Hello, Spanish Consulate!

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?

The chase continues...

So, my visa plan consisted of the following:

1. Take my local PD "Good Conduct Letter", which has already been notarized, to the Regional Office of the Secretary of State in Los Angeles, and obtain the Apostille of the Hague on May 7th.

2. Go to my appointment at the Spanish Consulate on May 14th.

3. Feign ignorance about the requirement to have the certificate issued by the FBI.

4. Hope for the best...

My plan has been foiled. Despite the fact that the website explicitly states that the Secretary of State issues Apostille for documents notarized in the State of California, they, in fact, did not. Becuase my certificate was issued by the San Diego Sherrif's department, that official, despite the notary, is not in the correct hierarchy or something to be authenticated by the Secretary of State. It first needs to be authenticated by the County, and only THEN can it be apostilled by the State. So, for future reference of anyone that ever reads this blog.

1. Get the document notarized. You basically sign a document saying the certificate is authenticate, and they staple a notarization.
2. Then you take hte document with the notarizaiton to your COUNTY, and get the notary autheticated.
3. THEN take the document, the notary, and the authentication of the notary by the county to the Secretary of State office in LA where you SHOULD be able to get the Apostille...

Since I now have to take Thursday afternoon off of work to go back to the Apostille, now that I've spent my Friday on the 5 driving to Norwalk and exploring the county office, I will only find out the day before my appointment if I can actually get the Apostille...

None of this is even gonna work, though, since the stupid FBI certificate is gonna arrive on the 5th of never. Really, I'm brimming with optimism.

You win some, you lose some

Trying to obtain my "Absence of Criminal Records" Certificate incites so much rage in me I might in fact end up with a criminal record! This week so far, and its only Wednesday afternoon, has been a series of losses and victories. First, the losses:

1. It has been 11 days since my LiveScan submission, and I was supposed to receive the results in 7. Luckily the CA DOJ provides an automated hotline where you can call, enter your ATI number (that appears on the bottom of your submission) and find out the status! Unfortunately, there is no record of me in their system. So, I call the number provided on their website, a number specifically given out if "The automated response system has no record of your submission". A woman at the DOJ picks up the phone, refuses to listen to me, tells me she can't help me, can't give me the information, yells it a couple more times, and hangs up on me. A series of phone calls later, I find myself driving up the 67 freeway to El Cajon to the main office of the LiveScan agency I submitted my finger prints through. This "main office" is a counter at a car wash. The man was very nice, but in the end, completely useless. He did do a re-submission for free, but was no help with finding out my status. I tried my luck on Tuesday as well, with the same results.

2. Alex Dickerson, a current student at IESE that went through her own nightmarish visa story, gave me a phone number and an e-mail address for the FBI Criminal Records Division. Apparently a nice man named Gary got her her stuff in a matter of days (as opposed to the 13 weeks) after she gave them her sob story. I called the number and the very nice lady sweetly informed me that there was no way to expedite, and that they were more bogged down than ever because all of the 2010 Census workers need to be fingerprinted.

3. I then e-mail this Gary gentleman my sob story, and offered to resubmit all my documents to him. As of Wednesday afternoon, I had not heard back.

So, 3 defeats for Kate. 

But, there were some victories!

1. Apparently, the US Department of State: Bureau of Consular Affairs is a lot more tech-savvy than the California DOJ. They have a status check on their website where, with simply your DOB, last name, and last 4 digits of your SSN, you can find out what's happening to your application! Mine, apparently, is in the final processing stages and will be mailed to me on Friday! Woohoo!!

2. After what will simply be referred to as "the closet incident", and a couple of days to calm down, I once again called the bitch @ the DOJ who hung up on me. She once again told me she couldn't help me that I had to check with my employer and that since I was OBVIOUSLY applying for a job, she couldn't help me. Right before she was about to hang up again, I cut her off in time to tell her "I AM NOT APPLYING FOR A JOB! THIS IS FOR A VISA!" She fell silent. Then in a soft voice said "Oh, Ok. I"ll transfer you". I then talked to a very nice gentleman who told me my submission had been received yesterday (guess that first one was a lost cause) and that it had already gone out in the mail to my home address. Wooohooo!!

3. Finally, after many fruitless attempts with other incompetent individuals, I got into contact with Mr. Joe Ewing, Notary Public. Mr. Ewing, apparently, has done this, and more than once. He knew all the steps for getting an international document apostillized, and would be able to do it all, down to picking up the document from my mom's house, and taking it back. He also informed me that there were 3 steps for apostillizing FBI records for international use:
1. COPY CERTIFICATION BY DOCUMENT CUSTODIAN AFFIDAVIT. This needs to be notarized and submitted with the document. I'm not sure why, as its the original that must be notarized, but whatever.
2. This affidavit then must be authenticated.
3. This authentication is then overnight-ed to the Secretary of State in Sacramento, where it finally gets it's apostille.

I'll obviously follow up wtih him more, just to understand the steps, but this all sounds good. I'm assuming he'll charge a hefty but if he can get it done, with no stress on my mom, its allll worth it. Hi, new best friend!

We'll call that 2.5 victories. Mr. Ewing could still turn out to be shady.

One more thing to be anxious about...

Part of my master plan for fulfilling my ambitious summer travel plans while still obtaining this elusive Spanish student visa involved one key element - obtaining a second passport. So today, I went to the post office to submit all my paperwork to obtain a second passport.

The post office on Midway was all in chaos, as people scrambled to get their taxes out. There were a bunch of people in line for the passport window. When it was my turn, though, the clerk kept asking people as they came up if they had an appointment, and if they didn't, sent them away. I'm not sure why I was so fortunate to get in without an appointment. Maybe there was some magical 1:13 pm cut off time, or maybe she decides the cut off time based on her irritation level...either way, I lucked out.

After looking over my application, she seemed confused. She looked at the additional letter I had provided that explained why I needed a second passport, and asked me what it was. When I explained to her what I was trying to do, she said she'd never done that before, didn't know how it worked, but that she'd submit my paperwork anyway. My paperwork, though, also included my Naturalization Certificate, a.k.a my most genuine proof of my legal status here in the US. Submitting it to the mercy of the United States Postal Service is gonna cost me more than one sleepless night...

I guess I am better off than the tall white guy that came up behind me that didn't have a passport and was leaving for Mexico tomorrow. Get with the times, buddy . You've needed a passport to travel to Mexico for like 2 years now. SOL.

Exploring Alternate Options!

So, after hounding to death Nani, one of the admissions officers from my program, I learned that it seems to ONLY be the Los Angeles consulate that requires that the criminal record be from the FBI. Every other Spanish embassy says it needs to be from the PDs where you've lived for the last 5 years. So, I figure I'd get them all. Local and State.

This required going back to the Sheriff's office - which is luckily located around the corner from my office. Once again - quick and painless. Fill out a form, come back on Monday. Easy enough. Why does the FBI need 13 weeks?

Applying for the one from the state was a little more involved, but still provided plenty of information online:

http://ag.ca.gov/fingerprints/visaimmigration.php

The next step was locating a LiveScan facility to submit the digital finger prints. The first address I went to ended up being a furniture store. I asked the woman at the front if there were any finger printing facilities anywhere in the back, and she said no, but that people were frequently coming in looking for it.

You'd think they'd have put a sign on the door by now.

The next location was down by Fry's on Aero drive, but when I got there, all I saw was a gas station, with a livescan van out front. I walked into the Mini Mart and was told by the 20 year old female clerk that this was, in fact, the place.

I finally walked out of there, 40 minutes later, with a confirmation of my submission and a promise that it would arrive in 7 business days! Wooohoo!

Absence of Criminal Records Certificate?

So apparently, as part of the application for my student visa to Spain, I must submit an "Absence of Criminal Records" certificate. Apparently the one I need is issued by the FBI, takes 13 weeks to process, and requires my being finger printed! I kicked off the process today with a trip to my local police department, only 2.3 miles away from work. When I get there, however, I learned that:

Fantastic...so, then, where do I go to get finger printed?

It was like they read my mind:

Well, why didn't you just say so? So, off I go to the Sheriff's department.

Oh good, looks like I'm headed in the right direction:

I was surprised by how nice the facility was, and how much convenient parking there was in the parking lot. You would just never get that in LA! I love you San Diego.

I had no idea who the Sheriff of San Diego County was! Interesting...

Getting fingerprinted was quick, painless, and efficient, even though it did cost me $32. But I succeeded!

Now to mail it...and wait 13 weeks.

Travel in the Middle East

I finally received a very helpful e-mail from the National Passport Information Center regarding the obtaining of a second passport for my potential travel in the middle east this summer. As it is almost impossible to find this information online, I am pasting the e-mail here:

The Department of State's general policy is that no person shall bear or be in possession of more than one valid passport of the same type at any one time, unless authorized by the Department.

There are some circumstances in which the issuance of a second fee passport is appropriate.

They are:

1. When a foreign country will deny a visa or entry to the bearer of a passport containing markings or visas showing travel to certain other countries. For example, travel between Israel and certain Arab countries. If a traveler has an entry stamp or visa from Israel in their passport, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Egypt and Syria will deny them entry.

2. When a passport needed for immediate travel is unavailable due to prolonged delays in processing a visa application, or some other governmental process for which the passport was required.

To request a second passport, you must complete a DS-11 or DS-82 (depending on whether or not you are able to send in the current passport), include 2 passport photos, appropriate fees, and evidence of U.S. Citizenship. You must also include a signed and dated statement explaining the nature of travel and why you need a second passport. (See below)

A second passport is valid for 2 years and can be renewed with a DS-82 form. You cannot use the DS-5504 form to extend the passport validity.

When renewing a second valid passport, you will need to submit a new application and pay the application fee. You MUST be able to demonstrate that the second passport is still needed and submit a letter explaining the continued need.

To apply, submit:

1. Completed DS-82 form (if you are submitting your valid passport) or DS-11 (if you are unable to submit the passport)

2. Valid passport or other evidence of U.S. citizenship (with DS-11)

3. Two new passport photos

4. Letter explaining why second passport is needed (must include the countries to be visited and the nature of the travel). (See below)

5. Check for passport fees (include fee for special mailing if requested)

Example of Statement:

"I intend to travel to _________ and ________. In view of the restrictive entry requirements of one of the countries that I will be visiting, it is impossible for me to complete my trip using my current passport.

Consequently, I am requesting the issuance of a second passport to facilitate my travel to the countries mentioned above. I understand one passport will be limited to two years and that it may be extended at the end of that period if my need to travel to the aforementioned countries continues.

Should either passport be lost or stolen, I will report the circumstances to the Passport Office or the nearest American Embassy or Consulate immediately.

(Signature)"

If applying with form DS-11, it will be necessary for you to apply in person through an authorized acceptance facility.  For the location of your nearest acceptance facilities, visit: http://iafdb.travel.state.gov/