mum to take the photo first time without bursting into laughter which is always so tempting when it's supposed to be a non-smiling photo! So, the website didn't crash and it meant I was done within an hour - it still takes a fair while to fill it all out even without technical problems so I advise you don't try to do the form if you're in a rush or have places to go!

Other tips I have for filling out the form include making sure you have your passport to hand, the dates of your last five visits to the USA (if applicable) and your address history in case you need that as well. Other than that, it's a reasonably straightforward form really.

The visa appointment is at 8.30am and after asking the lovely Scottish man on the phone whether I could go any later, it transpires that 8.30am is the usual time for Q visa appointments so the answer was no. Therefore, be warned that the visa appointment may end up costing you a fair bit of money in addition to the $150 for the visa and the £10 for the phone call (£1.20 a minute!). I'm going to go up the night before and stay with a friend but there's talk of a mini CRP meet up in the afternoon which sounds like fun before I have to head back to Bristol at some point. It's quite exciting to be getting a Q visa though, it makes me feel a little bit special as the Q visa is pretty much just for Disney Cast Members :) It's official name is "cultural exchange visitor" I think but I don't think there's too many of those jobs in America!

My next blog post will probably be after my visa interview so until then - farewell!