eForm DS156, CCUSA and The American Consulate, SORT YOURSELVES OUT!

The BBQ Pit
1

For fuck’s sake can’t you get a system that works?

We have tried on 4 different computers now to get this bloody visa application form to work, it is supposed to give us a nice .pdf with all the information and a barcode to take to the consulate in London tomorrow (combined cost £66 for train fare, and we have to set off at 6:15am and can’t leave London until 9:30pm because otherwise we would have to pay £98 each just for a train.) so that you can sort out Jenn’s visa for her to work in a girlscout summer camp. Seems simple, doesn’t it, connect to the website, fill in the form, get the .pdf, print, attach photo and go.
Is it bollocks simple.

The site is the slowes piece of crap I have ever seen, it takes over 5 minutes just to open the form. then you fill it in (do you intend to commit terrorist atrocities while ine the US? Please admit to any Nazi warcrimes you may have inadvertantly commited). The, click the continue button and…

…wait. And wait, still waiting.

Ooooo downloading from site…

…waiting…

‘This page contains both secure and nonsecure items, do you wish to display nonsecure content?’
OK…

…and PING, a completely blank screen, no .pdf, no network activity, nothing. So we try again, and again, and again.

We call CCUSA, and they tell us to call back after 4:30 and they will see what they can do. Seems without this form being filled in she can’t get her visa tomorrow, so we have to pay the money to the Americans AGAIN, got to London AGAIN at some later date. I suggested that we caontact the consulate to find out if the site is experiencing problems, but no CCUSA say that under no circumstances must you contact the consulate directly, so what the fuck are we supposed to do? Are we wasting our time and money going to London tomorrow? Can it be sorted when we get there? And why the fuck can’t the richest country in the world have a simple online form that WORKS?

Rant over, go about your business.

2

Would that be the U.S. Department of State Non-Immigrant Visa Application? I’m too damned lazy to have registered yet, so I can’t see if you have an E-mail address. E-mail me at ferret_herder at hotmail (dot) com and I’ll attach the pdf and E-mail it back to you. I got it via http://travel.state.gov/DS-0156.pdf by googling.

3

On further inspection, I see that you were attempting to use the “fill out online and print” version, which appears to be stalling for me as well. At the bottom of the main forms page - http://evisaforms.state.gov/ - they give you a link to get to the regular forms, where you print it out and fill it in by hand. I gave you that link in my previous post.

4

Yeah, thats the form, but we’ve been told she has to fill it in electronically, and it will attach the barcode on the final .pdf that you get, unfortunatly the site doesn’t send you a final .pdf complete with your details and barcode. I suppose that if it copmes to it there has to be a way to fill out the form by hand and get them to process it tomorrow, the irritating thing is that she has already filled the form out once for CCUSA, then got an email on tuesday telling her to fill in the form online as well, then put it off until today, on the daft assumption that something connected with government bureaucracy might work (yeah, I know, :smack: ).
I really can’t see that there won’t be another way to deal with this, but it is irritating.

Ah well, lets be greatful for the pit where we can vent our anger and irritatiion into the barren wasteland of the internet.

5

Yeah, at least it is failing for someone else, thanks for the help, and good luck with hearding the ferrets :smiley: