Every thing went smooth at interview where I was not even asked a single question.
My thanks to this forum and it\'s active and not so active (like me)members for sharing their expertise and anxieties.
In contrast to the smoothness at the interview everything went topsy turvy for a 10 days leading up to it.
I was in the hospital the previous day with an IV drip because of Gastro-enteritis. I was lucky that I could recover enough to go the interview next morning after travelling 120 miles to Chennai.
Before that I made three trips to chennai to complete my medical. During my first attempt the train arrived just enough late at chennai to prevent me from completing the process in one day. Lister will not give the results same day if you show up after 10:30 am.I arrived on a Saturday and therefore decided not to stay on till Monday.
In the second trip to chennai I showed up at Dr. Vijayalakshmi without passports. What a dumb thing to do! .
I was lucky the third time.
God is great! Every thing went smooth at the interview.
Lesson 1: Please have your passports and appointment letter when you visit Lister and the doctor.
Lesson 2: Be careful about what you eat especially the few days before the interview. As a rule try to avoid eating outside and in the house too be limited.
Other than whatever is listed in the PKT 4, I was asked to provide bank statements, 2000 tax return and pay slip (for current salary). The officer hardly seemed to pay any close attention. However, he noticed that I submitted a statement from my life insurance company and promptly returned it to me. Please follow the order listed in PKT4. Strangely, consulate manages to send forms that expired 10 yrs ago as part of PKT4. I submitted the OF230 forms found in Chennai\'s web site. NO questions asked.
An Indian guy checked our papers made us sign part 2 and asked for bank statements etc and collected my Blue Dart payment and then said "pay the issuance fee at counter 1 and go home". Though I heard it very clearly, I was not sure. Even when while walking out of the consulate I was checking with my wife. Actually the guy gave me a pre-printed slip where he indicated that there are 3 candidates (me, my wife and son) and checked "Issuance fee". The lady who took the payment took this slip too. So I believe that we cannot just go and pay the issuance fee just like that (either deliberately or otherwise). Even for paying the application fee I was given a similar slip after our papers were checked and collected.
Unlike my case another person was asked to wait after he was asked to sign part 2 and pay the blue dart. He was called again. May be that was the interview. So there could be some variations to the procedure.
I did another dumb thing too. I wrote my relation\'s name in the blue dart slip thinking that my name would generate question marks if the blue dart person asked for me around the neighbourhood and worse did not mention my name. So the blue dart person refused to deliver saying the name on the reciept was not matching the name on the slip. I had to make a few phone calls up the blue dart heirarchy to make them deliver.
Lesson 3: WRITE YOUR NAME in the blue dart slip. Please be careful with the reciepts that they give after taking each payment. Blue dart guy needs a copy for delivering the documents.
I am coming back to US with a stopover in Singapore. I remember there was a lot of discussion on whether one can do this and if so, is it advisable? Well I will give a report on this early next month.
Thanks again. I will be happy to answer any questions. I will be checking in once in a while till early next month.
My thanks to this forum and it\'s active and not so active (like me)members for sharing their expertise and anxieties.
In contrast to the smoothness at the interview everything went topsy turvy for a 10 days leading up to it.
I was in the hospital the previous day with an IV drip because of Gastro-enteritis. I was lucky that I could recover enough to go the interview next morning after travelling 120 miles to Chennai.
Before that I made three trips to chennai to complete my medical. During my first attempt the train arrived just enough late at chennai to prevent me from completing the process in one day. Lister will not give the results same day if you show up after 10:30 am.I arrived on a Saturday and therefore decided not to stay on till Monday.
In the second trip to chennai I showed up at Dr. Vijayalakshmi without passports. What a dumb thing to do! .
I was lucky the third time.
God is great! Every thing went smooth at the interview.
Lesson 1: Please have your passports and appointment letter when you visit Lister and the doctor.
Lesson 2: Be careful about what you eat especially the few days before the interview. As a rule try to avoid eating outside and in the house too be limited.
Other than whatever is listed in the PKT 4, I was asked to provide bank statements, 2000 tax return and pay slip (for current salary). The officer hardly seemed to pay any close attention. However, he noticed that I submitted a statement from my life insurance company and promptly returned it to me. Please follow the order listed in PKT4. Strangely, consulate manages to send forms that expired 10 yrs ago as part of PKT4. I submitted the OF230 forms found in Chennai\'s web site. NO questions asked.
An Indian guy checked our papers made us sign part 2 and asked for bank statements etc and collected my Blue Dart payment and then said "pay the issuance fee at counter 1 and go home". Though I heard it very clearly, I was not sure. Even when while walking out of the consulate I was checking with my wife. Actually the guy gave me a pre-printed slip where he indicated that there are 3 candidates (me, my wife and son) and checked "Issuance fee". The lady who took the payment took this slip too. So I believe that we cannot just go and pay the issuance fee just like that (either deliberately or otherwise). Even for paying the application fee I was given a similar slip after our papers were checked and collected.
Unlike my case another person was asked to wait after he was asked to sign part 2 and pay the blue dart. He was called again. May be that was the interview. So there could be some variations to the procedure.
I did another dumb thing too. I wrote my relation\'s name in the blue dart slip thinking that my name would generate question marks if the blue dart person asked for me around the neighbourhood and worse did not mention my name. So the blue dart person refused to deliver saying the name on the reciept was not matching the name on the slip. I had to make a few phone calls up the blue dart heirarchy to make them deliver.
Lesson 3: WRITE YOUR NAME in the blue dart slip. Please be careful with the reciepts that they give after taking each payment. Blue dart guy needs a copy for delivering the documents.
I am coming back to US with a stopover in Singapore. I remember there was a lot of discussion on whether one can do this and if so, is it advisable? Well I will give a report on this early next month.
Thanks again. I will be happy to answer any questions. I will be checking in once in a while till early next month.