All that for ten minutes?: Visa Appointment

So, after much stress, OCD, and anticipation, I finally went in for my visa appointment on Monday, August 30, 2012. My time slot was slated for 10:45am and I showed up, of course, with over 30 minutes to spare. During this visa process, my organization compulsions knew no bounds. I was the Santa of legal documents. Making lists...checking them twice...or rather a hundred times in most instances. I wanted nothing missing, no stone unturned, no excuse to be denied entrance to this lovely country that I feel so close to that I can practically taste the jamón!

 Now, remember that my appointment was with the dreaded Miami Consulate...(dun dun dunnnn). All of the horror stories and unanswered phone calls/emails prior to this day left me feeling extremely uncertain...scratch that...I was absolutely certain...certain that something was bound to go wrong and screw everything up. However, I must say, regardless of their inability to hold a phone to their ear for a mere second and lend counsel, they were surprisingly adept at efficiency and the entire ordeal took a matter of minutes.

Snuck this photo on the way out lol

I walked in with my handy dandy documents folder where I held each completed and appropriately signed item that they requested in the order that it was listed on their website: (Note: On the Miami Consulate page, under student visa, there is an option to see the requirements for Language Assistants)

http://www.conspainmiami.org/pdf/visado/ASSISTANT.pdf


When you go into the office, they give you a number to wait in line regardless of your appointment time. Now I'm pretty sure that numbers are not physically different in Spanish, so it will never be clear to me exactly how my number '12' that I was given actually meant '32'. There was a definite moment of confusion when the lady repeatedly called my number (32) and I, being the only one in the waiting room (with the number 12) did not immediately move. Is this the sort of thing I should be getting used to? Did I skip a chapter in my Spanish book that said that in Spanish 1's are in fact 3's? *sigh* Oh well...small hiccup in the grand scheme of things...and a sprinkling of humor on an otherwise stressful morning for me.

Once I realized I was being summoned, I jaunted up to the window...yes, window, there is no desk. I handed over each document as requested to the (insert: stunningly beautiful) woman behind the counter,  gaped at her sat for a moment while she reviewed my information, stamped some things, made  additional copies of things (although I had like four of everything), and shuffled some things around.


She walked to the back of the office, came back, flashed a gorgeous smile (I promise to stop gushing now) and handed me back my application, photo firmly attached, with a flimsy receipt on it that proclaimed (in the faintest of blue ink as to be nearly illegible) that my visa would be ready for pick up on August 27, 2012.


So voila!!! That is done and now I am on to the next long wait!!!


How was your visa experience? Any blunders? Were you a crazed organizer before hand?

Hasta pronto!!!
XOXO