BethEJo
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- May 27, 2008
- Messages
- 2,098
Great to see some more people on board 
Seeing as I haven't updated in a while, as it's been pretty quiet since receiving the Disney pack, I thought I'd drop by to share my experiences at the US embassy in London when I had my visa interview there yesterday.
If you just want the short version:
My visa got approved!! Yay!
Or continue reading for the full version
...
After receiving all of the documents in the Disney pack, I filled in all of the necessary forms (over an hour just for one of the forms
), emptied my bank account to pay all the necessary fees, and then booked my appointment at the embassy for April 14th. Which was also going to be my birthday - not the best way to spend it 
We can have up to 90 days free in the US on the VWP, and my ICP duration is just under that, but we have to apply for a visa due to the main purpose of our trip being to work for WDW (woohoo - still get insanely excited when I say that). I had booked my appointment for 12.30, so had booked my coach to get into London for 11.00am to ensure that I had plenty of time. And thank goodness I did too 
the driver took such a weird route through lots of tiny streets and hit every little bit of traffic! I was terrified i would miss the appointment (everything's a drama!), but we eventually got to Victoria at around 11:40. It was much later than I would have liked as I had to work out which tube I needed and where I had to change, but needless to say I made it! I think it was the adrenaline haha!
I met up with one friend of many who I have got to know through the ICP facebook groups, and we headed over to a little pharmacy close to the embassy where we had to leave any electricals, as they are not permitted within the embassy. This pharmacy must make an absolute gold mine from that little venture!
The embassy was quite a scary place...there were British police with their big guns everywhere! All surrounding this massive building with a gigantic gold eagle statue on top. Only the Americans 'ey?!
After proving that we had made appointments to be there, we were let into security in tiny groups to be searched and again to prove that we were meant to be there. Now this is where I hadn't really thought things through.... I had to take my belt off to go through security, but my jeans were so big that if I didn't physically hold them up, then they would have been down around my ankles. So it ended up being a bit of a palava, struggling to carry all my documents and my bag whilst trying to avoid exposing my spongebob knickers to everybody! Sorry, was that too much information?! 
(I had to count myself lucky though, as another friend of mine who had her appointment recently wore a skirt to the embassy where the belt was actually attached to the skirt. She actually had to take her skirt off to go through security which isn't really a private affair as the building is just made out of glass!)
I eventually made my way into the building and got assigned a number. Before I knew it, I was being called to a window, so shuffled there still trying to protect my modesty. This first window was for us to hand over our documents and passport and to have our finger prints taken like you have when you land in Orlando. Luckily, my jeans held themselves up for a couple of secs while I had my thumbs done at the same time It was also at this first window where I was told by the official serving me that I was a loser for choosing to come to the embassy on my birthday! Once everything here was handed over, the whole process reminded me of that of Argos. Albeit on a much bigger scale and you weren't going to collect a cordless kettle at the end of it...
The room was huuuuuuuge. There must have been around 200-300 chairs where you had to wait and a couple of big screens in the centre of the room where numbers were called and told which interview window to go to. It was soooo busy too. I bumped into another friend who is also doing the ICP this year as I was having my prints taken, who had told me that the whole process had taken him only 1.5 hours. This gave us some hope; this is the quickest I have ever heard. But alas, 3 hours after our prints, we were still waiting for our visa interview The wait wasn't so bad; we managed to hunt down some other Disney ICP students by playing "hunt the blue Disney ICP info pack" and just sat and chatted to them. Same with the ICP Birmingham meet, it was nice to put faces to names that I had seen and spoken to on Facebook
The dealings with the first window (finger prints) all seemed to go in order, as you were practically called as you walked into the room. However, there was no order at all for the second (interview) window, and it was just luck when you were called. (On entering the embassy, we had met one guy who had just had his visa rejected. I don't think he was on the Disney program, but was on another similar summer work experience program. He was asked how he could prove that he was coming back to the UK after the summer. On saying to the official during his interview that he didn't have anything, the official tried to help him by asking if he had a tenancy agreement or an offer of work to come back to for example. And this is where we think the guy messed up. In answer to these questions, he was saying stuff like my tenancy agreement runs out before the summer and I hope to renew it when I get back, and I'm finishing my job before I head to the US, and I hope that I'll be able to return to it afterwards. People seem to have thought it was his choice of words that ruined it for him, and told us to act with confidence during our interview. This just made me more nervous
) Anyhow....
3 hours later, my number finally got called, along with somebody who came into the embassy after me. The other ICP girls who we were chatting to had checked in to the embassy quite a bit of time before us but still hadnt been called. In the end, they got called for their interviews 30 minutes after myself. Like I said, it must be just luck lol! The interview wasn't too bad: I got asked who I was going to work for and what job I was going to do. He even asked me which ride I wanted to work on, to which he replied "I've never been but I heard that one's fantastic". I'm sure he said that to everybody He also asked what I was doing in the UK at the moment, and this is where I thought I had messed everything up! I told him I was in my 4th year of university to which he asked "how come, as uni courses are only normally 3 years?". I then tried to explain the whole I'm-studying-medicine-and-I've-taken-a-year-out-to-study-something-different-for-a-year-blah-blah-thing which i never explain very well! He then moved on to ask me what university I was at. I told him that I was at Cardiff University in Wales, and he then asked me what the university was actually called 
Such a strange question! I said I think 
headache it's just Cardiff University. He asked if I was sure... I then said: or is it University of Wales, Cardiff? I literally have no idea why I got so flustered and said this I know full well it's just called Cardiff University and I was stupid to doubt myself. I think I just panicked a little as this was the last "hurdle" in getting to FL. I have no idea what came over me, and just said: "look, let's just say it's called Cardiff University and that's where I'll be heading back to when I finish the program". He started to smirk and I got the impression that he was winding me up . "Don't worry" he said, "i've just APPROVED YOUR VISA!" Wooooooooooooooo! 
He then asked me how I was finding studying medicine - soo surreal! But sweet!
But it was done, and approved, and that was the main thing! I just had to pay £20 to arrange to have my passport returned to me (absolute rip-off), and then I could leave the embassy behind!
It was a long day, but was worth it. A couple of us then headed over to the Hard Rock Cafe to celebrate with a cocktail or two, and generally just had a fantastic evening Happy days!
The visa getting approved was an ace birthday present
Seeing as I haven't updated in a while, as it's been pretty quiet since receiving the Disney pack, I thought I'd drop by to share my experiences at the US embassy in London when I had my visa interview there yesterday.
If you just want the short version:
My visa got approved!! Yay! Or continue reading for the full version
...After receiving all of the documents in the Disney pack, I filled in all of the necessary forms (over an hour just for one of the forms
), emptied my bank account to pay all the necessary fees, and then booked my appointment at the embassy for April 14th. Which was also going to be my birthday - not the best way to spend it We can have up to 90 days free in the US on the VWP, and my ICP duration is just under that, but we have to apply for a visa due to the main purpose of our trip being to work for WDW (woohoo - still get insanely excited when I say that
). I had booked my appointment for 12.30, so had booked my coach to get into London for 11.00am to ensure that I had plenty of time. And thank goodness I did too the driver took such a weird route through lots of tiny streets and hit every little bit of traffic! I was terrified i would miss the appointment (everything's a drama!), but we eventually got to Victoria at around 11:40. It was much later than I would have liked as I had to work out which tube I needed and where I had to change, but needless to say I made it! I think it was the adrenaline haha! I met up with one friend of many who I have got to know through the ICP facebook groups, and we headed over to a little pharmacy close to the embassy where we had to leave any electricals, as they are not permitted within the embassy. This pharmacy must make an absolute gold mine from that little venture!
The embassy was quite a scary place...there were British police with their big guns everywhere! All surrounding this massive building with a gigantic gold eagle statue on top. Only the Americans 'ey?!
After proving that we had made appointments to be there, we were let into security in tiny groups to be searched and again to prove that we were meant to be there. Now this is where I hadn't really thought things through.... I had to take my belt off to go through security, but my jeans were so big that if I didn't physically hold them up, then they would have been down around my ankles. So it ended up being a bit of a palava, struggling to carry all my documents and my bag whilst trying to avoid exposing my spongebob knickers to everybody! Sorry, was that too much information?! (I had to count myself lucky though, as another friend of mine who had her appointment recently wore a skirt to the embassy where the belt was actually attached to the skirt. She actually had to take her skirt off to go through security which isn't really a private affair as the building is just made out of glass!)I eventually made my way into the building and got assigned a number. Before I knew it, I was being called to a window, so shuffled there still trying to protect my modesty. This first window was for us to hand over our documents and passport and to have our finger prints taken like you have when you land in Orlando. Luckily, my jeans held themselves up for a couple of secs while I had my thumbs done at the same time
It was also at this first window where I was told by the official serving me that I was a loser for choosing to come to the embassy on my birthday! Once everything here was handed over, the whole process reminded me of that of Argos. Albeit on a much bigger scale and you weren't going to collect a cordless kettle at the end of it...The room was huuuuuuuge. There must have been around 200-300 chairs where you had to wait and a couple of big screens in the centre of the room where numbers were called and told which interview window to go to. It was soooo busy too. I bumped into another friend who is also doing the ICP this year as I was having my prints taken, who had told me that the whole process had taken him only 1.5 hours. This gave us some hope; this is the quickest I have ever heard. But alas, 3 hours after our prints, we were still waiting for our visa interview
The wait wasn't so bad; we managed to hunt down some other Disney ICP students by playing "hunt the blue Disney ICP info pack" and just sat and chatted to them. Same with the ICP Birmingham meet, it was nice to put faces to names that I had seen and spoken to on Facebook The dealings with the first window (finger prints) all seemed to go in order, as you were practically called as you walked into the room. However, there was no order at all for the second (interview) window, and it was just luck when you were called. (On entering the embassy, we had met one guy who had just had his visa rejected. I don't think he was on the Disney program, but was on another similar summer work experience program. He was asked how he could prove that he was coming back to the UK after the summer. On saying to the official during his interview that he didn't have anything, the official tried to help him by asking if he had a tenancy agreement or an offer of work to come back to for example. And this is where we think the guy messed up. In answer to these questions, he was saying stuff like my tenancy agreement runs out before the summer and I hope to renew it when I get back, and I'm finishing my job before I head to the US, and I hope that I'll be able to return to it afterwards. People seem to have thought it was his choice of words that ruined it for him, and told us to act with confidence during our interview. This just made me more nervous
) Anyhow....3 hours later, my number finally got called, along with somebody who came into the embassy after me. The other ICP girls who we were chatting to had checked in to the embassy quite a bit of time before us but still hadnt been called. In the end, they got called for their interviews 30 minutes after myself. Like I said, it must be just luck lol! The interview wasn't too bad: I got asked who I was going to work for and what job I was going to do. He even asked me which ride I wanted to work on, to which he replied "I've never been but I heard that one's fantastic". I'm sure he said that to everybody
He also asked what I was doing in the UK at the moment, and this is where I thought I had messed everything up! I told him I was in my 4th year of university to which he asked "how come, as uni courses are only normally 3 years?". I then tried to explain the whole I'm-studying-medicine-and-I've-taken-a-year-out-to-study-something-different-for-a-year-blah-blah-thing which i never explain very well! He then moved on to ask me what university I was at. I told him that I was at Cardiff University in Wales, and he then asked me what the university was actually called Such a strange question! I said I think headache it's just Cardiff University. He asked if I was sure... I then said: or is it University of Wales, Cardiff? I literally have no idea why I got so flustered and said this I know full well it's just called Cardiff University and I was stupid to doubt myself. I think I just panicked a little as this was the last "hurdle" in getting to FL. I have no idea what came over me, and just said: "look, let's just say it's called Cardiff University and that's where I'll be heading back to when I finish the program". He started to smirk and I got the impression that he was winding me up . "Don't worry" he said, "i've just APPROVED YOUR VISA!" Wooooooooooooooo! He then asked me how I was finding studying medicine - soo surreal! But sweet!But it was done, and approved, and that was the main thing! I just had to pay £20 to arrange to have my passport returned to me (absolute rip-off), and then I could leave the embassy behind!
It was a long day, but was worth it. A couple of us then headed over to the Hard Rock Cafe to celebrate with a cocktail or two, and generally just had a fantastic evening
Happy days!The visa getting approved was an ace birthday present
)
