My husband's staying at a hotel tonight and will have to check out before his interview early tomorrow morning. This may seem like a silly question, but will they let him take his overnight bag into the embassy with him? Or is there someplace he could stash it until after the interview's over?

When Chris was preparing for his interview he read on the embassy site that you couldn't. So he had the hotel store it for him.

Thanks. I don't know how I managed to miss that info on the embassy site; I could have sworn I had it all memorized by now. I've just phoned his hotel to let him know, so I'm hoping they let him keep his bag there.

Make sure he leaves his mobile, iPod, digital camera, etc. there at the hotel too. He can't take any of that with him either.

You CAN take your mobile or iPod with you, but you have to leave it in a clear plastic baggie at the security hut before you can enter the Embassy. Make sure he notes whether he has any other electronic doohickeys on his person -- I had to leave my keyring at the security hut when I went to visit the IRS this month because I forgot I had a USB Flash drive clipped on it. (D'oh!) So it really is down to whether he feels more secure keeping such items at the hotel or with the Embassy staff.

That's true, but your personal items are stored in a plastic tub that nobody watches and people don't really check to make sure you're taking the right plastic baggie out of the tub. My advice is to leave it all at the hotel.

I agree

Hmmm...when I was there a few weeks ago it was not a tub it was kept in. They put each baggie into individually numbered cubbyholes accessible only to security staff, and you get a tag assigned to the cubbyhole. But yep, if you feel more confident leaving it at the hotel, do so. I am, of course, a Londoner so my issue was more that I didn't want to be hassled by leaving the normal accoutrements of my life at home for a twenty minute visit. To each his own!

Ah; that's not how it was when I went. If they've changed it to make it much more secure, then fair enough. With the storage available at the time we went, I wouldn't have felt comfortable leaving anything there.

When I went in October I was allowed to take my mobile in with me, as long as it was switched off. I did have to leave my lip-salve with the Security Guards though!

Mind you, you've all been there far more recently than I, things have obviously gotten even more security concious than ever!

My husband's interview was on September 11th so maybe security was being extra hyper that day, but we didn't get to carry anything in that wasn't required for the interview and the guards did seem to be overwhelmed by the amount of stuff they had to babysit that people brought with them but shouldn't have. We were searched and scanned; everybody was.

Mine was in December, and it was like that too. Was allowed to keep it, just turned off. and I didn't have and other liquids of any kind.

we just asked our hotel to keep our bags for us until after the interview. they had no problem at all. good luck!

Never heard of a hotel that WOULDN'T keep your luggage, so he'll be fine