kimifan
31st October 2007, 11:48 PM
I had the pleasure of a very early morning trip to London yesterday. Armed with a folder carrying all the documents I could imagine they would ever need(photocopied twice, just in case) I got on the first train out of manchester.
After geting to Euston, I negotiated the tube wih relative ease and managed to get myself to Haymarket, after a brief detour around leicester square, having managed to miss the road from piccadilly circus.
Once I found Haymarket, NZ house was a doddle - just at the end of the street. I took my ticket in immigration and waited my turn.
Half an hour passed quickly - I'd taken a book to read - and soon enough I was called to the desk, where the very frindly immigration person went through my form, looked at my medical results and the essential documents....... that was where the problem lay. There was a horrible silence as I realised I had forgotten a vital document, without which I couldn't submit my application.
I checked and double checked my bag while the immigration girl went through everything I'd given her but it was nowhere to be seen. She apologised but said they would not be able to process my application, and handed my documents back.
However, I was able to rescue the situation. For reasons unknown, I scanned every document and email I have received reagarding this whole process and saved them all in a folder on my email - I have never been so pleased to have spent time organizing my life.
After an hour wandering round london looking for an internet cafe I managed to print off the missing document, queue for another hour at immigration and, once I'd explained my sorry story to the immgration man, he was kind enough to process the visa then and there!!
Just realised what a waffly post this is! Anyway, the short message is...I have my work visa and exactly 2 weeks from now I wll be in NZ!!!!!!!!!!!!!
After geting to Euston, I negotiated the tube wih relative ease and managed to get myself to Haymarket, after a brief detour around leicester square, having managed to miss the road from piccadilly circus.
Once I found Haymarket, NZ house was a doddle - just at the end of the street. I took my ticket in immigration and waited my turn.
Half an hour passed quickly - I'd taken a book to read - and soon enough I was called to the desk, where the very frindly immigration person went through my form, looked at my medical results and the essential documents....... that was where the problem lay. There was a horrible silence as I realised I had forgotten a vital document, without which I couldn't submit my application.
I checked and double checked my bag while the immigration girl went through everything I'd given her but it was nowhere to be seen. She apologised but said they would not be able to process my application, and handed my documents back.
However, I was able to rescue the situation. For reasons unknown, I scanned every document and email I have received reagarding this whole process and saved them all in a folder on my email - I have never been so pleased to have spent time organizing my life.
After an hour wandering round london looking for an internet cafe I managed to print off the missing document, queue for another hour at immigration and, once I'd explained my sorry story to the immgration man, he was kind enough to process the visa then and there!!
Just realised what a waffly post this is! Anyway, the short message is...I have my work visa and exactly 2 weeks from now I wll be in NZ!!!!!!!!!!!!!