E-vent

e-vent

Okay, I'll try to be informative and not vent too much. Josie is STILL here! It's not been too eventful around here, so since there's not much to report, this is going to be my e-vent.  Here's what has happened:

On Sept 7 we received an e-mail from It's Your World Travel to explain the delay with the issuing of the visa Here are portions of the e-mail:

Hello,

As you are well aware, there was a conflict of interpretation between the home government in Madrid and your consulate of jurisdiction’s interpretation of this new law—(requiring prior approval from Madrid).

I am happy to report, that through the very hard work of multi-District Chairman Eduardo San Martin, in Spain, the consulates are now clear on the interpretation and have begun to issue the visas. He has requested and received authority from both the Chicago and San Francisco consulates for Priority/Expedited service in issuing your visa. (The consulate still must process the paperwork in the normal manner).

Eduardo San Martin, has moved the Inbound orientation in Madrid, Spain to 22-24 September11. (He will also have a mini orientation in early October, just in case some of you have not received your visas in time for the main orientation.)

Now specifically to your individual application/status:
Your paperwork has been submitted to the Consulate and we are waiting word from them that everything is okay, your paperwork is 100% complete but they can request additional paperwork. If they request anything more, I will advise you of this. Once your visa has been approved, the Consul will contact me and I will advise you of details of this.

So, we have been waiting to hear something. And then this week we receive this letter. Take into consideration that Josie's school in Spain started on Sept 15 and the new date for orientation is in 2 days. Josie is 1 of 13 students waiting for a visa. Then on Sept 17 we receive following information in another e-mail:

As you are aware, due to the change in Spanish law, the visa process became bogged down due to different interpretations by the consulate and the actual law. As we informed you, the Consulate of Spain in Chicago will not accept documents by mail or FEDEX. Further, they will accept these documents from our representative only by appointment—to save you two trips to the consulate. The earliest appointment date the consulate would receive the documents was 15Sep11.

So, where are we?

Our conversations with the consulate reveal that they will still need to take the normal processing time.

After your visa has been issued, you will need to personally go to the consulate for the bio-metrics portion and receive your visaed passport back in your hands. Normally, the consulate normally contacts the student or parents to advise them of the date on which you can appear at the consulate. Please be available for their call—or have answering/message service available on your home/cell phones.

So that's where we are. Still waiting. At least we are not alone, there are 12 other students still waiting to be visaed for Spain. But Josie is not going to school here, since we thought she'd be leaving on Sept 2, we didn't enroll her in school here and she quit her job. My advice to future exchange students is to enroll in school even if you think you'll only be in school for a week or so just in case of delays and don't quit your job until you have your plane ticket.

We are hoping to hear from the consulate this week. :) We are certainly growing in the area of patience. I am looking forward to taking Josie to Chicago to pick up her visa and spending a night or two and spending some time together.

Josie is now packed and ready. And as much as I'll miss her, this waiting is torturous on all of us. But I am grateful to have this extra time with her. We try to keep things in perspective. Josie will be there for 10 months so while this seems like it is taking forever, in perspective of her whole trip it is not that long.

In the meantime Josie is taking some great photos. Here are a few:

 

It's in - finally!

We have been anticipating the arrival of Josie's guarantee form and it FINALLY came in last week. The guarantee form has all the insurance information (that we already paid for), host family information, school letter, and other forms that will all be needed to apply for her Visa. Once we apply, we will get a temporary Visa and then when Josie arrives in Spain she will have to apply for a one year Visa. It is not easy getting a visa, there are many processes and LOTS of paperwork from many different sources that require not only for them to be notarized but a couple also require an apostille from the State's (in our case, Iowa) Secretary of States office. Make me kind of wish Josie was going to Germany, since Germany does not require a Visa. LOL

Also in the guarantee form packet we saw that they require Josie to be in Spain by Sept 3 and then she will have orientation in Madrid from Sept 8-11. So she will be doing a little bit of traveling once she gets there.

Josie bought luggage this last weekend. It was a tough choice but we finally went with a four piece set from JCP. She will only be able to check 2 bags and then have one carry-one and with this set the smallest piece is small enough to go into the largest suitcase and then she'll have her carry-one and the two checked bags. Josie packed for camp this week and has no idea how she'll be able to pack for a year in Spain. She did mention though that a friend that is currently on exchange said that she doesn't use most of what she took with her. They say to put everything you want to take on your bed and then pack half of it. They say clothes are quite expensive in Spain, but I imagine she will be buying quite a bit over there so as to conform a bit to the current styles there.

Josie is working two jobs trying to raise money for exchange and then we are also having 3 fundraisers. The first two have done really well ($1200 for the first and $800 for the second) and we will be having the last one in July.

In preparation for college, Josie took the ACT last weekend. They (Rotary) really encourages the students to take it before they leave on exchange since when they get back they wouldn't score as well having been out of American school for a year. Josie will be in Spain for her Junior year and will be a senior when she returns.

I think that's all for now. Lots still to do, but as for the timeline I feel we are right on track. The travel agency wants all the Visa forms by July 11 or 20 (I need to look at that again). Right now we are just waiting on a from from the FBI that shows that Josie has no criminal history. So we can't move further until we get that.

I'll update more later. Did I mention that whenever a form does come in that requires our action I feel like the white rabbit on Alice in Wonderland? I hope I don't look the part. :)