Visa in Progress, Flight Purchased, and the Waiting Continues...

So this past Tuesday I had my visa appointment at the Spanish Consulate in Boston at 11:15 am.  My advice to all you visa seekers, DO YOUR RESEARCH!!  Trust me, you will save yourself time and stress upon your appointment.

I need this...

For those also going through Boston here's how my appointment went down:

I live in RI so I took the train up from Wickford Junction.  It's $22 round-trip and parking is free for the rest of the year (Winning!).  Because the 9:10 am train would have gotten me to Boston just around 11 am we took the 7:42 train to get to the city and have enough time to walk to Consulate.

We arrived at South Station around 9:40 and it's about a 20 minute walk going directly to the Consulate.  The Consulate is at 31 St. James Ave., and it looks like just a regular office building if you didn't know any better.  We actually walked right past it at first and had to ask to find it!  Once you enter, you go up to the counter and check in with your ID.  The Consulate is up on the 9th floor, to the right.  Even though it was only 10:30 I went in anyway because: I was already there it, it was so hot and humid outside, and I was too anxious to wait any longer.

To get here!

When you go in it's a tiny room and you stand in the line at the left-most window for visas.  I waited for about 15/20 minutes in line because all the people in front of me were unprepared in some way.  When it was finally my turn they took my documents asking if I had copies of everything (which I did, two copies of everything actually) and the woman told me to use the orientation date as when the program starts.  Because I had all of my documents and copies this only took about 5 minutes and they asked me to sit until someone was ready to review the documents with me.

This was where I had to wait the longest because they had to review the documents of everyone in front of me, and like I said before they were all missing something.  I waited for around 45 minutes because the people called up in front of me didn't have everything they needed or didn't know the fact that the visa costs MONEY!?  So I waited while everyone in front of me had to fill out new forms, make new copies, and run to get money orders (GUYS YOU CAN ONLY PAY BY MONEY ORDER!! There were five people in front of me, one had a money order...).  

The Consulate is right near the Beautiful Public Gardens

Once my name was called they gave me back my originals saying I would need them in Spain for the TIE, my visa would be good from Sept. 1, I had to apply for my NIE within 30 days of being in Spain, and to email them back August 2nd to see if it was ready to pick-up.  


And that was it.  I waited about a hour and fifteen minutes, but if everyone had been prepared it would have gone much quicker.  So please go to the consulate page and make sure you have everything (seriously one guy applying to study abroad didn't even bring anything to pay for the visa, he didn't know it cost anything).  It was so frustrating waiting so long, but the workers at the Consulate were very friendly and understanding.

If you are about to have your appointment at Boston, make sure you have:

At least this visa gave me a reason
to go to Boston!

• 2 National Visa forms (at least one needs to be double-sided)
• 1 Supplement Visa Form
• Passport and other form of ID (Driver's License)
• Copy of photo page of passport and ID
• 2 color photos passport sized, white background (they attach it for you)
• Carta de Nombramiento in color and with the digital signature
• Money Order payable to "Consulate of Spain" for $160
• Background check, original and translated with the Apostille of the Hague (I had an Apostille for the original and translated, but I don't know if the translated copy needs it though)
• Medical Certificate (does NOT need to be translated or have the Apostille)
• If you're doing the Ministry program tell them!  They tried to sort through my papers quicker because of it.

Have AT LEAST one copy of everything! They take the copy and give you the original back. Coming from someone who had to wait extra because others were unprepared, make sure you have everything.  Overall it went smoothly, just double check and make copies of everything.  If you have any more questions about the visa process through Boston feel free to leave comments, I'm more than happy to answer anything to save you the time and anxiety at your appointment!  You can even read through my previous post on: Applying for a Spanish Student Visa through Boston for more advice.

Now the Exciting Part!

With the visa debacle finally out of the way I officially bought my one-way ticket to Madrid yesterday!  It's a direct flight arriving early September in Madrid.  That way I have a few days before the weekend to find an apartment and then I plan on visiting all my friends and boyfriend's family in Santander, before having to be back for orientations starting September 19th.  

Only 61 more days! source

I went through Student Universe (it was the cheapest flight I saw) and did get flight insurance because even though they said my visa would start September 1st, I'm way too anxious of a peron to pay that much money without knowing for sure.  I do plan on checking a second bag on my flight since I think $51 (if you add the extra bag online prior) is much cheaper than what it would be to ship my stuff for the entire year.

Perpetual Waiting...

Even with my flight purchased and my visa seemingly approved (so far so good) I have to wait a few more weeks until I have my visa in hand.  Once I go back for my visa sometime in early August, it's off to Spain and more waiting as I'll have to figure out the NIE/TIE process in Madrid.  And so the waiting continues, but at least with a little more certainty now!  And to keep my eye on the prize while jumping through all these hoops I just keeping looking at pictures of Madrid.  So. Close.

61 days until I'm reunited with these beautiful people!

[Update (8/9): The visa waiting is over!  Finally picked up my visa, now just waiting for my flight in three weeks!  Read more about it in my new post: The Art of Packing Lightly.]

Have any of you gone through the student visa process and have some advice for other new timers?  Have you had to go through the NIE/TIE process in Madrid?