VISA...................... Done

I got my VISA today to fly to UK. My wife broke the news for me.

I feel so relieved with the last hurdle getting knocked off in time. Now that I have the VISA, I have lot of things to plan. Have to relocate my family to my parents house in another city (Bhopal), transfer/dispose my stuff, sell my car, plan for my kid's admission. There are just too many things that I have to do and the time on my hand is not just sufficient. Let's see how I cram everything in such a short span.

I will be leaving Bangalore to my home town on Aug 31, and take off from India on Sep 27 reaching Lancaster on Sep 28. And then, a new chapter starts in my life and the journey begins.

visa application experience

Atlast my application is submitted. Quite an eventful submission though.

I had earlier decided to submit my application on July 29 and could not submit then as I fell ill and had to cancel my appointment. Then I re-scheduled my appointment and got a confirmed slot for Aug 01, 2008, 9:00 AM. So far so good.

One of the future batchmate who had already got a visa had prepared a checklist and running against that, I realized, I was missing on few points. A resume, a bank statement for a particular account and my TOEFL scorecard were missing from the original pack I had prepared.

On July 31, I went to the bank for the statement and their printer was not working. No problem. Went again in the evening and collected the statement. Needed a VISA fee draft, went to StandardChartered (UK VISA recommends them) at Cunnigham Road and they were closed. Then I went to their M.G.Road branch and the guy at the counter needed my passport (in original) to issue a banker's cheque. Since I did not had that I went to HDFC bank and they were more than happy to meet my requirement (no fuss and no questions asked).

By the time I hit home, I had everything required but going against the checklist, I realized that a copy of my resume was missing (the realization dawned at 11:30 PM). With less than 10 hrs to go to VFS, I decided to check if any cybercafe were open at 8 in the morning. Luckily I found one open and took a print to attach with the application.

Next was VFS personnel's turn to surprise me. After 45 min of waiting, when my turn came in the lady said my photograph did not meet specification of 80% facial features visibility. She then asked me to click a snap and fix on the form. Now, I never expected this. I was dressed as shabbily as possible with a not-so-good-looking T-shirt and a cargo. Had no choice and the guy behind the lens did a good job of my face.

Once done, I collected my 3.5 x 4.5 photograph, fixed it and submitted it. The lady gave me a token for biometric call and within 10 minutes I was done. Reached home at 11:00 AM. Now, I am waiting for the courier guy to come and deliver the passport with the VISA.

Here is a checklist I included in the cover lette for student visa application.

1. Passport
2. VAF3 with photograph
3. IT Return (self and sponsor) for last 3 years
4. Demand draft for Rs. 8415/- towards Visa application fee
5. Bank statements (self and sponsor) for last 6 months
6. Fixed deposits (self and sponsor)
7. Property valuation documents certificates by govt. approved evaluator (self and sponsor)
8. Chartered Accountant’s Net Worth certificate (self and sponsor)
9. Employment certificate (self and sponsor)
10. Provident Fund and Public Provident Fund statement (sponsor)
11. 6 months pay slips (self and sponsor)
12. Shares and stocks statement
13. Loan sanction letter from the bank.
14. Unconditional offer letter from Lancaster University (self)
15. Letter from the university showing living expenses cost (self)
16. Sponsorship letter from sponsor (self)
17. Investments (debt+mutual funds) (self and sponsor)
18. Employment proofs from all companies worked for (self)
19. Education certificates (self)
20. Resume (self)
21. TOEFL certificate for English language ability (self)
22. Copy of interview appointment schedule conducted by university (self)
23. Transaction statement of initial deposit of 1500 GBP submitted to the university (self)

MBA meet and the Bomb Blast.

Planned. Cancelled. Re-planned. Re-cancelled.

This is the current status of a proposed meeting among prospective students from Bangalore. After re-planning few (about 8) of us were scheduled to meet on Sunday, July 27 but because of the bomb blasts that created terror in the city, we were forced to cancel the same. Now, we are again re-planning it and hope to meet soon, but the count of people attending that meet may change. Probably all of us will meet not before September 28 and that too at the university housing center.

This is the first time I have been directly impacted by a bomb blast. I sympathise with those who are directly affected by this dastardly act. I am safe, sound and unhealthy (I am feeling sick and down with fever since Saturday evening), but I believe that sooner all who have been impacted by the blast will be able to overcome the fear.

BTW, I am attending office today and have to go for the VISA appointment tomorrow (which I am going to cancel because of my ill-health) and was in hospital for the better part of my not so cherished Sunday.

New way to click photos

I was weaving through the information and few profiles on linkedin today and came across this interesting site. Now, I haven't navigated through the site (www.photojojo.com) but found their newsletter content to be pretty interesting. The man behind newsletter is an Indian and shares the same name as one of my good old friends (both are completely unrelated).

The newsletter talks about mounting your good old/new digital camera on your bicycle handlebar (my contribution - it can be done on your motorbike or car rooftop even) and shoot as you go. The result, you get good action photographs or video and you don't have to stop at any place to click the action.

Here's the URL to the newsletter - http://photojojo.com/content/diy/attach-a-camera-to-your-bike/

I am going to try it at Lancaster and not on Bangalore roads.

Disclosure - I do not have a bicycle and the only possession in relation to this post is a SONY cybershot.

functional web board, class composition

Now, this is a news.

University's MBA web board (aka message board) is functional. I got my details yesterday and bang bang I find everyone on the board. In all there are 73 future classmates who will study along with me so including me 74. The nationality varies but I presume they are from following countries on the globe.

• India
• Japan
• UK
• Nigeria
• Russia
• Taiwan
• China
• Germany

Other nationalities may be there but I am not yet aware of. Probably when all classmates publish there profiles by July 31, a better picture will emerge. But there is no doubt that Indians will be a major force in the class. So, much for diversity. My only other hope is people from India are from as diverse backgrounds as possible (sales, advertising, IT, telecom, finance, etc.) and I have firm belief that adcom would have duly thought about it.

Next step for me will to publish my profile (a brief biography) before 31.

On a side note, I am not yet done with my VISA.