Veiny, Giddy, Visa

I veined, my head swam, and I applied for a visa — a J-1 visa, that is.

Public Service Announcement: When applying for a J-1 visa, be reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeally careful about your flight scheduling. I had to re-arrange my flight plan 5 times. ARGH! >8-{

I vaguely remember mentioning before that I'll be on a training stint in the US, no? Well, I apparently can't just slime my way across the unfriendly skies and flop my sweaty carcass over on a US customs officer's counter and expect to be allowed to train on the Visa Waiver Program. Nuh-uh. I need legal sponsorship. My company uses AIPT (Assoc for International Practical Training), and they handle all the silly legal mumbo-jumbo that visa applications traditionally come saddled with. All for a fee somewhere around the value of my monthy salary. Wow, who knew?

Anyhoo, there I was happily riding on the coattails of a flight-planning-accomplished colleague, blissfully unaware of impending doom. All the while, I thought that I could show up at the Airport on the 12th and have Northwurst sling-rocket my saggy butt halfway around the world. I'm day-dreaming about collecting on all those air miles when I get a perturbing e-mail from Fedex. What the...?

To compress several harrying hours spent re-reading the email, let's just say that "I read the e-mail and acted accordingly". After harassing a I'm-still-in-a-meeting-HR-person, I find out that the Fedex package contains documents that I need, for my J-1 visa application.
OK, fine.
I then find out that the American Embassy takes 2 days to process and (hopefully) approve the visa application.
Still OK.
That is, until I check the expected delivery date of the Fedex package. 8th Jan.

ARGHRRRGRHRRHGRHH!

OK, let's do some logic exercises:

Package with important visa document arrives 8th jan.
I can only go the Embassy to personally beg for the visa the next day (at 7.30 am), 9th jan.
The visa takes two days to process, 10-11 Jan.
Collect the visa after two days 12 jan. Ooooops. My flight leaves 12th jan at 0600...
I start getting hypertensive, and the vein in my neck throbs a vein (ugh) counterpoint to the smugly blinking cursor on my computer screen. Veiny? Check.

After wasting two hours griping to random, helpless people in the office, it finally occurs to me that maybe, just maybe, Fedex might deliver the package early!! While my cube-mate snorts derisively enough to cause a mini-tsunami in her coffee-cup, I frantically click through the Fedex e-mail and website to look for a Customer Disservice number. I find the number and convince the somewhat helpful but disembodied voice to request the the package be re-directed to my home, should it arrive early. Still in a dazed panic, I grill the hapless HR person about half-baked alternatives to the J-1 visa, but alas, alack, 'tis in vain (enough vein references already right?). I spend the rest of the afternoon moping about yet another change to the flight plan and losing one day of jet-lag recovery by pushing my departure date by a day. It's the only way I can be more sure of actually making it to the US customs counter with a J-1 visa. I morosely slouch my way home, my mind playing virtual pinball with scenarios until I finally pass out on my bed. Giddy? Check.

Whoo Hoo! A night of intermittent frantic pleading with the Power That Is yields great results! The next morning, I track the progress of the Fedex package, seeing it ping its way from Maryland to Newark, up to Anchorage (Alaska!?!), and finally, Singapore! A friendly Fedex delivery guy cheerfully hurls the package into my waiting palms, and I spend the next 2 hours reading font point size 5.34 legal print... gah! I'll be spending my Black Monday morning queueing up at the Embassy to beg for my visa.. Visa? More or less Check.