2: Visa Woes

1/20/2011

So it looks like this blog might end up being irrelevant.

This week has probably been one of the most anxiety-ridden weeks of my entire life.  I'll try to detail it as best I can:

So on Tuesday I called the FBI, from whom I still had not received my official background check.  This background check is necessary to get a student visa, and without it I had not been able to make an appointment with the Portuguese consulate in order to apply for such a visa.  I had also been waiting 12 weeks for the thing.  While speaking to one of the customer service people, I found out that my background check had been sent to my Brown address at the end of December.  This is strange, of course, because Brown has my address and therefore would have forwarded me this envelope/package when they received it.  So I called Mail Services and they gave me a tracking number for a package that I later realized was my mother's Christmas gift, not the background check.  When I called again, under the impression that what they forwarded was the background check, the FBI told me that they could not resend the background check because it was not their fault that the package had been lost in the mail.

At the point I began to get a bit hysterical... I had been driving to pick my mom up from work and I was crying so hard that she refused to allow me to drive her back home.  I ended up calling the UWM Study Abroad office and let them know about the situation.  I called Mail Services again and got the tracking number for the package.  I called the local police station to see if I could get a background check from them.  I called my dad to give him an update and he said that my godfather, who works for the Department of Justice, knew people at the FBI.

Back at home, we realized that the package was not the background check and that the FBI was in fact responsible for my never receiving it.   On Wednesday, my godfather got in touch with his friend at the FBI, who told him that he would have the new copy of the background check Fedex-ed to me immediately.  It should be here tomorrow.  I cannot tell you how much I love and owe my godfather right now.

So today I called the Portuguese consulate to make an appointment for my student visa.  The woman told me that no appointment was necessary, which was great, but also that the process to obtain a visa usually took up to 3 weeks.  I leave in less than two weeks.  The anxiety from the entire FBI situation came rushing back, and I called my parents and my godfather again for one last favor.  Because all Portuguese people in the U.S. know every other Portuguese person in the U.S., it just so happened that my godfather knew someone in the Portuguese consulate in Rhode Island who might be able to make a few helpful calls to the consulate in DC.  Nothing is definite yet, but I'm really hoping and praying that this will work out for the best.

This whole process had me so frustrated and upset that I ended up having a bit of a breakdown today.  I had to do a few things at a lab as tests for my possible lactose intolerance and it turned out that I didn't do a few things incorrectly and I had to come back redo them.  On the way back, my mom asked me to go to the grocery store, but as I was walking in I realized I didn't have my credit card on me.  These little things just emphasized the whole situation with the FBI and the visa and I ended up sitting in the parking lot sobbing because I felt like a complete and total failure.  I felt like nothing I did turned out right, that I was constantly redoing every little thing because I was never able to do anything right the first time.  Once I got home my mom did a great job of comforting me and sent me right back out to the grocery store after I had calmed down.  I ended up having to come back inside because I left the keys to the car on the counter and, even after the huge breakdown, we just had to laugh about that.  I guess I'll never be completely on top of things! :)

On a serious note though, I don't know what to do if this visa doesn't happen and I can't go abroad.  I can't just travel to Portugal and get my visa there because the consulate needs my passport to process my visa.  Its extremely difficult to get a visa while in Portugal as well.  The next six months for me would be unimaginable.  I couldn't go back to Brown because classes would have started already and I have no place to live.  I would probably have to stay here at home, get a job, and wait out the coming months until I can return in the fall.  Without a car, I can't imagine that those months would go particularly well.  I'm actually shaking just thinking about the possibility that this won't work out.

I think it might be a good idea to start a novena for this, though I am not sure if its right to pray a novena for yourself nor do I have nine days... I'm hopefully receiving my background check tomorrow morning and driving into DC to visit the consulate later that day.  I figure submitting an application as soon as possible can't hurt.  Hopefully I can pay some sort of fee to expedite the process.  My adviser at UWM doesn't seem too confident.  She told me to look into changing fees for my flight and is trying to contact the people at Coimbra to see how late I can start at the university.

I'm so nervous.  Looking for a miracle.