Student Visas and Other Four Letter Words

If a visa were to walk into a bar and offer you a drink, you would assume it had slipped you a roofie. If a visa were to say you had a lovely smile, you would assume there was spinach stuck between your teeth. If a visa were to tell you, “Trust me, the library is this way,” you would book it in the other direction.

I have trust issues with my student visa. At the moment, it is all nice and happy in my passport, but things were pretty rough for awhile.

The paperwork for the visa started in January. I was supposed to have sent off my fingerprints to Washington D.C. by the time I had submitted my Education Abroad Program (EAP) application, but the fingerprinting appointments got backed up. I got mine done three weeks later and was saved from having to re-do them.

For once, my procrastination paid off.

For the first time in the history of the federal government (okay, probably exaggerating), the fingerprints came back weeks and weeks before anyone thought they would. This would normally be a good thing, except for the fact that the fingerprints expire after 90 days. Within that period, you have to send your fingerprints back to D.C. to the Office of Authentications to receive the Apostille stamp on it. (I know, it sounds soooo official.) Once completed, you then used this document to apply for your visa 90 to 120 days before you depart.

So, all the poor kids who got their fingerprints done on time had to re-do their fingerprints because their old fingerprints expired before their visa application window. Bummer.

Luckily, my fingerprints did not expire and I had until the beginning of June to get my Apostille stamp and the San Francisco Consulate accepted the document up to 4 months after it was issued, permitting me to wait until July for my visa appointment. Since the fingerprints took 15 days to get the Apostille stamp placed on it and my visa appointment was at the end of June, I sent it back to D.C. near the end of May. And then, I waited.

As it turned out, I waited a long time and had quite a number of mental breakdowns along the way. (Okay, it wasn’t that serious, but I was panicking a wee bit.)

I began sending e-mails to the Office of Authentications (impossible to reach, by the way) and to everyone in EAP. Where was my document? Did it get lost? Why is this happening to me??? I was told to copy what I had and bring it to the Consulate, who was being very understanding of this tiny delay. As it turned out, the Office of Authentications was now processing documents at the rate of 5-6 weeks.

So, I made copies as instructed and was fully prepared to produce tears at my visa appointment. I was so terribly nervous all the way to San Francisco and triple checked that I had all my documents. In the waiting room, I saw students coming in and out with dazed expression on their faces. My mind began to wander and my daydreams (more like day nightmares) always sped to the worst outcome.

Ironically, the entire thing was anticlimactic.

The Spanish Consulate in San Francisco... adorable, I know.

I was called up to an office, where some Spanish guy looked over my paperwork and sorted everything in pretty stacks. Then, the question came: “Do you have your Apostille?” I told him not yet and pointed out the photocopies of the FedEx receipts and proof of arrival in D.C.. He gently shoved them aside and told me to just mail it to them as soon as I had it.

I was brought downstairs to pay and then suddenly Spanish Guy began to walk away. “That’s it? That’s everything? I’m good to go?” I asked desperately. Apparently it was. “So, um, I should just mail the Apostille as soon as I have it?” Yes, he replied.

I left the Consulate feeling rather let-down. That was it. I was done. It took an hour and some excellent SF grub for me to shake the rollercoaster of emotions. At last, the stress was over.

About a week later—a whopping seven weeks after my fingerprints arrived in D.C.—I received my Apostille stamp and immediately shipped the document to the SF Consulate. I laughed when I received my passport and student visa the next day in the mail. They probably had not even received my Apostille before the issues the visa.

At last, the stress was over. One would think, at least.

About a week after receiving my visa (early-mid July), I got a lovely letter from the Office of Authentications saying that they did not receive payment for my Apostille stamp. I sent them a lovely letter back saying that yes I did give them payment for the stamp and gave them information about the check I sent them, just in case they forgot. It was not until the 26^th of July that I saw the check I sent them had been successfully deposited. Well played, federal government, well played.

So, the moral of the story? When getting a student visa, make photocopies of everything, expect everything to take longer than it says it should, and pray to a higher power, whether it be God, Allah, or the Flying Spaghetti Monster. Also, let me know which one works best, because I’ll be needing it when I go to extend my visa while in Spain. ¡Olé!