Slight delay in the process

Well, everything didn’t run smoothly.  Due to time and money issues, I had to shelf the citizenship a bit.  Not too long, though.  And the top priority now would be to just get an appointment with the consulate.  I knew that if I didn’t make the appointment in January or February, they might “sell out” the whole year.  Remember that I first contacted them early 2010 and they told me all the appointments for 2010 were filled.

So without details on why I had to put a temporary hold on things, my objective now was to at least get an appointment.

Now we’re at the end of December.  They told me “Request an appointment in January, 2011”.  Ok, I can do that.  What does “January, 2011” mean?  To me that means a few seconds after the stroke of midnight on January 1.

And how will I contact them?  According to their instructions, they’ll accept appointment requests in person (80 mile drive), by mail (too iffy), by email (I can do that!), or by fax (I can do that too!)

So I decided to use a couple avenues.  I’d send them an email request and a request by fax.

I prepared my application paperwork.  Filled everything in and printed everything to .pdf s.  But wait!  The printouts look terrible!  Yes, it’s time for a new print cartridge.  The last printouts looked fine.  Great time to go out.  Quick, grab the ink refill kit and refill the cartridge.  Print again.  Now we’re getting blank sheets of paper!  No replacement cartridge.  Too late to go out and buy one.

Rather than panic, I figure I do have the email request that I can still do.

But then I thought about a free fax service that comes with a toll-free phone service I have.  It allows you to upload documents and it can fax them out.  So there’s my fax capabilities again, and the documents are already in .pdf format.

Now I can watch the clock.

At this point, remember a few things…

1. This is like a “Hail Mary” “fling the documents out there” and hope to get an appointment before the year is booked
2. I still need translations, a few apostilles, and to figure out how to handle the name changes
3. The appointment I do get will probably be out there anyway (like June or July) so I really have time

Now it’s approaching midnight, December 31.  I’m at my laptop waiting.  3-2-1

Mignight!

I click on the email send button.  Great, email sent. 12:00:04

I click on the fax send button.  It’s sent too.

So I have two chances to get an appointment for 2011.

Now it’s wait and see.

The 1st was Saturday so I figure they won’t even see it until Monday, the 3rd.

Sure enough, at 11:22am on Monday, January 3rd comes an email from the citizenship department of the Consulate.

I figure it’ll be like the rest of what I’ve received from them, stating the year is filled, please contact them back in January, 2012.

I open the email and see: “The appointment has been scheduled for January 10 at 10,00”

Now what.  I still have several things to do before I’m ready (including a few 2-4 week apostilles).  So now I have to do damage control.  There’s NO WAY I’ll be ready in one week!

So I immediately shoot off an email telling them I’ll be out of town and need to reschedule the appointment (yes, a little lie, but I’m out of town mentally at this point, so what the heck.)  My main objective was to open up this appointment option for someone else who was ready, and get another one a bit later.

No response back from them.  Nothing on the 4th.  Now what?  Did I piss them off so much that they’re having “the family” look into it?

Then at 2:36pm on the 5th comes another email from the Consulate’s office: “The appointment has been scheduled for February 22 at 10.00”

Ok, I can live with that!  I expect to wind things up during January anyway.  So I can relax and breath easier.  I actually will be able to get things in the works, and completed by then.

But wait!  At 4:42pm comes another email from the Consulate: “The appointment has been scheduled for MAY 11 AT 10,00. I already complete the book until MAY. Please bring with you the documents and original and 2 photocopy of your US PASS. /US driver’s licenses/ rental agreements or utility bills/ tax forms or any other official document confirming the current address”  I’m wondering what the heck this means.  Do I have an appointment on 2/22 AND 5/11, or did they reschedule the 2/22 to 5/11?

But before I could really get worked into a tizzy, here comes ANOTHER email at 5:55pm: “The new appointment has been scheduled for February 8 at 11,00”.

Ok, tizzy time.  Now I have NO IDEA if I have one, two, or three appointments!  How on earth do I sort this all out, when I cannot speak with anyone at their office.  (Remember, they do not answer the phones).

So in order, I now show that I MAY have an appointment for 2/8, 2/22, AND 5/11.

I also figure this may not be out of the ordinary if someone has multiple family members and getting different appointments.  So ok, there’s nothing to panic about at this point.  The big thing is that I feel guilty that I may have three different appointment slots blocked out when others may want them.  But then again, I have no idea if they’re actually reserved for me.  So, at least for now, I’ll continue to wind up with my paperwork, and address the appointments later.

I also figure if there’ a major, unforeseen issue, I may need to drop an earlier appointment and go for a later one.  And also, If I go to the first appointment, they accept everything, I get my citizenship, maybe I can use the 5/11 appointment to get my passport.

So I feel good that I have the appointment, or hope that at least one of them if valid.

Now back to finishing everything up…