VISA to the US through American Chamber of Commerce

VISA to the US through American Chamber of Commerce

My old passport was going to expire and although I'd heard that you can travel with 2 passports (old with visa + new one), I decided not to risk and get valid visa in my new passport. Folks told me that it's pretty cumbersome to stay in the line to for the interview, well, what can you do?
I browsed U.S. Embassy web site and found an interesting program for companies that are members of American Chamber of Commerce (which we are, indeed)!

So I

• filled out both forms (Online DS-156 EVAF + DS-157 Czech / English),
  
• got a photo in Fotolab on Chodov,
  IMPORTANT: the photo (5cm x 5 cm - please note that this is a larger format than what is available from the automated machines!) must not be older than 6 months, and must show the applicant’s entire face, always from the front and on a light background!
  
• paid courier and visa feeNew Business Visa Program in CSOB
  
• called AmCham (the phone listed on 420-737-258-088, which a mobile phone,... weird, it's better to call 420 222-329-430, I guess)
• sent them all documents (yeah, including Invitation letter and envelope for sending my passport back)
  
• ... and let them to schedule my interview for Wednesday 2pm
  

I came to the Embassy at 2pm and believe it or not, I was out at 2:05. No lines, 2 minutes waiting time. Amazing!
Passport came 3 days later, so I can fly to the US again without worrying about Immigration Officers.

IMPORTANT: AmCham program  applies to all Sun Microsystems Czech employees! Just be nice to people in AmCham, it's not their regular duty, they do it as an additional service to their partners.

Posted at 10:40PM Aug 17, 2007 by Pavel Suk in Global Engineering  |  Comments[1]