Come here to get a little taste of two things USA goes overboard on; bureaucracy and security.
If you need to physically go to the embassy to handle something, you first need to book an appointment between 9am and 12pm on weekdays (except Thursdays). Once you arrive at your arranged time, an armed guard will check your ID to your appointment before you can enter the building. Then you go through airport-style security; empty your pockets, put everything through x-ray, and pick up your belongings on the other side of the metal detector. They keep your phone, mp3 player, and USB sticks until you are on your way out. Don't even think about bringing your laptop. And you should maybe leave your favourite machete and AK-47 at home. Just a tip.
After you get past security, you just wait. I hope you brought a book or a friend because you won't be able to mess around on your checked phone. The employees behind the counter are polite but the one that helped me is either incompetent or was having an off day. I only needed new pages in my passport and he offered to add 48 instead of 24 new pages. Since it is the same price ($82 USD), I happily accepted the offer and he marked it down on my form.
They couldn't make it happen on the same day, so later in the week I had to leave work very early to pick up my passport before the embassy closed at noon. When an employee handed it to me, I hesistated because it felt a little too thin. I stopped and counted the pages and quickly realized there were only 24! When I pointed this out, the employee stated that I'd ordered that amount but I knew it said otherwise on my form so I insisted that he check it. Lo and behold, the 48 page option was marked. He then apologized and offered to add the extra pages but I was traveling the next week and didn't want to take any more time off work, so I declined, grabbed my phone, and left.
Leave your electronics at home, bring a book, and arm yourself with nothing except patience. Welcome to 'murica! read more
