Cancelled Esta

FlorayG

OP says "We went to London hoping to resolve this but the US embassy would not see us without an appointment so we lost our holiday"
Doesn't say they went immediately and tried to get back for booked flight. I read this as they went there hoping to get it resolved so they could get on a later flight and only lose one day of their holiday. A very reasonable thing to try

sheramber

If they did not iive near London it would be easier to travel into London for the airport than go home and then have travel in to London.

It is quite reasonable that they would want to sort it out asap and salvage some of their trip.and thought a trip  to the embassy was the quickest way to do that.

They were not aware that they needed an appointment to see someone about it.

Leavemealone

whatever the reasons for what happened I sincerely hope the daughter is being well cared for she must have been so confused and frightened I would have been even in my advanced years. I know just how officious these ‘Official’ can be and with a child this young involved you might have assumed someone delivering this kind of news in such a public way would have had enough compassion to cover this point. 

Westin

DullGreyGuy said:

jimi_man said:

3. We can only take the OPs word that they travelled (unsuccessfully) to the US Embassy that same day but I’ve no reason to doubt them. 

Not really... US embassy if you are extremely lucky is 45 minutes from LHR, add to that the time to get from departures back to a vehicle/taxi so realistically lets say an hour.  If you are highly optimistic you can think an hour each way plus 30 minutes there so 2.5 hours. Once back at Heathrow you'd undoubtably have to recheck in, go back through security etc. 

Now maybe the OP decided to go to the airport 6 hours early in which case it may be doable. Most people barely follow the recommendation of arriving 3 hours before departure in which case having already checked in, gone through security etc there would clearly be no time. 

We live 1.25 from LHR and when someone forgot their passport it was very clear that there was no hope in hell of getting home and back in time to check in again and go through security etc even having arrived 3hrs before take off. 

You cannot just turn up at the US Embassy in Nine Elms, London and expect to get this sorted out.  A visa appointment would be necessary and for that there is a long wait time for appointments.