A Cariad Life

Last week was quite an adventure! First, on Thursday, in the midst of trying to finalize our visa application documents, we gave our sweet Coco lots of love and loaded her (and her huge amount of stuff) in Noah’s Jeep. She has been with us for 11 years, and I am still not used to the quietness of the house and the absence of her little paws on the floor or her begging for food. I know she is doing well in Bellingham, and Noah is excited to have her with him. It was another goodbye (but “see you soon”) and another layer of grieving for us.

So…on Thursday afternoon, bearing hundreds of sheets of paper (copies of documents in French and English), Darrell and I got the flight for San Francisco, took the BART into downtown, and checked into our hotel. We enjoyed a great Israeli dinner of Shakshouka and pita before working for a couple more hours on finishing the final details of our applications. I cannot even begin to tell you how mind-numbing preparing these documents was–at one point that evening when completing a form in French (requiring me to translate the form from French to English and then translate my English response to French), I said, “are we really sure we want to do this???” But finally, at 11pm, we finished and sank into bed.

Then the next morning after an amazing breakfast–avocado toast and good coffee always make things better–we arrived at the VSF global office at 9:30 before our 9:45 appointment. Once you go through security, you enter into a small room (about the size of a living room) with a small waiting area and about 8 cubbies and a counter separating you from the VSF agent…think DMV, but way smaller. A small but important difference: absolutely no cell phones were allowed in that room. They called our number and we began the process.

First, we learned that VSF is really about ensuring you have all your documents together, to include photos and fingerprints–they are not the French consulate. Once your file is complete, they ensure it gets to the French embassy in DC and that your passport gets returned to you. Yes, the appointment is in English and the agent is basically reading the requirements off the screen. Another interesting note is that it appears our visa type, entrepreneur, is fairly uncommon. So much so that another agent came over to look at the screen as she had never seen an entrepreneur form before. At one point, one of the agents said I think you need that document, “do you know?” It didn’t engender a lot of confidence, but luckily, I had done so much reading, I said, “yes, we do need that one and here it is.”

Interestingly, although we provided our resumes, the agent also asked us for a copy of our degrees. Although Darrell and I have our Master’s degrees, I had only prepared our resumes as our business is a B&B. I never considered that proof of our educational degrees would be needed. Nevertheless, we have since gathered our degree verifications and sent them in. After reviewing the checklist, submitting our documents, signing lots of things, and paying $200, they took our picture and our fingerprints and showed us how to track our applications. Our applications are currently in Washington DC, and we are expected to receive everything back by October 12–hopefully approved!

Darrell and I both took deep breaths as we walked out of the office–it was so much work, we were not completely sure what they wanted, but we did it–we submitted our applications that would allow us to work in France, stay in France for at least a year, (and have healthcare!)

As a perfect cap to the trip, our flight back to Seattle was rescheduled three times and we waited in the airport for 7 hours…oh well! We were able to make it to Parent Weekend and spent two days with Caleb:) He is doing great and very happy at school.