It'll be ready when?

I arrived a few moments before 8:30am (after the alarm went off at 5am) to the end of a queue of about twenty or so. Including a couple of business types one of whom had a copy of the June 2010 edition of Petroleum Review stuffed in his bag (attached to which was his nametag...). Interestingly there was a bobby on the door this morning unlike yesterday afternoon -- maybe those about to be fingerprinted are a more fractious bunch?

After several staff were let in and out the door was opened at 8:40 and we collected various coloured waiting list numbers from the man at reception and went next door to the waiting area. Those looking for ordinary consular functions were rattled through quite quickly but there was no visa action until 9am. However, when they did get going the two man team were pretty efficient, four or five minutes per applicant which is very unusual in these sort of matters especially as everyone (including six year olds) had to be electronically fingerprinted. It was a good job they were being efficient as I was 13th in the queue!

They played a straight bat too to anyone who whined about when their visa would be issued. "We make the decision," came the very firm reply to one mouthy git, "Not the man in reception." What's more, August the 5th was being mentioned a lot.

And so it was to be, August 5th is stamped on the receipt I have for my passport. I guess technically, that's when I could come and collect my passport (or when they'll chuck it in the post in my £5.50 Special Delivery envelope -- an extra 45p because the Post Office had run out of small bags) rather than any tacit assumption that it'll have a visa for Iran in it. But I've been approved by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and short of having filled the form in incorrectly (which they don't check for other than a cursory glance that it has writing on it) I'd like to think that I'm good.

But the 5th of August? That's two and a half weeks. I need to get a minimum of two more visas before I leave (Pakistan and India) and I wanted to get more before heading off at the end of August. Still, getting the visas at all is more important than personal convenience. It is a holiday, after all, and I should be grateful to be allowed to go.