red tape runaround

Sep 02, 2009 09:21

I've been off the map for awhile for good reason. After I left Pittsburgh on Wednesday, it was time to get into wedding mode. I want to go into details of being a bridesmaid later but not for this entry. While Kathryn was off getting her nails done, I decided to check my email to pass the time before meeting her to get our hair done. In my inbox was an email from the UK Embassy. An email of potential doom.


Basically, the form I had sent in to verify that I am receiving a Stafford loan had been faxed to me. The embassy emailed to say that they do not accept faxed forms and that if I couldn't get them a corrected document in 4 business days, my visa application would be rejected. Considering the time constraint, if they rejected me I could not go to school at all next year.

I freaked the eff out. In full spaz-out mode, I called American Education Services begging them in tears to overnight an original letter to the embassy. I explained that if they didn't do this, I couldn't go to school. They insisted on having sent the letter to me already, which I insisted right back that they had never done despite my two earlier requests for a letter. We're at a standstill. They won't mail the embassy directly but they will mail me (which would take too long) or email me a pdf. I ask for both and then wipe my face off and hustle down to the hair salon.

-Awesome wedding interlude-

After the fun of Kathryn and Dan's wedding I had to wade back into dealing with this mess. My anxiety levels and stress levels were super high. I felt nauseous and couldn't eat. Also, I had left my phone charger in the city and so couldn't use my cell phone at all. In a way it was good because I didn't feel up to telling everyone about this. The more I talked about it, the worse I felt. My dad's idea to solve the pdf problem was to have his friend come and notarize the document as having come from a secure AES inbox. I wrote a letter to the embassy explaining why the letter was notarized and apologizing for the inconvenience.

I didn't have a lot of faith that this plan would work. Sure, it was notarized but I also told them it was an email not an "original document." If they didn't take a fax, I didn't believe they would take an email. The backup plan was to have my dad wire me the equivalent money of the loan and send them another letter saying "look, I have the money I swear." I wasn't sure this plan would work either because you are supposed to have the amount of cash needed in your bank account on the date of application, not 3 weeks later.

Both plans had flaws but they were all I had. I've spent the last 4 days constantly wondering whether or not I was going to school, or staying in the Philly area for a year, or moving to Pittsburgh, or moving to Oregon...

Yesterday morning I got a call from UPS letting me know to expect a package. I called them to confirm the address only to find out they were shipping it to Pittsburgh. Even though my mail is forwarded, UPS is separate from the post office and there's nothing I could do until after the first delivery attempt. John was able to get me the slip of paper left on the door and I was able to pay a fee to have them ship it to Philly instead.

All day yesterday I'm waiting for an email from the embassy telling me whether or not the package contains a visa or a rejection. No emails are forthcoming.

This morning I woke up super early becuase I was too stressed to sleep. UPS comes around 9 and I tear into my package and find all of my own documents looking back at me. There's no letter at all from the embassy. No rejection, no acceptance. What the fuck? Then it occurs to me to look inside my actual passport - and there it is. After all this bullshit, I finally have a visa.

I'm really going now. In ten days.

rad - family hang out time
lame - all this bullshit, yo

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