El Consulado

Well Alberto left the clinic five hours after we got in line. He described the exam as horrible and he’s not one to exaggerate. I still feel guilty and angry and sick to my stomach that he had to go through it. I wonder if he’s just wishing he’d married a nice Mexican girl and didn’t have to go through all this just so we could live far from his family and friends in a country we both have plenty of complaints about.

He was then told to go to the consulate at 1:00 with all his documents and return to the clinic for his Xray and vaccination records after his interview. He had enough time for a quick nap and a snack in the room and then it was back in line. Thank goodness we got a room at the cheap motel directly across the street from the consulate – the place is nothing to write home about but the convenience makes it well worth it.

The line into the consulate at that time of day was short – just 45 minutes or so waiting outside. Alberto disappeared into the fortress and I had more time on my hands waiting outside. He spent another three hours inside, waiting in various lines and waiting rooms, having someone review and then take all his documents from him, including his passport and tourist visa, and having his fingerprints taken. He emerged with another slip of paper (they kept his visa and passport) for another appointment at the consulate at 6:30am the next day.

It was almost 4:00 in the afternoon and we had started the day at 4:30am. The only information we had received beforehand was to go to the clinic in the morning. We only knew to expect the afternoon visit to the consulate, document review and finger printing because some friends had just gone through the whole process and told us about it. All the information they send you leads you to believe you will simply have a medical appointment the first day and then one consulate appointment the second day. You would think that informing people of the process would benefit both the people undergoing it and all the staff having to deal with those people, but apparently that would be far too reasonable for this process.

So anyway, we napped that afternoon, went for a nice dinner and a really bad movie, and zonked out at 9pm with the alarm set for 4:45am. Day one finished!