this visa business has long become the nightmare i feared, and was warned, it would be. after weeks of unanswered phone calls, emails, and faxes to the LA consulate, with an email response finally coming from the consulate of boston (contacted since LA wouldn't respond) saying the quotas had been opened for fall, i headed hopefully up to LA last thursday night, stayed over at auntie ann's, and marched into the consulate early friday morning, nervous as all get-out. i felt as if i were immediately cast into a little version of italy, and was given a half-hour before my appointment to observe how the consulate employees were all terse, fast-paced, and not willing to dilly-dally (or often even give people the opportunity to speak). my turn came, and my smile quickly turned to a sinking heart when the woman told me she knew nothing of the quota being opened, followed by her telling me all about how she's so busy, the only person there, etc etc. she was pretty awful and said some rude things in several instances, acting more like a carefully-trained government robot than a human being. but in the end she took one of my copies of my painstakingly and painfully-prepared application and pile of supporting documents saying she would look into it and see if she could find the notification from the ministry of foreign affairs, and told me she would get back to me by monday or tuesday so i could either mail the application or come back in (not so easy since i'm in san diego....at one point i said it was difficult to come back since i live so far away, to which she sarcastically responded, "well, do you live on this WORLD?" yikes.)
needless and unsurprisingly to say, monday, and tuesday, and an email to her, rolled by with no word from her. finally, praying with all my might that she would pick up the phone (like she hadn't done the last 100 times i've called the visa office over the past 2 months), lo and behold, "italian consulate of los angeles visa office" was the response. whew! she gave me the ok to either send off the application to her, or to make another appointment and come in. she did have one more nitpicky concern, that the 600 euro stipend the program is giving me wouldn't be sufficient proof of financial support. i was unsure after she said that, as i have seen figures ranging from requirements of 850 to 1000 dollars per month on different consulate websites and university study abroad websites, so i told her i would look into it. in the end my bank statement and a letter from the bank will be acceptable supplements, i hope.
so i made my 2nd appointment for september 3rd, the first date i could get in. i hope that between going up there in person, her seeing my pleading face, and stressing my september 17th leaving date, she'll somehow acquiesce to hurrying my visa processing along. if not, i'll just have to change my flight date by a week or so, and hope for the best. needless to say, this process has been more than a nightmare. in speaking with a guy from the visa office at the boston consulate, who talked my ear off for a good 10 minutes about the woes of working for the italian government and consulates and issues with visas, etc, one sees it's not simply a problem isolated to the west coast, and it's not really even their fault. it's a product of the system.
yet this whole ordeal has made learn how to deal better with difficult people (and learn to speak faaaar slower...speaking more slowly, one of my very weak points, makes people feel less nervous i have learned, even if my brain has to switch down 5 gears and put on the brakes just to do it). normally i would have overreacted and perhaps gotten into fighting matches with the two individuals at the respective visa offices when things got heated, or when they underhandedly insulted me, or when they made snide comments. but instead, in considering of the gravity of the situation (perhaps along with a bit of required fear of their positions) as well as having empathy for what i'm sure they suffer, judging from how much i've suffered, i learned to listen, offer my condolences, perhaps butter them up a bit with some adulation for their persistence, and feathers were smoothed over. naturally, they're still prickly monsters underneath, but that side stayed under wraps a bit more.
here's to hoping a visa is at the other end of this labyrinth.
