My god, i need to have a rant as i feel the need to go on a killing spree...
[rant]
Im going to New York for 2 weeks at Christmas, first week to stay in the city, and then spend the second week with my dad who lives in upstate NY.
The original plan was for my fiance to go to Canada to stay with her family but she changed her mind and wanted to come to NY with me.
My fiance is African and we have had a painful time with immigration in the past (the reason i had to sell my first zed - legal bills!) - despite the fact that she's been here for 11 years since she was 16, but her status in the UK is all completely sorted now but she's still on an African passport for another 5 months. So - we had to apply for a non-immigrant Visa for her to enter the US. This involves a £90 application fee and atending an interview in person at the US Embassy in London.
Well - that interview was today - she took the time off work, went down the night before on the train, stayed in a hotel etc etc. She was at the embassy for 5 hours waiting to be seen, and then they saw her for LESS than 2 minutes, and rejected her without looking at any of her documents! They asked her 2 questions only - What family she has in the UK - answer - me, her sister and her nephews, and then is she employed - answer - yes, but on a temporary contract, despite being there for 6 months already. From these 2 answers they determined that she doesnt have any compelling ties to return to the UK following her trip, and rejected her, and closed the 'booth' that she was being seen at. Absolutely shocking. Thats 200quid down the ****ing drain. The thing that really pisses me off is that she said this was the last booth that was open, and he was just in a rush to close it and **** off home (Friday afternoon, and all that). ****.
I've been reading online about it just now, and there's no right to reply, no appeal process, no-one to call and complain to - if you want to try again, you have to pay the fees again and go for another interview where the same is likely to happen. **** man i've not been this angry in a long time - what a disgusting ****ing joke. [/rant]
all that said - im still going to NY, albeit on my own - cant wait