My name is Wasim... And I am not a...

- Wednesday, 5th May, 2010.

Finally, the time had come for the US consulate at Hyderabad to give their decision on the status of my visa which had been pending for about one year (I feel as if its been so since the dawn of time itself :P).

- June 1st, 2009.

It was a bright summer morning when I got ready to go the consulate. Clean shave, a bit more deodorant :D I was checking to see whether all the papers were in order for the fifth time since morning that day.

I went to the gate and showed the security guard the papers. He checked my folder. It had a calculator (which I had overlooked) built into it. I was told it wasn't allowed inside. I had to tear up the folder and was about to throw the calculator away when some good Samaritan offered to keep it safe for me.

Inside, after the security check , after waiting for my turn and after the interview (in which he didn't ask many questions other than the usual - which university are you going to, how will you fund yourself etc.) I was pretty positive that I'd get it. (Come on dude, after all that you have to give it to me) But he just said, i'll return your passport, and you'll have to wait to hear from us about when to submit it back if everything goes well. I asked him 3 times if I had to do something. He just asked me to wait. I didn't know what to make out of it.

Finally after 5 months or so, after my university's deadline was long gone, I get a mail from the consulate to submit my passport for further processing. Hah! Now that's a joke. Now the catch was that my university classes had already begun. And the university (Drexel University) did not accept spring admissions. So i deferred the admission to next fall and applied for the spring semester in George Mason. As I applied late, I got the admit for fall semester in GMU. Then I submitted the passport at the consulate along with the new i20. Still the status was "PENDING"!!

- Wednesday, 5th May, 2010.

Finally, after a long wait, the time had come for the US consulate at Hyderabad to give their decision on the status of my visa which had been pending for about one year (I feel as if its been so since the dawn of time itself :P). I got my visa today.

My name is Wasim, and I am not a........................................