When David was born we rushed to get his birth certificate, Social Security card, and passport so we could apply and receive our visas before leaving for France December 30th. I had been preparing for this day for months. The French Consulate has a list of 16 requirements you must take in person to the Consulate in Chicago. Multiply that by 5 members in our family and that is a lot of paperwork.
I was up late the night before collating all the papers and then I was up again at 2:30 to nurse David. We had to wake up early, get the 2 older kids to a sitter and drive down to Chicago. Of course with a nursing baby, it is hard to get out of the house on time. We left late from our house and then got stuck in Milwaukee traffic. Had a smooth drive down to the north side of Chicago, but couldn’t quite make up the time lost in Milwaukee.
We had decided to park n’ ride to downtown Chicago, mainly because you never know what traffic you might get stuck in. Even though I had selected the last 5 appointments of the day at the Consulate, 11:40 a.m. to 12:20 p.m., we were tight on time. We were trying to get to the red line train by 10:30 to get us to the Consulate with time to spare. But we didn’t pull into the parking lot until after 10:30. We then rushed to try and catch the next train, 8 minutes later.
Gearing up as if on the Amazing Race, we had it all planned out, Micah would get David out of the car and I would get the stroller and we’d take the elevator and get our tickets and hop on. Ha! The elevator was stuck on the 3rd floor, so we had to carry baby and the stroller up the stairs, then find another elevator to purchase our tickets. Which for some reason the machine wouldn’t take our credit card; finally we got it with our debit card, but by that time we had missed the next train.
We had now lost our extra time and would have to run from the train to the consulate to make it in time. To make things worse half way to downtown we heard the announcement that the train we were on was now out of service and we would have to get off and wait for another one. Are you kidding me? Good thing I hadn’t started feeding David again, at least. We got off and saw some were getting on the brown line instead of waiting on the red line. We asked the conductor if the brown line went to our stop and it did, so we hopped on not realizing the brown line usually has to go all around the loop downtown before stopping at our destination, but thankfully it changed course to follow the red line’s schedule, so we didn’t lose out on all that time at least.
When we finally got off the train at our stop, we rushed to the Consulate. We ran 6 blocks in what was probably negative degree wind chills, swerving our stroller around all the other pedestrians of the Windy City. We made it to the building we needed to be in and found our way up one elevator to the information desk, where we had to check in, then up another set of elevators to the 37th floor, where the French Consulate is located. We walked in the door at exactly 11:40am. Whoo!
Then we sat and waited and waited for our names to be called. Finally, the judgement had come. Now, I had followed all the requirements and then some. I had read review after review to find out what else they might ask for, because their list of requirements is very vague. I thought for sure we had everything we needed (I still think we had everything they needed). However, they didn’t agree.
Apparently, the letter of employment did not state we’d be paid while in France, even though the letter stated Micah’s been employed since February and will be employed while in Africa (which comes after being in France, which should have been understood from other paperwork). Yet, it’s not clear that he’ll be employed while in France? Bahh! That and they ask for “proof of medical insurance,” but what they really mean is “proof of medical insurance- showing valid worldwide coverage for emergencies and repatriation (minimum coverage $50,000).” So, why didn’t they specify that on their website?!
Well, now we have 1 week to get this information to them. But because we didn’t have everything that day, we won’t find out if we were accepted until we get the actual visa in the mail, 2 weeks to 1 month from now. Here’s to praying we get accepted, because we are going to have to purchase our plane tickets to France before we find out if we’ve been accepted or rejected.
