The Great Visa Debacle

Well, as many of you know, my visa appointment was yesterday. Since we don't have a French Consulate here in Dallas I had to drive down to Houston. All visa appointments must take place before noon, so I got myself a 10:30 am appointment thinking the latter the better. Sunday afternoon I got in the car and drove down to Houston. After a very boring 5 hour drive due to traffic in Big D, I arrived at my "hotel" in Houston. I use the term hotel very loosely here. I'm a grad student and don't have much money, but when you pay $45 for the night I guess you get what you pay for. It was 85 degrees out (yes that's right 85 degrees a week before December) and the AC didn't work too well, and by not too well, I mean at all. The humidity was terrible. The bed felt like it was filled with rocks, and the creme de la creme (that's French for cream of the cream) was the two roaches I killed in the bathroom at 2 am. I got about 4 hours of sleep and awoke at about 7:30, which was an hour before I planned on awakening, but decided it was just best for me to leave. I packed up my things, threw them in the car, found a Starbucks and had a coffee.

I headed over to the Consulate at around 9:30 thinking I'll get there early. This was in fact a fantastic idea considering my Tom Tom had no idea where I was. The Consulate was actually 1.5 miles from the Starbucks, but with Tom Tom's stellar directions I got to drive 13 miles and take 45 minutes to find my way there. I got in at 10:15, informed them I was there and sat down.

I was called over to talk to the friendly French woman who would be interviewing me, and I must say, she actually was quite friendly and helpful. Unfortunately, she did not design the French Consulate's webpage. I had almost everything I needed. The long and the short of it is that I do not have my visa as of yet, because I need to fill out an application on a website called Campus France, which is essentially a common application for French universities, the catch, however, is that I have already been accepted to the Catholic University of Lyon. I simply have to fill out my personal information, and my acceptance along with $140 to Washington, DC, and they will send me back an e-mail saying I am approved. I then have to send this to the Consulate in Houston and they will be able to finish my visa application. The biggest problem is that a Campus France application takes about 3 weeks to complete, and then I need 7 to 10 days for my visa to be processed. I will get my visa somewhere between December 23 and January 3, hopefully. If I don't, I will likely be forced to push my flight to France back a week. Gotta love bureaucracy!