Getting a US visa

Not so long ago, in July, Intel sent me an invitation to an AppUp Elements event. At the time of the invitation, I did not have a passport or, of course, a US visa. But I managed to get both and arrived at the event just in time. About how I managed it and I want to tell in this article.

This article may be useful to those who want in the future or are ready to get a visa to travel to the United States.

Now essentially. First, the timing - apply for a US visa should be no less than 30 days from the date of the proposed trip. On this page you can find out about the terms for issuing visas currently valid. For my part, I would recommend that you hand over documents as soon as possible (40 to 60 days), because anything can happen. For example, due to the summer fires, the embassy was closed for several days, and the dates for consideration, respectively, were postponed.

Before you start filling out an application, you should get a photo that meets these requirements.
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Next, fill out the questionnaire DS-160 . Questions are not complicated, in some places may seem silly. In the questionnaire you should indicate:

• Full name
• date and place of birth
• passport information
• residential address, postal address, telephone
• information about your zagran. passport
• purpose of the visit
• information about who invited you, where you are going to live
• information about people traveling with you
• Have you been to the USA before, have you been issued a visa before

and so on. Each question is explained, including in Russian. To get a hint, you just need to hover the mouse over the corresponding explanation.

Nothing complicated when filling out the questionnaire, only a couple of moments caused me difficulty:

National Identification Number - the number of your local passport.
Passport Book Number - I have an old-style passport and this item is not filled, I don’t know how it is with the new ones, can someone share information.

After filling out the form you will be given a page to confirm the completed application. It must be printed. You need to print, in accordance with the recommendations of the embassy, ​​only on a laser printer.

Next, go to the site Pony Express , find the nearest branch and go there. You will have to pay a consular fee for obtaining a visa, the cost of collection depends on the type of visa (from $ 100 and up), see the fees here .

You can either come to the Pony Express office, get a receipt there, go to the bank, pay, then return. Or pay in advance using a ready-made form . To save time, I recommend the second option. The internal course of the embassy, ​​at the moment - $ 1 = 30 rubles.

In the Pony Express department you need to bring a printed confirmation page, if you have attached the photo in electronic form to your application - do not forget to bring the photos in paper form, it is overseas. passport and, if there is (and it is desirable to have), an invitation from the receiving party. At the Pony Express office, you fill out a form and submit documents.

In a few days, they will call you and offer to take your permit for an interview at the embassy. The pass will indicate the date of the interview.

In my case, the date was inappropriate, AppUp Elements started on the 15th and ended on the 16th. I was assigned a date - September 17th. I went to the Pony Express office again and wrote an application for postponing the interview. In it I described, in my own words, the reason why I ask to postpone the date. The application was sent by fax to the Moscow office. The girl who accepted the statement said that there was little chance, they rarely postpone the time. After 2 hours, they called me from the Moscow office and said that the date was postponed to September 10th.

On the appointed day, you must come to the embassy, ​​preferably 30-60 minutes before the appointed time. It is advisable to eat something before that (which I did not do and regretted), because You can spend a lot of time there (I left only after 4 hours). Electronic gadgets, in order to pass the time, you can not take with you, they will need to pass at the entrance.

The interview itself is not difficult, you will be asked about the purpose of the visit, relatives, work. In general, they need to be sure that you have something here, you have a place to come back and you are not going to immigrate illegally.

If a positive decision is made, then you leave and wait for your passport with the visa glued into it. If not, your passport will be returned to you. With a positive decision, you can immediately, in the embassy itself, pay an additional fee of $ 100 and get a visa for a period of 2 years.

On the website and in the office of Pony Express it is indicated that the delivery time of a passport with a visa is 2-3 days. I was on the interview on Friday and on Monday morning I had a passport with a visa waiting for me at the Pony Express office.

Information about the visa service of the company Pony Express
Visa Information on the Embassy Website

It seems to have said everything and forgot nothing. If you have questions, ask, I will try to answer them.