Yeah! Visited the consulate’s office this morning, hopefully for the last time in my LIFE, and was able to retrieve our passports and supporting documents with no appointment and no problem. Even got a refund of our application fees.
With our passports in hand, we are on our way (next Tuesday). Let the adventure begin!
We left you all hanging on the outcome of our visa application. In spite of all our best efforts to be thoroughly prepared, our meeting with the visa officer at the consulate’s office did not go well, and our application was deemed “insufficient”. The problem was our rental contract, which was between us and a Houston friend for his home in Sicily. We had downloaded a generic rental agreement, filled in our specifics, and this was signed and dated by all parties. Perfectly legal and legitimate in the United States. But the visa officer wanted us to provide an Italian contract, registered and notarized in Italy.
Um, what?????? None of the parties are in Italy, so how are we supposed to do that? Just all fly over to Italy for a day and sign a contract there? There was a period of hope when we thought we might be able to have our contract validated at the home of the Consul General here in Houston, but that did not happen either.
We are left with few choices. It’s too late to try to adopt an Italian child, or to enroll in school there. Rather, we have decided to withdraw our visa applications and go to Italy anyway. We will try to stay under the radar with only our passports. Italy has a well established pattern of relaxed immigration enforcement, especially when you are American tourists, so odds are they won’t even notice we are there. If worse comes to worse and they limit us to ninety days, we’ll bounce out of Italy for a few weeks, to a non-Schengen country (Croatia is supposed to be beautiful!), and then bounce back in time to be with the girls for Christmas back in Italy. Now the only hurdle left is to get our passports back from the consulate’s office: How hard could that be? I don’t dare even ask.
Not the charge card thing. In the ‘olden days’ you could travel much easier for extended stays. Your passport would allow you a 90 day stay and it was as simple as crossing the border, going to Switzerland for a day, and come back for another 90 days! Ta Da! Simple. Easy. Well….not so much any more. That ‘come and go’ loophole for long vacations is a thing of the past. You can only travel anywhere in Europe and across any border for 90 days. Then you have to leave for 90 days before you can come back. This is all a result of the Schengen Agreement. This has nothing to do with anything Chinese. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schengen_Agreement
It is now necessary to procure an ‘Elective Residence’ Visa for stay longer than 90 days. OK this shouldn’t be too difficult. Right? Just try finding out exactly what is needed in order to apply. It would be infinitely helpful if there were a concise list of requirements. No. Way to easy. Laura has been frantic in her search and we believe we have everything needed for our appointment this Friday. You need to have your airlines tickets purchased for a 6 month stay. So there will be a change fee coming since we are only going for 4 months! You have to have proof of where you are going to be staying for 6 months. Booked reservations with proof of payment. So much for being foot loose and playing it by ear. Passport photos. You have to present proof that you can afford to be there for 6 months and not be looking for a job while in Italy. Bank statements and letters. So much for my carpentry and table waiting skills. We also went so far as to get fingerprinted and an FBI criminal search to prove we are good people. (Please no rebuttals) So, crossing our fingers we will apply and have been assured that the two weeks before we leave will be enough time to get the Visa even though the Italian Consulate website says it takes 4 weeks. Wish us luck in this first hurdle.
Not the charge card thing. In the ‘olden days’ you could travel much easier for extended stays. Your passport would allow you a 90 day stay and it was as simple as crossing the border, going to Switzerland for a day, and come back for another 90 days! Ta Da! Simple. Easy. Well….not so much any more. That ‘come and go’ loophole for long vacations is a thing of the past. You can only travel anywhere in Europe and across any border for 90 days. Then you have to leave for 90 days before you can come back. This is all a result of the Schengen Agreement. This has nothing to do with anything Chinese. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schengen_Agreement
It is now necessary to procure an ‘Elective Residence’ Visa for stay longer than 90 days. OK this shouldn’t be too difficult. Right? Just try finding out exactly what is needed in order to apply. It would be infinitely helpful if there were a concise list of requirements. No. Way to easy. Laura has been frantic in her search and we believe we have everything needed for our appointment this Friday. You need to have your airlines tickets purchased for a 6 month stay. So there will be a change fee coming since we are only going for 4 months! You have to have proof of where you are going to be staying for 6 months. Booked reservations with proof of payment. So much for being foot loose and playing it by ear. Passport photos. You have to present proof that you can afford to be there for 6 months and not be looking for a job while in Italy. Bank statements and letters. So much for my carpentry and table waiting skills. We also went so far as to get fingerprinted and an FBI criminal search to prove we are good people. (Please no rebuttals) So, crossing our fingers we will apply and have been assured that the two weeks before we leave will be enough time to get the Visa even though the Italian Consulate website says it takes 4 weeks. Wish us luck in this first hurdle.