before i begin this entry, all i can say is, i'm so glad that the visa process is over! i cannot believe the stress caused by it, not to mention the lack of sleep. - this entry, which will probably have the same 'i can't believe that was IT?' overtones as others posted, although i do still wish to post our experience
(as brief as it was!) -
we arrived in NYC at the hotel (we flew into Newark airport) about 8pm. jetlagged and hungry, luckily our hotel as near to a few places to eat. (although i absolutely would not recommend the hotel we stayed at - The Metropolitian Hotel at 569 Lexington Ave. - luckily it was only for one night and we were too tired to complain about the room quality for the £ we paid.)
friday, april 30th, i was up before the alarm clock went off with more nerves than i thought i would be able to calm. my lovely other half, Sean, woke shortly after i did and he did a great job of reassuring me that everything would go fine. (but i still felt the neurotic need to keep checking and re-checking all our paperwork.) after having a bagel and coffee for breakfast, we walked to the consulates. (a literal 5 minute walk from the hotel!) our appointment was luckily for 9am. the security guard outside who was checking appointment times was a big gruff, but understandably so, he was doing his job and he was nice enough to let Sean come upstairs with me (when we had already figured that he would not be able to.) once upstairs, we queued for about 15 minutes before being called up to the window (in this time, i thought my bladder was going to burst from nervousness.) the officer that assisted was very friendly (i did not catch his name, but he was Irish.) - we just handed over our paperwork, he went over his checklist, then went off to make some photocopies, came back to the window, explained to us about my visa before for 2 years and what to do before the 2 years was up and how to obtain my NHS number and also my National Insurance Number. he congratulated us on our recent wedding and gave us a piece of paper with a little numbered sticker on it for us to return in one hour to collect my passport.
all that, in 8 minutes!! i don't think i took a full breath until we were outside the consulates. we did return in one hour to collect my newly visa-ed passport. and from then on, the rest of our holiday in america went by wonderfully.
i cannot offer enough thanks to those who offered me assistance, peace of mind and advice. i only hope that now, with my experience behind me, i can offer the same support to others.
and now, onto the next step on our ladder, preparing for baby
![[smiley=heart.gif]](https://www.talk.uk-yankee.com/Smileys/classic/heart.gif "Heart")
(ps- it was so nice to come thru a shorter line at immigration at heathrow!)
