Personal experience: how I got an American visa for 3 of the day

Photo: Compare.ru

Due to the diplomatic wars, the time for recording a visa interview in the United States increased to 53 calendar days, and to get a tourist visa, you need to wait for 85 days. Journalist Alya Zivere told Sravni.ruas received a visa in another country in just 3 of the day.

I already have a tourist American visa, but I needed a journalistic visa, which means that I had to have an interview again. In Moscow, I tried to sign up for a few days, but the site invariably betrayed “sorry, there are no dates available for interviews”.

The deadline was tight and I decided to move in the Czech Republic. To sign up there (the account on www.ustraveldocs.com is registered in Moscow and only offers consulates in Russia automatically), I called the US embassy in Prague, explained the situation, the American consulate in the Czech Republic requested my profile in Moscow. In the evening of the same day I could already sign up for an interview in Prague.

Where to go for an American visa

Formally, a visa in the United States has never been forbidden to do not in the country of residence, but the website stresses that it is better to do a visa at home or in the country where you are a resident. There it will be easier to prove connections with the place of residence, which means that there is no emigration intention. After the start of the "consular wars" for the Russians, everything changed. First, the US Embassy in Tbilisi, and then in Kiev, offered to come to them. In Georgia, a travel company does this business and offered to buy a tour, promising to take all the hassle of organizing a recording for an interview. In Tbilisi, the waiting time for an interview is 8 calendar days, in Kiev - 5, in Prague - 1. That is, in the Czech Republic, you can sign up for an interview the next morning, even if you filled out the form late in the evening.

But choosing a country is better not only in terms of interviews. Ideally, if in this country you have friends or relatives. Even if they do not offer you to save money and stay with them, their help will be needed. For example, you will need to specify the address to which the passport will be delivered. In Prague there is no visa center, and come to Pony Express The site does not offer. I have relatives in Prague and an open Schengen visa, so I went to this city.

How to pass an interview not in the country of residence

The list of required documents is on the site. I additionally took certificates for property (I translated it into English myself, I did not notarize it) and certificates from banks (you can immediately ask for them in English).

The basic rules are the same as in Moscow:

• do not come with a huge bag;

• From the gadgets, only the phone is allowed, at the entrance it will need to be handed over.

The main difference from an interview in Moscow is that there are no crowds craving for a visa on the street, they are simply smaller. It is worth coming minutes for 15 before the scheduled time. Inside the building you need to take a ticket. I waited for my interview for about an hour.

It was held in English (in Kiev and in Tbilisi there is a chance that it will be in Russian). The officer asked why I did not apply at home, but it was a mere formality. It was enough to say: "You know about the problems with recording for an interview in Moscow."

The officer also wondered why it was Prague. The answer "I have relatives here" also arranged. The remaining questions were to ensure that I had no immigration intent. I was very excited about the process of obtaining a passport, since the only document in English was a foreign passport, and it remained in the consulate. The officer said that he did not understand my concern, and I can come to the consulate for a visa tomorrow. Usually a visa is done for a couple of days, but I needed to quickly, and that was the supporting documents. The next day, I showed the security guard at the entrance to an internal Russian passport and a photo of the international passport in the phone and received a visa.

Possible problems

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