Linh vs. Visa
Daily writing — Day 4
Linh changes program from PhD in Genetics to master’s in Biology. No big deal, the world thinks. The U.S. Department of State disagrees.
Said Department gave Linh a visa that does not allow change of program or change of level of study from PhD to master’s. Linh is doing both. This is not possible. Linh needs a new visa.
FAQ number 1: Linh is married to an American dude. Should Linh have a green card?
Answer: No. The visa above also requires Linh to return to Vietnam and live there for at least 2 years. This rule is set in stone. Nothing will change it, including being married to an American dude.
FAQ number 2: Will the new visa change the terms and conditions of the old one?
Answer: No.
FAQ number 3: Does Linh want to find some way to stay in the Great America forever?
Answer: Hell no.
Linh needs a new visa. Linh will go back home to apply for it. Linh wants to book the interview appointment early — who knows how long this kind of things can take? Linh went to the U.S. Embassy website and tried to book an appointment. The appointment reservation is an online form that requires Linh to fill in the number from another online form, the visa application form.
Linh searched for the form and found it. It had twelve pages, asking for all the personal and professional information that the U.S. Department of State will possibly use to make sure Linh is a real human who is not likely to lazily live on welfare and/or to burden the Great America with whatever it is that she does. Page 6 asked Linh for all the jobs she had in the past 5 years. Linh filled it out, then click “Next”. Page 8 asked Linh to list all the visits to the Great America. Linh fetched her passport and filled out the answer boxes with her first trip here, her trip back here after she went home with the American dude to meet the parents, her trip back here after their wedding. Then Linh clicked “Next”.
The page returned:
“Session time out. You have not saved your form in the last 20 minutes.”
Remember the dark old day when auto-save wasn’t a thing yet, and you were typing like page 20 of your project or something important, and the jerk next door decided to turn on his 5.1 stereo system, and it was too much for the delicate power line of the 50-something-year-old building, and the whole building shut down, and you lost the whole damn thing that you just typed, and you cursed yourself for not remembering to save it?
It turned out, the U.S. Department of State has not adopted auto-save. To make it even more unnoticeable, the “Save” button is buried between the “Back” and the “Next” button. It turned out, the U.S. Department of State wants Linh to click “Save” first, then click “Next” later. This is a sophisticated system. Why use one button if you can use two? “Save” is “Save” and “Next” is “Next”. “Next” does not mean your stuff is “Saved”, just in case you click “Next” but really don’t mean to “Save” all the stuff you just filled out. Absolutely logical.
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