Oh Where is My Visa?

When I set out to write a travel blog and share my study abroad experiences, I knew I wanted to be as honest as possible. A lot of studying abroad is glamorized and people tend to leave out the stressful parts. The truth is, getting my visa and passport to my house in time for my flight was the most stressful part of prepping to go abroad.

As a mentioned in a previous blog, you need a CAS number in order to apply for your visa and mine came at the beginning of September when I planned on leaving on September 13th. This left me and my Dad scrambling last minute to make sure things were prepared so that I wouldn't have to miss my flight on the 13th.

My dad and I drove to Alexandrea, VA (this is about 4 hours away from where we live) on September 7th to get my biometrics report done, which is facial recognition pictures and fingerprinting. After that, we sent everything we needed to, including my passport, biometrics receipt, and application, to the visa processing center in New York. It ended up arriving on the 8th.

We thought my visa would be here on Wednesday, and I wouldn't have time to make my flight that was out of DC. We rebooked for Friday, because the university was sending people to the airport to pick up international students. On Friday, we got the notification that my visa had been sent from New York to New Jersey. It was going to arrive Monday morning at 9AM.

So once again, we rebooked the flight. This time on Monday at 4 PM and out of Raleigh, so if it came late then we still had time to get there. It ended up arriving right on time on Monday morning and I had time to get on my flight.

However, the process of getting my visa was filled with stress and disappointment. Now, I had to find my own way of getting to the university, which was something I was trying to avoid. Having to say goodbye to people over and over again because you thought it would be the last time you saw them and oops, it wasn't is exhausting and stressful. Not knowing if you're going to make your flight is stressful.

I've heard other people are having troubles getting their visas as well, so at least I'm not alone. However, that doesn't make it any less stressful and overwhelming. Not everything is golden all of the time. I'm so lucky that I had support from my family and friends throughout the experience, because I couldn't have done it without them.