Miracle At the Embassy

On Monday (8-24), we applied for the Polish passport we needed for DD to travel.  The clerk there was really nice, and we were done in about ten minutes.

On Wednesday (8-26), we went back to the passport office and picked up the passport.  Everything went smoothly, and we got it right away.  We went downstairs and finished the DS-260 form for the U.S. embassy, emailed a copy of it to ourselves and headed to the embassy for our Visa appointment. Things seemed ok to begin with, but when we got up to the window we were told that our DS-260 form was nowhere to be found in their computer system.  We were asked for a confirmation number which I did not have and were finally told that they did not have the form anywhere.  We went back to the passport office to confirm that we had sent the form to them, emailed a copy of it to the U.S. embassy, gave them the confirmation number and they still could not pull up the form.  The clerk could see our information in the email, but she could not find it in the system.  They have been dealing with a computer glitch for a few months, and that glitch was not allowing them to access DD's file.  We were told to call back in a little while, but at 12:30 there was still no sign of the problem being fixed.   We called multiple times, but it was still the same story, and we were finally told to come back at 2 p.m..  

We ate lunch and met Sasha back at the embassy at 2 where we were allowed back inside.  There was a small area with toys where the kiddos played while we were waiting for news.  DD was tired and needed a diaper change.  (Of course, the diapers were in the car.) A little before three, Mark checked again to see if anything had changed in our application process.  No, it had not. We were told that we were waiting on something (? still not sure exactly what) from Washington D.C., and we were advised to wait and come back in the morning because it would probably not be ready until then.  We really needed that Visa application to be done on Wednesday: it takes 24 hours to get the Visa, and we were scheduled to fly home on Friday.  The clerk promised to expedite out request, let us know if it came through that day,  and we headed out the door. 

There are at three sets of doors to get to the entrance/exit of the embassy.  We waved to the guard at the second set of doors, he greeted us, and we heard the phone ring.  Almost everyone was out the door when the guard called for us to come back inside.  The problem was solved, and we were ready to move forward with our application!  Within 15 minutes we were ready to go with the promise that we could pick up the Visa after 2 p.m. on Thursday.  Wow, what an answer to prayer! We were looking at having to stay for another seven days if we did not get that Visa application on Wednesday, and we got it!

We did pick up the Visa packet on Thursday, and Friday, we flew home! :D  DD did pretty well on the long plane rides, and though we were all exhausted we were excited to be home.  At about 4 p.m. on Friday, August 28th, DD got her Visa stamped,  and she became a U.S. citizen! :D