Visa Problems

We hit a snag last week with my visa application. For whatever reason, the folks on the Japan side of things took a while to file the first step of my visa papers (which is called the Certificate of Eligibility). Paola got hers through without a problem, despite the fact that my papers were filed at least a week before hers. She was ready to go, waiting for my papers to get filed so that we could go to the Japanese Consulate to get the visa in our passports.

Our scheduled departure for Japan was Tuesday, September 4. I called the company that we were going to be working for to see if the Certificate of Eligibility was sent to them yet, seeing as how our flight was soon to leave, and it would take a couple of days at the Japanese Consulate to get the visa once all of our papers were in. The gentleman on that side said that they had not gotten the required papers yet, but expected them any day. However, seeing as how it would take an extra day to get the papers to me, he suggested that we send our passports to him so that he could file everything with the Japanese Consulate in Boston, with whom he was friendly, and the whole process would be go through much faster.

After sending our passports, and having the gentleman go the his local Japanese Consulate, he called us back telling us that he was unable to file the papers, and that we would have to file them in person. He said that this was irregular, and that he was usually able to do this (but not anymore, apparently). So, after sending all of our papers back to us, we went to the Los Angeles Japanese Consulate and filed all the necessary papers, and now on Wednesday, September 5 we are ready to pick up the final visa, a day after our initial plan for departure. That said, our flight to Japan was delayed a week because of all this.

I needed an extra week in Los Angeles anyway. Now that our leaving is less than a week away, I am starting to get a bit nervous, or anxious (I don’t really know which, perhaps both, or perhaps neither; in any case, it feels weird). I remember when I first heard that we would have to be waiting an extra week before leaving, I was indifferent, trying to stay cool about it. Then I was a bit frustrated because I was excited to go, plus I was getting bored of being in Los Angeles (I have been here for more than a month, living with my parents, in the home of my youth). Having been bored in Los Angeles, I realized that I was being rude and mean to my parents, who through it all, were taking it better than they should have. So, gratefully, I have a week to remedy that situation. It would have been a shame if I had left for Japan, not to see them for at least a year, on such a bad note.