How to obtain US Visa fairly quickly?

d61mts

trickytrolleys wrote: »

you can also call the london embassy to
Also, be careful with your dates as they dont just give you a stamp in your passport, you have to leave it with them and they post it back to you with the visa in it so allow a few days for this - you also have to pay for this service - about £15 is cheapest.

My experience is with the london embassy so may be slightly different in Belfast

HTH

I think at Belfast you bring a paid special delivery envelope with you for them to send the passport back to you instead of paying the courrier service at the embassy - worth looking into if you go to Belfast for the visa. Similarly I've only used the London embassy though.

Scubabe

Which EU country are you from? As most of the EU countries participate in the VWP. For a list of them, you can go here
http://travel.state.gov/visa/temp/without/without_1990.html#countries

Agree with luci that you don't need an e-passport, just a machine readable one, and if you last had it renewed in 2006 I think you should have one of those. Here's a picture of what a machine-readable passport looks like, does yours look like that?
http://www.dhs.gov/xtrvlsec/programs/content_multi_image_0021.shtm#3

omelette451

There's a consulate in Edinburgh as well as Belfast - it may be easier to get cheap train tickets to Scotland than a flight over to NI...

Voyager2002

Agents: I have used Trailfinders for countries like Vietnam and they were good, but I have no idea whether they accept non-EU clients.

Otherwise ask in the forum at ImmigrationBoards.

alanrowell

omelette451 wrote: »

There's a consulate in Edinburgh .

which doesn't deal with visa applications

http://www.usembassy.org.uk/scotland/

alanrowell

Voyager2002 wrote: »

Agents: I have used Trailfinders for countries like Vietnam and they were good, but I have no idea whether they accept non-EU clients.

Otherwise ask in the forum at ImmigrationBoards.

US requires you to attend an interview in person, therefore you cannot use an agent

Arcana

Luci: Yes, mine has all the <<<<<<<<<<<<< and is indeed issued in May 2006.

RyanAir has £20 return flights on certain days to Belfast so I'm gonna see if I can make an appointment one of those days.

Thanks Alan Rowell. That helps me stop looking for agencies, as there then is no point I suppose.

And thanks to everyone else of course. You've all been very helpful

Voyager2002

alanrowell wrote: »

US requires you to attend an interview in person, therefore you cannot use an agent

It is possible that some agents could handle all the paperwork and get you an appointment at short notice, although the fee for all this might amount to more than the cost of a trip to Belfast!

I did get a US visa through an agent back in 2002, but for obvious reasons the rules may have changed since then. (And no, I can't remember anything about who the agent was, and in any case my situation was different from that of the OP.)

Scubabe

Well then that's good, as long as you are from a country in the VWP (did you check on the link I posted earlier?) then you don't need a visa - just your wife & child.

I hope they are able to get an appointment in Belfast. Good luck!

Arcana

Voyager2002: Hmm.... that's interesting. It is quite possible they could get me an interview I suppose, so it's just a matter of how much would they charge?

Scubabe: Yes, I compared it to my passport this morning. I'm from Denmark so that should be ok.