A couple of hours after my last post I had packed up my things and vacated my Parisian apartment. My destination was Paris Charles de Gaulle airport to get a flight to London and then catch a flight to LA.

I still had no idea if I would be allowed in through immigration with my visa, which was due to expire the day after I landed, added to that Ed had gone through a week before me and had been told that anyone from my company going through on a B1 visa was playing a risky game.

Going through on a visa that was about to expire though meant that in many ways I was playing a much riskier game wouldn’t you say?

So, at Heathrow airport I thought I had pretty much nothing left to lose. So I treated myself, on company expense, to a ‘last supper’ - at the Gordon Ramsey restaurant in Terminal 5.

I ordered the champagne breakfast.

Nothing to lose you see.

Then I got on the airplane ready to take off, until the captain comes over the intercom and says that we have a minor delay because ‘part of the plane’s roof needs to be replaced’

WTF?????

The short delay turns into 3 hours. Three hours of sitting on a plane before an 11 hour flight when you are stressed up to the eyeballs anyway is no fun I can tell you.

Fast forward 15 hours, and a particularly dodgy takeoff I arrive in LAX and am absolutely bricking it going up to immigration.

The moment I had dreaded for the past 3 weeks arrives.

I’m called forward to the immigration officer…… who looks like a pit bull munching on a mouth of wasps.

He looks at me and grimaces.

“WELCOME TO AMERICA!!! How long do you want to stay for????”

Huh?????

That’s not what I thought would happen. I was wearing my trainers and all ready to make a break for it across the border. Also I had the details of all my colleagues flying in after me, who I was prepared to offer in exchange for my freedom.

It turns out there was no need. The immigration guy didn’t even ask me what company I worked for.

My other colleagues got through fine too, although we saved the big HIGH 5s until we got well out of sight of the immigration officials.

So now I’m back in my place in Southern California.

And for the first time in 3 weeks I’m not stressed out.

Just exhausted with jet lag.

I`ll take that any day.

Right, I have no time to write. An hour or so ago I was given the all clear to fly to the US tomorrow by my company. We still dont know if we will be allowed in the US or be sent straight back to the UK. So today I flew back from Edinburgh to Paris, in 5 hours I fly to London and then on to LA. Now I`m off to pack.

Who knows what will happen to me over the next day or so.

But one thing is for sure…..

…. it`ll be great for you guys reading about it

On Tuesday I tried to escape the general misery and pain that my life has become over the last few weeks and took myself off to watch the mighty Liverpool take on Chelsea in the semi finals of the Champions League.

I turned up at The Great Canadian and ordered myself a pint of TGC. In front of me there was another guy in a Liverpool shirt sitting at the bar. Amongst friends, it seemed.

Without going into too much detail, last year Liverpool was bought out by 2 Americans who have since gone back on some of the key promises they made before buying the club. This has made them particularly unpopular with the vast majority of reds fans. One of the owners, Tom Hicks, has not been seen at Anfield this year, but chose the game on Tuesday to make his return. About 5 minutes before kick off Sky TV show the man himself sitting in the Directors box.

The next 15 seconds went like this:

me - “There he is, the to**er".
Guy in front of me - turns around and in a strong American accent “What did you call him?”
me - “a to**er".
Guy - smiles and turns around.
me - “You`re not from Texas are you?”
Guy - “oh yeah".
me - “Oh right, you dont know that guy do you?”
Guy - smile - “Yeah, I`m best friends with his son”

DOH!!!!!

Things could have gone badly after that, but actually we spent the whole match chatting away to each other. He was quite a nice guy and I managed to get some dirt out about what has been going on behind the scenes at Anfield.

Then Liverpool go and score a last minute own goal to gift the tie to Chelsea.

and so the misery and pain in my life plummets to new depths.

Oh joy.

The visa saga continues.

Last Thursday I set off to Paris from Edinburgh. The last thing I did before getting on the plane was phone Ed who was on his way to Heathrow airport to get a flight to LAX, but he had found out only minutes previously that his visa had a rather large “CANCELLED WITHOUT PREJUDICE” stamp right across it. Ed was going to try and break through the immigration barrier with the visa waiver.

Later that night I got the following email in my inbox. Take it away Ed:

———- Forwarded message ———-
From: edward ****
Date: 17 Apr 2008 21:08
Subject: report of what happened to Ed at immigration.
To:
Hello All,

I’ve just got back to my flat, spent 6 hours at immigration. They were not happy.

I managed to get 3 months on the visa waiver, after which I can only return on a proper work visa.

With regard to the ‘Cancelled Without Prejudice’ stamp, this is not a problem, it just signals the end of the visa, we (Mat and I) do NOT have to tick the ‘have you ever had a visa cancelled’ box. A cancelled visa is when it is cancelled because you broke the rules of the visa or committed a crime etc etc.

However, the reason why they were so reluctant to let me in is because their systems show that I have been REFUSED a B1 visa.

I explained that we had been told that our applications had not been refused but suspended. They confirmed that the application was put into a state of REFUSED several days after my interview, and said that when they brought up my account on the system there was a big ‘VISA REFUSED’ banner and that our applications had gone all the way up to the Chief NIV (Non-immigrant Visa) Officer who had refused them. They also read out some of the comments attached to the application, to para-phrase they read ‘********** is abusing the B1 visas in order to find a cheap alternative to allow their employees to stay longer than 90 days at a time’ and other comments about the lawyers.

This refusal means that I (and possibly the other guys) have to tick the ‘I have been refused a Visa’ box. This means that I cannot use the visa waiver programme for work again. I asked about vacations and they said that I can use the visa waiver to come in for vacations but I still have to tick the box and will probably have to answer a few extra questions. The main problem is that, say, if I need to pop over to California for a meeting, I can no longer do that without having to get a visa first. Ironically it turns out I could have done all of this work for this duration of time on visa waivers.

I met with the senior immigration officers and they said that any immigration lawyer knows that there is a very high chance that you would be refused a second B1 visa, and that a refusal will have a permanent and detrimental effect on you personally for visiting the states. They did not believe that I had legal representation that had allowed me to process a second B1 visa and I had to show them papers to prove it. They even brought in more officers to show them the papers!

******* -> Can we start looking at any possibilities of removing this ‘refused visa’ mark from mine, and anyone elses, personal records. A letter to the embassy or something I have no idea..

So after a lot of questioning, a phone call they made to **** ******** (whom I believe really saved my bacon, up until that point I thought I was heading home) they deliberated for an hour with some other senior people and agreed to let me in, however, they said..

********IMPORTANT********

They will NOT allow anyone else from ********* in on a B1 who has been REFUSED a visa, and that I need to filter that down. Everyone entering must have a valid work visa.

*************************

I said to one of the officers that most of the guys did not have the cancelled stamp like I did, he said that it did not matter, you either are allowed a B1 or you’re not. I asked: so if they turn up will they be sent home. He said there is a very good possibility of that. Bottom line, I really recommend you all contact the embassy before coming out to the states, denied entry is even worse than refused visa.

I’ve tried to write down everything before I forget it, am pretty jet-lagged so will sign off (hope everything made sense), telecon tomorrow?

Edward

So there you are. Its a fine old mess we are all in.

Our lawyers have now been fired for giving us dud information and we are starting to look at alternatives. The best one being the H1B lottery which would give us a 45 percent chance of getting a visa.

Until then I`ll continue to eat cheese and drink wine over here in Paris - and on St George’s day of all days too.

Still no updates for a week. Things have been changing pretty much on a day by day basis.

The bottom line though is that I`m now working in Paris and been advised to stay here working until things settle down.

Last week I was convinced I was going to have an aneurysm. The desperate situation I found myself in when I wrote my last post descended further into chaos in the passing days. We officially had a notice from the US embassy saying our visas application had been ’suspended’, then we got a letter telling us that it had been rejected.

We were then told that we could still travel back to the US on our old, still valid, visas, work in the US and stay there until things got resolved.

Then our passports came back to us. All my colleagues signed into MSN giving updates as the passports slowly but surely turned up.

Chris, Dave then Dan.

All good. No new visa, but old visa still there.

Then the bombshell.

Mat comes online.

His old visa has the words “CANCELLED WITHOUT PREJUDICE” stamped right across his old visa.

Oh god no.

What was going to be on mine?

The whole process was inconsistent at best, a shambles at worst. Eight of us went for the visa. Dave got his new visa, 5 of us got our old visa back, but no new visa, and then Mat turns up with his old visa cancelled.

Ed was in a bad way too. He was due to fly out to the US on Friday morning, but by the close of play on Thursday he still did not have his passport, and more importantly he did not know the state of his current visa.

He was bricking it.

So when I phoned him on Friday morning from Edinburgh airport, the conversation went something like this:

“Hey Ed, you get your passport mate?”
“Yeah I did and its got f******* “CANCELLED WITHOUT PREJUDICE’ all over it!”

uh oh.

“So what you gonna do mate”
“I`m heading to Heathrow mate and going to try and get back to the US with my cancelled visa”

Oh dear.

and what happened to Ed next at US imigration in Los Angeles airport, everyone , is an absolutely amazing story…………..

I`ve not written for a while, because quite frankly I`ve not had the heart to do it.

This time last week everything was amazing. I`d travelled back from LA with my colleagues and my plan on beating jet lag by staying up the whole night the day before my flight and then sleeping all the way home was working like a charm.

Me and Mat then checked into our fancy Mayfair hotel, looking they way you should do after travelling for 20 hours on a flight with a free bar. We are then told that we had both been given free complementary upgrades to King size suites. This really fancy hotel, full of posh rich people, then there is me and Mat giving it “YYYYEEEEAAAHH!!!!!” and giving each other high fives all the way to the elevator. We looked so out of place it was hilarious.

Unpacking, showering and a bit of food later, together with using up our complementary free drink vouchers at the bar we turned in for the night to be prepared for the real business the day after, our US visa interview at the US embassy.

On the way to the appointment on the Monday morning we realised how much of an exclusive area we were really staying in. The hotel was just a minutes walk from Gordon Ramsay at Claridges and just down the road from Bentley and Porsche dealerships. Nice.

The visa interview itself went well. All 6 of us were approved for another year in the US and we left to head off to celebrate in Covent garden spending most of the evening running up a massive bar bill at Belgose.

Then the next day I checked out of my hotel (without paying) jumped on a train at Kings Cross station and headed up to Edinburgh for a few days to wait for my passport to be delivered to me with my shiny new visa.

Then 2 hours into the journey I got a phone call from Ed and the nightmare began.

“We`ve all been rejected mate”

What??

“The US embassy has rejected all our visas. They say the company is taking advantage of the visa process and they rejected our applications”

Oh dear god no.

At that point I totally lost it. A train carriage that had previously been bustling with atmosphere and conversation was rendered silent with by violent and expletive outbursts over the phone to my manger. I cannot remember exactly what it is I said, but the phrases “useless inept incompetent lawyers", “get them on the case NOW” and “I dont care what time it is in Texas, just wake the ******* up!!!!” were all certainly used.

The thing is you see. If you have ever been rejected for a US visa. thats it, you have to declare that on your visa waiver every time you enter the US for future visits, for the rest of your life. The visa form questions are like this:

Are you Osama Bin Laden?
Are you going to overthrow the government?
Have you ever been refused a US visa?

If you answer yes to any of the above then you can p*ss off!

Great.

Then some slightly better news.

Our visa applications had been ’suspended’, not ‘rejected’, which is much better, but still not great seeing as my current visa expires on 30th April. Furthermore, I was supposed to be working in Paris from this week onwards until 2nd May, but I cant go anywhere just now because the US embassy still has my passport.

I feel I`ve been here before.

The lawyers are being useless and have not managed to get any information from the embassy about what is going on or why our passports have not yet been returned to us, so I`m here in Edinburgh doing nothing, sitting by the phone waiting to hear something, anything.

The latest plan we have is to travel back to the US as soon as I get my passport back while my visa is still valid. You can enter the US as long as your visa is valid on the day of entry and stay for up to 6 months, but you cannot leave the country in that time.

I`ll be trapped in the land of the free, oh the irony.

While I`m there our crack team (ha) of lawyers will continue “working our case", whatever that means.

So there you are, its a right old fine mess we are all in here.

Things are about as bad as they could possibly get,

and for once on this blog, it seems as though there may not be a happy ending…..

Its now almost 12 months since I had to fill out hundreds of forms to achieve my security clearance and US visa. Now I`m doing the whole thing over again. The visa forms that is, my clearance is good for another 9 years.

The biggest problem is that my lo-lights have still not grown out of my hair which means the passport photo I have had to give them shows my hair in this kind of dual tone tiger style finish. Which looks amazing, but might be difficult to explain to US immigration officials at the embassy in London this coming Monday.

We`ll see.

So after our visa interview, and assuming everything goes well, me and the boys are off for a night out in London and then back to our Mayfair hotel for the night. The day after I`m back up to Edinburgh for to “work from home for the week” (drink in the pub), waiting for my passport to be returned to me after which time I`ll fly out to work in Paris for a few weeks before coming back to Southern California.

Its not a bad life you know

It seem as though my previous prediction that I am becoming more American is more true than I expected.

Each and every journey we now take in the car we have to listen to at least 10 minutes of honkytonk music - by choice. Its actually rather good. I`m particularly fond the stuff with banjos.

Things took a turn for the worse this weekend though.

We went shopping for cowboy boots and hats at Bootbarn. I`m particularly fond of the python skin western boots.

Plus I`m gonna get me a ten gallon hat.

And I`ll even tuck my jeans into the boots as well.

We are all thinking of wearing out cowboy gear for when we are going for our visa appointments in London net Monday.

I`m sure they`ll see the funny side.

Notorious for a great sense of humour at the US embassy.

Nothing can go wrong.

Nothing.