My mom and I drove up from Toronto on Tueday afternoon and stayed at the Delta Centre-Ville. A nice hotel about a five minute walk from the Consulate. We had dinner last night a Weinstein and Galvino's on Crescent Street - great Italian food - and were in bed early. I slept badly but was up early for the walk to the Consulate. Went in the wrong direction but I happened upon a Tim Horton's where I grabbed a coffee.
Arrived at the Consulate a little after 7 and I was the first in line. A few more people lined up behind me with their x-rays etc. and I was glad I hadn't brought mine. Got through security very quickly and after a quick wait went up to the 19th floor. I had brought a book with me but found it really hard to concentrate. I was called to the window to hand in all my paperwork and was a little thrown off when the woman asked me if I had my New Zealand Police Clearance (I didn't). I had lived and travelled in New Zealand for a year 13 years ago (when I was 19) and had listed it on the forms. Stupid, in hindsight. So then I was waiting for my interview and incredibly stressed about the certificate I didn't have. I just knew it was going to be an issue.
I was called into room 7 for the interview and asked the standard questions:
"Where did you meet?"
"Why are you moving to the States?"
"What does your fiance think of you being a Canadian?" (That one was kind of weird)
"Do you have a criminal record?" (asked twice - NOOOO!!!!)
"What were you doing in New Zealand?"
And then the kicker: "You know that you need a Police Clearance letter for New Zealand? No? Well you do now."
The guy then gave me the information about how to obtain one but it was a bit of a blur because all I could hear him saying was:
"It'll take another two weeks or so to obtain the certificate from the U.S. Consulate in NZ and then another 2-3 weeks for us to process the Visa."
So I'm looking at the information he's given me and looking at him and then said - but is everything else ok and once I get this clearance I'll have my visa? And he said, yes, everything else looked fine. So I bolted back to the hotel, trying not to cry and made it to the hotel room where I completely lost it. Let's just say the tears were flowing and so was the "f" word. Once I calmed down I looked at the information the Consular Officer had given me and realized that it said that the NZ Police Clearance had to be requested from the processing U.S. Consulate and there was a form that had to be filled out and signed by me that the Officer hadn't bothered to give me. So I fill out the form, give it to MTL, who sends it to the Consulate in New Zealand, who gives it to the NZ Police, who give the clearance to the NZ Consulate, who sends it back to MTL, who calls me, I send my passport, they process the visa and send my passport back to me. Nothing could possibly go wrong there,right???? Oh but the best part was I had to go BACK to the Consulate to have all of this explained, go BACK through security and ask someone nicely to please get me the form that had to be completed, fill out the form and hand it to them.
AAAARRRRGGGGHHHHH!!!
So frustrated. Mostly at myself for either 1. Not realizing I needed the stupid clearance in the first place or 2. Ever bothering to list NZ as a place of residence.
Needless to say, after all of that I wasn't really in the shopping for something for my mother to wear to the wedding mood and we jumped in the car and drove back to Toronto.
On a brighter note - as long as you have all of your paperwork in order, once you get to the Consulate the process is actually quick, efficient and painless. If all had gone well I would have been out of there by 9am.
P.S. And I did see Melyssa on the payphone when I stormed back into the building but I was too worked up to talk. I'm glad things went well for you!!!
Hopefully you'll have it soon enough.
It looked different than I expected - black (instead of totally clear, though it was still translucent) and very professional.
You know you got it, it's just a formality!
