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[Swiss-list] appointment procedure at the US embassy in Bern

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[Swiss-list] appointment procedure at the US embassy in Bern

From: Jean-Luc <click for textversion of email address >
Date: Sat, 24 Dec 2005 09:46:58 GMT
X-Mailer: Webmail Version 4.0

As some of you may already know, the procedure to get a visa stamp in the
passport at the US embassy in Bern has changed again! At least the procedure to
get an appointment. I learned it the hard way and was wondering I was a victim
of a unique glitch or if anybody else experienced the same problem.

To get an appointment at the US embassy for a visa stamp requires now to
provide the passport number and the bar code number of the DS-156 form. It
means in particular that this DS-156 form needs to be filled online and printed
before calling the embassy for an appointment with a bar code number. This
“detail” is not posted on the embassy web site, but it is useful to know it
in advance since it costs CHF 2.50/min. to call the embassy. On top of that the
number to call the embassy is reachable only from within Switzerland, which has
always been an issue for people living in the US.
 
In my case, since I live in the US, I had my mother calling the embassy two
months ago for an appointment. She was given a date and time for me to show up
at the US embassy in Bern, and told what I was supposed to bring. But she was
never told I could not get an appointment without passport number and DS-156
form already filled up. It is possible that there was some misunderstanding (in
particular when a family member not familiar with this visa stuff has to call
on your behalf…), but the fact that she was given a date and time for my
appointment without passport number and DS-156 bar code number seems weird to
me. I realized the problem when I showed up at the US embassy: they just sent
me away and asked me to reschedule my appointment. I tried to argue, but got
nothing better than a new appointment on January 9th, one week after my
scheduled flight back to the US…
 
Has anybody been confronted to a similar problem recently? Does anybody know if
it is still possible to get your passport back the day of the appointment? (It
could allow me to fly back to the US earlier...)
 
Happy Xmas to everybody, Jean-Luc Fattebert
Received on Sat Dec 24 2005 - 15:55:44 PST

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