Stamped, Sealed, Sent, Accepted!

I guess I need to catch up a bit here. I've been pretty busy with school (and visa stuff) so updating has been on the back burner, which is probably good. It means I have got some sense of priorities!

So, when I left off I was just about to hand in my Visa application to my "travel counsellor" who couriered it to SWAP. I was surprised to find that it didn't take that long, I think it took 3 days.
Once the application had been lodged, I needed to get a bank letter (which was super easy it turns out) and book my Visa Application Centre (VAC) appointment to get my biometrics done (fingerprints and digital photo). That was interesting....

To go to my VAC appointment I had to skip school because it was only open Monday to Friday, which meant I could only go every other Monday or Thursdays. Luckily I was able to get one the Monday after the application was lodged at 1:15.
Unfortunately the ferries do not run when I want them to run, therefore I had to catch the 9am ferry (which means leaving my house at 8, but only because I had a car...busing would have been much earlier!). That was not a problem, and even getting to the VAC from the ferry was a piece of cake. A little long, but straightforward.
I knew I was going to have some time to spare, but since the centre was downtown Vancouver I figured I could wander around a bit and grab some lunch. The weather didn't think that was such a good idea because it decided to snow/slush/rain. Oh well...
I ate a delicious bagel and went to the VAC a little early, to make sure I could find the place, and I didn't want to miss the appointment.
What a joke that was!

Taken from http://www.explainthatstuff.com/fingerprintscanners.html

When I arrived, the woman was 2 hours behind. Not kidding.
I could have gone back out, and window shopped or something I guess, but as I said, the weather wasn't particularly inviting. So I read a book while I waited, which was fine in and of itself. I just happened to be waiting for 2 and a half hours.
I finally got to go in, and it was 15 minutes. Tops. She scanned things, stamped things, shoved everything into an envelope. I put my fingers on a scanner, and sat for a picture. The end.
And then I had to go home.
But I missed the bus to the ferry (which only go every hour), so I missed the 5pm ferry. This resulted in an hour wait at the bus station in the middle of nowhere, and then another hour at the ferry terminal.
I got home at 9:30.
Such a long day, all for getting my fingerprints taken...

However, it is now Friday, and my Visa has been accepted by the British High Consulate in New York! I'm officially allowed to work in the UK for two years as of May 7th!

Other good news, is that the company I applied with to work during the Olympics would like me to come in for a training day once I'm in England. I'll need to find another job beforehand, but at least it's something!

Taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_Summer_Olympics

Next step: flights!

Oh the Visa Process..

So, I think I'm finally going to be able to hand in my visa application. Hopefully.
As I knew it would, the Visa has been a bit of an adventure. Little did I know that it would start with printing the darn thing off...

Of course it wasn't as easy as just plugging the printer cord into my computer and pressing print, but I didn't realize that at first. So, 9 pages later I realize that it doesn't fit on letter size paper, I would have to go find some legal size. None of my roommates had some, and neither did Spencer's. I went to the bookstore, they didn't have any either. Luckily, the photocopy shop in the student union building did, because I would not have been impressed if I had to bus to Staples to buy some.. Anyways, I bought 11 thinking that 2 extra pages would be just fine to figure out how to print with legal size on my printer. Of course I was wrong. It took 6.
The manual feeder wouldn't work, it kept jamming.
I couldn't figure out how to elongate the tray until I finally downloaded the manual from the internet.
I made the tray longer, it still jammed, but less often.

I eventually had 5 out of 9 pages printed...had to buy more paper. Sigh.

So, I started filling it out. Most of the questions were pretty straightforward, and SWAP did provide me with step-by-step instructions. I had some questions, so I went to see my "travel counsellor", he emailed some SWAP coordinator, and their response was something along the lines of "read the welcome package". Thanks SWAP, I didn't think to do that first...
I think I have it filled out properly though. Fingers crossed!

All filled out!

I also need to submit a passport photo with the Visa application. It said one colour passport photo (45mm by 35mm) in my Welcome Package. I assumed that was regular Canadian Passport size, honestly, how was I to know differently? Alas, I come home with my photo (after going to Walmart, where the portrait studio was closed because my mum and I took too long eating dinner, and then going to London Drugs), and looked at the dimensions. It was not 45mm by 35mm.
Not impressed. SO not impressed...

So, tomorrow after class I will be going to get more passport photos.
Then I will be photocopying everything.
And handing my Visa application in (which includes a list of times I've been out of the country in the last 10 years. Which is a lot. I guess they want to make sure I'm not a terrorist).

Current passport, old passport, unusable passport photo!

Hopefully, everything will go smoothly after that.. but I still need to get a bank letter and go to Vancouver for biometric testing. So we'll see.