Londoners: how much time at the Embassy

[Deleted]

I have an appointment at the Embassy this week to get more pages added to my passport. The website is saying to be prepared to wait for "several hours."

Has anyone done this recently and know what that really means? Like 2 hours? 4 hours? Just trying to figure out if I can make a lunch meeting near there after I get the pages done.  

Thanks! 

[loira]

I'll double check, but my H went to there recently to pick up his new passport. Didn't seem to take him too long.

ETA: As in, not longer than 1 hour.

[VillainV]

If you have an appointment it goes pretty quickly.

Note: when you get there, DO NOT WAIT IN THE LONG QUEUE ON THE RIGHT!!! Go to the front of the building (to the left of where the big queue is) and check in with your appointment time, and they will let you in straight away.

We showed up maybe 20 min before our appointment time, and we're out in maybe an hour and a half (but this was to register a birth, get a passport, and apply for a SSN). It was pretty efficient.

[frlcb]

The queue on the right is for visas, the left is for US citizen services

[wise_rita]

Can't you do it by mail?

That's how I did it years ago when I lived in Norway, and paying for a secure envelope is far preferable to going there and waiting.

This was so long ago that the actual pages cost me nothing. That luxury is no more!

[Deleted]

Dec 14, 2014 22:23:21 GMT -5 wise_rita said:

Can't you do it by mail?

You can, but I had an incident with a package getting lost/stolen earlier this year. So I don't trust the mail services for anything remotely important any more.

[GilliC]

Are you having the pages added right then? When I had it done in Beijing, it took around 45 minutes from when I handed it over. However, here in Norway they don't do it while you wait. Last time I had pages, they told me it would take 4-6 weeks, because a lot of staff were on vacation. I had expected them to do it right then (especially since the cost ahd gone up from $0 to $80), so I had upcoming travel plans, and they had to get it done in 3 weeks.

PS - wise_rita I don't recommend it, but you can apparently get out of paying for the return postage if you get yourself kicked out of the embassy when you go to pick it up! After I called and complained that the gate dragons wouldn't let me in, the embassy staff just mailed it to me themselves.

[wise_rita]

Dec 15, 2014 10:12:45 GMT -5 GilliC said:

Are you having the pages added right then? When I had it done in Beijing, it took around 45 minutes from when I handed it over. However, here in Norway they don't do it while you wait. Last time I had pages, they told me it would take 4-6 weeks, because a lot of staff were on vacation. I had expected them to do it right then (especially since the cost ahd gone up from $0 to $80), so I had upcoming travel plans, and they had to get it done in 3 weeks.

PS - wise_rita I don't recommend it, but you can apparently get out of paying for the return postage if you get yourself kicked out of the embassy when you go to pick it up! After I called and complained that the gate dragons wouldn't let me in, the embassy staff just mailed it to me themselves.

Oh yeah, I'll get right on that!

Why wouldn't they let you in?

[GilliC]

Dec 15, 2014 17:18:55 GMT -5 wise_rita said:

Dec 15, 2014 10:12:45 GMT -5 GilliC said:

Are you having the pages added right then? When I had it done in Beijing, it took around 45 minutes from when I handed it over. However, here in Norway they don't do it while you wait. Last time I had pages, they told me it would take 4-6 weeks, because a lot of staff were on vacation. I had expected them to do it right then (especially since the cost ahd gone up from $0 to $80), so I had upcoming travel plans, and they had to get it done in 3 weeks.

PS - wise_rita I don't recommend it, but you can apparently get out of paying for the return postage if you get yourself kicked out of the embassy when you go to pick it up! After I called and complained that the gate dragons wouldn't let me in, the embassy staff just mailed it to me themselves.

Oh yeah, I'll get right on that!

Why wouldn't they let you in?

I was being stubborn and annoying about security. You know how I get with the TSA. Turns out that the embassy guys just kick you out if you annoy them. They don't have to deal with the media or the bad reputation, so there's no reason not to be complete dicks.

[MauMau]

GilliC did you start striping to your bikini again? One of my top IN stories.

[GilliC]

Dec 15, 2014 19:11:23 GMT -5 MauMau said:

GilliC did you start striping to your bikini again? One of my top IN stories.

It may have been something similar.