I remember when the US Embassy would only accept a bankers draft drawn on a particular branch of Barclays in Hannover Square (I sort of hope I'm making this up, but I suspect not). You did your interview, went to get the 'money' and came back to queue to hand it in with your passport. And about two weeks later you got the visa. Or, in my case, they lost it and claimed they hadn't (the clue was that they eventually found it, which they wouldn't have been able to do had they not lost it in the first place).
I hate getting visas, it's all cryptic instructions and processes, generally written in a language that superficially looks English. We do have a visa service for work but generally it's easier to do it myself as I'm in London (unless it's China or Russia, ain't worth the headaches). Reminds me, I have to figure out how to get into Ethiopia. And possibly out again. I once had to bribe my way out of Kazakhstan by paying for an 'exit visa' which seemed to be the man at the airport pocketing the cash in exchange for returning my passport. Mind you, much the same thing happened in Vancouver. They had some stupid airport improvement tax (a whopping CAN$10) payable on departure. I asked what happened if I declined to pay it. We don't let you leave said the smiley Canada.