I woke up @4.00 am Wednesday morning (18 Feb 2015) and by 5am I had left the house. I boarded a car at around 5.32am and by 6.15am I was at the embassy. I joined a lot of people seated under trees and had to pay 1.00ghc for a seat (back in 2008 during my 1st interview, one had to stand till you are called, no seat lol). Good some folks in the area around the embassy have taken the opportunity to make some few cash, while relaxing the applicant by offering a chair hahaha. There was also a preacher to boost your spiritual antennae… We were then called @7.01am to form a queue, this time one long queue, no division into immigrants and non-immigrants. We were called in groups of 5, intermittently for inspection of our appointment letters (there were so many of us, couldn’t tell at this point how many DV applicants there were). I entered the security section and my phone was taken, my bag scanned, and was eventually allowed entry into the main hall. A lady collected my app. Letter and asked me to have a sit, I did. After sitting for a while, a Ghanaian lady at window 1 called all DV applicants, it was there that I realized that we were 6 DV applicants in all. She demanded for passport inspection and told us the requirements- originals 1st, photocopy 2nd , , visa fee ( the rate today is 3.6 ghc to 1 dollar US)etc. we then had a seat and boyyyy, the waiting begun! As we were waiting, I saw a lot of visa denials, not lottery though. Throughout my waiting period, about 4 were approved out of a huge chunk of people (cannot quantify). At around 11.00am we were called to deliver documents after payment (we had to wait for the cashier for a while), people were scrambling between ghc –dollar conversion, and little changes…it was interesting! I had the exact 330 dollars so no problem with me ( and had it checked by banks and forex bureaus for authenticity before the interview). Then we were called again for finger prints after which we waited for about 45 minutes more. After this time I was called to window 4 for the main interview but before that I took another biometric information. A nice quite elderly white lady interviewed me with a great smile… Another dv lady was called to window5
(where the famous bearded gentleman was lol. She was showed a big picture of a lady and was asked to identify the pic, whether it looked like her, she answered in the negative….i was then called so I didn’t know what happened to her afterwards
) while the remaining 4 sat and waited to be called. I was the first to complete the interview, within 2 ½- 3 minutes, I was done!!
Now the details:
CO: good morning (smiling)
Me: gd morning how are u
CO: good
CO: Pls raise your right hand n swear… (I stopped her by saying I needed to correct my highest education completed on the ds260, but she said that will be later)
Me: I do
CO: Hav u applied for a US visa before?
Me: yes
CO: When?
Me: 2008
CO: which year did u complete wassce?
Me: sssce not wassce and then I answered
CO: Which school
Me : ans
CO: Which subjects were ur electives?
Me ans
CO: What do u do
Me ans
CO: Ooh u are a medical lab guy? Where do u work?
Me ans
CO: How long u been working there
Me ans (she then asked me abt what I wanted to correct on the ds260)
Me: I explained quickly within few seconds
CO: do u have any questions for me?
Me: no, just that u looking good (she smiled and said thank you)
CO: Congratulations I have approved ur visa, everything is fine with you
Me: thank u (smiling) she then wrote my name, date and time of visa collection on the “visa collection ticket” (bluish-green coloured paper)
CO: u would need this ticket to re-enter the embassy for ur visa. Pls do not make any travel arrangements blablabla.. (she then slided it under the window)
Me: thanks, have a great day
CO: thank u and enjoy ur stay in America.
Me: thanks
That’s what really happened people. Pls give straight-forward answers. That’s wat I did. No plenty talk.