while in belgium, i expect to travel a lot. there’s a lot of places on my ‘to go to’ list, but one place i would never expect to end up was NYC. but sure enough, i will be there sometime within the next 90 days.
why you may ask? the answer is simple and twofold: the fbi sucks and i should have payed more attention.
the belgian visa requires A LOT of paperwork. one of these documents is a record report from the fbi obtained by sending in a copy of your fingerprints taken at a local police station. once they get it, they check you out and send back your record.
and this is how they get you: it takes 8-10 weeks for them to process your request. this means it take 8-10 weeks just to get your request into the system before they even decide to do anything about it. and no, this 8-10 weeks is not the maximum it can take, it’s just the usual time.
i thought the whole process, including them getting back to me, would take 8-10 weeks max. well i was wrong and sent them in too late and now they wont be here until after i leave on sunday.
ive spoken to soo many people and tried crazy, sometimes illegal, scenarios of how i could get around this but the moral of the story is i will have to present myself in NYC to get the visa.
it all just pisses me off cuz i obviously don’t have a record and have all the other documents that I can send in at any moment. why can’t i just send in the fingerprints with my passport once they come in and then get the stupid friggin little student visa that will allow me to stay in europe for more than the tourist visa 90 days at that point.
So,
Cons: i’m estimating over $1000 spent on this whole excursion (aka european adventure money)
Pro: I get to see nyc for the first time.
but as my mom said as i told her of my situation almost in tears: shit happens. worst things happen in life. you’ll learn.
although somewhat depressing, i couldn’t have asked for a better reaction.
January 28, 2010, 7:58pm Comments
