Today was my first appointment at the Spanish consulate. I have a feeling it will be the first of many. Being terrified of missing my appointment from the threatning e-mails I recieved from them detailing all the circumstances under which my appointment would be cancelled, I made sure to show up early. My appointment was at 10:40, and I was parked outside the consulate by 10:15. Its located close to Hancock Park, but not in Hancock Park. Its on the ghetto side, but not scary. There's your friendly neighborhood Starbucks just accross the street. I managed to find parking on the side street, even though the entire neighborhood is 1 hour parking and in the time I spent at the consulate, I moved my car twice. Not much of a surprise there. Antoher unsurprisng fact was that they were running about an hour behind. When you walk in to the consulate, you do not get the impression that you are entering a governmental agency. Spanish soap operas are playing on two screens, one mounted flat screen on one wall and one ghetto old school tube TV on a rolling shelf, reminiscent of movies watched in 8th grade. There are a couple of couches and some tables - clearly, this area was designed for long periods of waiting. When I walked in, a young man ina suit was arguing with an employee of the consulate who was sitting at I guess is the check-in table. He didn't have an appointment and was trying to convince her to let him through anyway. He shoudl have just lied...they really didn't check. He argued with her for a solid 20 minutes, explaining to her that he needed to meet this week adn that there were no appointment available until June 6th. Buddy, no matter how many times or in how many languages you tell yoru story, the woman's not gonna officially change her mind. Just show up.
The girl with an appointment right before me apparently misunderstood what "one way ticket" referred to in the requirements for the visa. She broguth her flight from Spain back to the US. It took the check-in woman a solid 10 minutes to explain to her that you need your flight TO Spain, and not from, for the visa, so taht they know when to make yoru visa effective date. Wow. Some people.
I thought I was in the clear because the check-in woman reviewed all of my documents and said I was good to go. I guess she didn't actualy study what document i was that I handed her with the Apostille. The guy at the visa window, however, who looked wearily bored and over his job (suck it up buddy. You work 8-12 with a bunch of people excited to travel to your country) had clearly done this before. He looked at my apostilled document, squinted his eyes, and said to me suspiciously "Did you try to pull this last year?" Oy vei...Right, cuz if I knew what a nightmare this process would be, I would, two years in a row, wait until the last minute and try to get away with something that never worked in the first place. He basically talked to me like I rode the short bus to school and responded to every innocent question, asked with a smile, as if I was a little old lady asking him for the 100th time how to turn on the microwave. Our encounter concluded with him telling me I needed proof that I'd sent away for the FBI report and that then the FBI application would be accepted, and that I had until May 28th to do so. Easy enough...Additionaly, though, once I recieve the visa, its only good for 90 days. I worked it out, and that means that my visa will expire September 20th. Which means, I only have until September 20th to get my NIE. According to the school, this is a long and painful process and you need to leave yourself plenty of time to get this done, so I need to somehow figure out how to get the NIE done when I'm there at the end of June. Just one more obstacle..
I then waited for another hour, until 12:45 to recieve my "confirmation number". I complain, but there was a dude in line ahead of me that had driven in from Phoenix just to get his visa. Why the hoops, Espana, why?
