Just Where Do You Think You're Going?

Imagine that applying for visas is similar to going to the DMV. You compile the massive amount of information that you think is needed and then you go there and present it hoping for the best. In addition, imagine that you have experts located throughout the world helping you pull the information together. The experts might sometimes give conflicting information and they are located in different time zones meaning that you often don't hear back from them for a day or two.

On January 16th we applied for our visas. We went down to New York City to the South African consulate and presented the information. There was a great deal of information needed and it took Mr. Deep over a month to put it all together. That day, there was one question and additional information was requested.  We were able to take care of it and provide the needed information within an hour. Then, we were told it would take four weeks to get the visas. The experts were following up on our behalf and kept saying four weeks, four weeks, four weeks. Four weeks is up this Friday, February 13th.

Late yesterday, Mr. Deep got a call from the consulate saying that two additional items were needed in order to process the visas. The first is easy - airline tickets showing when we plan to depart. The second, a little more complicated, is something new that they seem to be requiring (sounds like the DMV right?) Of course it was about 1:00 a.m. where the experts are when this request came to Mr. Deep so he drafted an email to the experts and immediately checked for a reply when he woke up this morning. Today there has been a lot of back and forth. We are still hopeful that the remaining information can be provided today or tomorrow and that the visas will be ready on Friday and that we can go down and pick them up.

In the meantime, we are living in temporary housing. It is a one bedroom apartment where we have been living since Superbowl Sunday. Mr. Deep walks to work from this apartment. All of our belongings, except for what we brought with us, in suitcases, are on the boat heading to Africa. We are down to one car and this weekend we will be getting rid of that car. We are really hoping to leave on Tuesday, February 17th. We will see!