Chicago Consulate Interview

THE BIG DAY

All applicants must apply in person for a Spanish visa which meant our family got to take a mini-vacation to Chicago on May 20th.  We set up the appointment here a couple months before.  This was a really short time to collect and prepare all our documents, but we didn't want to wait any longer because it meant we may not have our Spanish visas issued before August (our ETD).

Our appointment was for nine and I had read on some blogs that we should expect to stay there for a couple hours while the consulate went through all of our papers. We over-prepared for this meeting by over-organizing our documents and took all pre-cautions to win over the consulate employee that had the power to make our dream come true; we dressed up nice, ate a good breakfast, and bribed the kids so they would be well-behaved the entire time. We arrived promptly at the consulate at nine and only sat a short while in the lobby when a man behind the glass window called Davin's name. We all walked up to the window. It was the moment we'd been anticipating for so long! Without any introduction or questions asked, the man looks at all of us and with a displeased expression blurts out, "You only have appointment for ONE. You need appointment for FOUR!"

F***.

Immediately I felt sick to my stomach. All I could think about was the hours of preparation, the hundreds of dollars we'd spent on flights and hotel, the missed days of school for the kids, and the realization that this man had ALL the power to shoo us away and make us re-book an appointment weeks from now.

After a long, awkward silence, Davin jumped in and explained what the consulate's website read and how he had interpreted the appointment booking. Again the man repeated himself and stared at us. Then there was a long, desperate silence. He looked at me and read the devastation on my face, then  asked where we were from. When we said "Minneapolis" he rolled his eyes, sighed, and said "Let me see your papers."

Davin handed over his immaculately labeled folder. The man read our letter of intent then proceeded to go through each document (while communicating through non-verbals his severe annoyance). I noticed that the lobby was filling up with people.  I'm sure this man was worried that, because of US, he was getting behind schedule and had only started his day.

Without saying much, he continued to go through Davin's folder... then mine... and by the time he got to the kids folder his demeanor was lighter. Things were looking up! Because everything was so well organized and we had copies of everything he was able to go through it all extremely fast. As he was finishing up he asked, "When are you going to Spain?".  We said we bought flexible tickets for August 15th with hopes that we'd have our visas by then. "That shouldn't be a problem", he said. Finally, we handed over our passports and prepaid envelopes and he said, "OK. That is all".  I looked at the clock and it read 9:22.  I couldn't believe it! We said 'THANK YOU' about 100 times, looked at each other wide eyed, and quickly left before he could change his mind!

A combination of sweet relief and excitement ensued! We enjoyed the rest of the day exploring Chicago, the first of many new cities we'll explore in the next year!

Everything was out of our hands at this point. We had just about 12 weeks before our fight which is the exact processing time it states on the consulates website (plus time for shipping). We were delightfully SHOCKED when our envelopes came in the mail three weeks later with our passports and visas.

FINALMENTE

The final piece to actually get our residency card is to visit the Subdelegación del Gobierno (Oficina de Extranjeros) within 30 days of our arrival in Jávea

¡Vamos a españa de verdad!