One Month Until I Arrive In France

As the title indicates, I have just less than a month until I leave for France. I am still very nervous, but it finally feels as though things are coming together; this trip is finally beginning to feel very real.

For those that have not already heard, obtaining my visa has been a difficult process, and I still do not have it in my hands. For the sake of keeping this first entry short, I will simplify my experience to the biggest points:

To get a student visa for France, the first step is to create an account with a program called campusfrance.org. The organization is meant to simplify the visa application process for students. Once you have an account created, you fill out an application online and mail them a money order and a copy of your acceptance letter to the school where you will be studying. After that is completed, the expected wait to be accepted by CampusFrance is two to four weeks. After six weeks without hearing anything, I called the French Embassy in Washington, D.C. (where CampusFrance is located). After a brief conversation, I was told that if I gave them the number for my money order they would attempt to track it down. An hour later, I received a call from CampusFrance telling me that they had found the the envelope; it had been sitting on someone's desk, probably for the past five weeks.. Fortunately, I was accepted that afternoon.

The next step to obtaining a French student visa is to make an appointment with the French consulate in your region to formally apply for your visa. France does not issue same day visas; the forecasted wait time on the website is two to six weeks. This left me in a bit of a panic when I logged on to the website to find the earliest appointment available was 10 August. I decided to check back later and felt incredibly lucky when an appointment on 21 July opened up. So, after two days of difficulties in trying to arrange travel to San Francisco where the consulate for the Northwest is located, I arrived at le Consulat Gènèral à San Francisco with my application packet. About an hour later, my appointment was complete and I was told to expect my passport with my visa to be mailed to me in two to three weeks. I will begin to look for my visa to arrive either next or the following week.

On a different note, Maren left Friday for Ecuador. To say I already miss her seems to be an understatement since I have felt her absence since I left Boise last week. But it is at least a small consolation that she is safe in Quito and that she is getting along well with her host family.

So, for the next month or so, I expect to be keeping myself quite busy with work, last-minute travels and packing. Well, that and experiencing waves of excitement and terror...