Casablanca Consulate Interview Update!

So on 10/10 after getting a 221g and the receipt for my husbands visa/passport after dealing with the consulate officer – Mr. RPCV Kenya/ Flying Spagetti Monster – I walked out of the consulate knowing I had very little time to ensure my husband was given a visa and his case wasn’t sent back to USCIS in America.

Allah works in mysterious ways and one of them was that the weekend of 10/10 became a three day weekend due to Columbus Day being observed by the consulate on 10/13.

After walking out of the consulate – my husband almost kissed me in public – that’s how thrilled he was that my persistence paid off of going back into the consulate, demanding to be heard and getting the visa receipt – which is something to be said for a modest Muslim man who I have to ask to hold my hand in public and 50% of the time he refuses!

My husbands visa receipt!

So I and my husband rushed back to the hotel and emailed my co sponsor who is my mom about the documents that the consulate officer gave us the 221g for.  I included the fax number the CO gave us for them to fax the documents before Monday 10/13.

We also had to check back into our hotel as we had booked our stay only through that Friday – I extended our stay until Friday 10/17 in the hope my husband would have his visa in hand by then.  Hooary for spending more $$  that could be spent on our plan tickets to the USA.

I also asked my co sponsor to email color scans of the faxed documents for me to print out and drop off on 10/14 because if nothing else this whole process has taught me never trust that ANY document arrived to any immigration agency or that any officer of one of these agencies will confirm that the paperwork arrived or not.

On the morning of 10/14 – I and my husband woke up and hunted down a local printer that to our luck was just across the park from our hotel!  For 20dh – printed the faxed document and pages in color and then grabbed breakfast.  By 8:30 am I was at the consulate AGAIN with documents in hand – was given permission to cross the street quickly – as now the Moroccan police and private Moroccan security firm knew who I was.

I then waited to be called up to the bullet proof window – and hand the documents in.  When I asked if the fax sent over the weekend had arrived in the immigrant visa section – the guy at the window of course – couldn’t tell me or take the time to check.

I took the time to apologize to him for getting super assertive the past Friday and told him – if things were ran in an orderly fashion and my emails were answered – my husband wouldn’t have gotten a 221g from the CO.

I also asked when would my husbands visa would be ready – the guy at the window said at the latest by Friday but that the consulate would call my husband and let him know.

So I left the consulate grounds and had a cup of tea at a the cafe next to the Americana Grill with my husband and then we went back to the hotel where I holed up for the next few days battling a chest cold, allergies and asthma attacked brought on by the massive amount of smoking guests at the Ibis hotel we stayed at.

My husband spent his time off work – meeting up with old friends he worked with when he was stationed in Casablanca with the Protection Civile – doing tons of crossword puzzles and drinking lots of coffee.

Finally on Wednesday after going to our new Shawarma guy – who surprise is from Taza!!  and wandering around downtown Casablanca looking for a cheap English language  newspaper or magazine – non were to be found – at around 2:30 pm my husband got the call from the consulate his visa would be ready to pick up the next day!

We got SO excited but decided to try and keep the new under wraps until we actually had his visa in hand.

That didn’t work so well with my family – they were emailing, Facebooking and messaging to get updates.  My aunt Karen hearing we got the call – generously gave us money to go eat a really nice dinner – we will do so once we are actually heading OUT of Morocco!

The that night my husband was trying to convince me that we should travel back on the night train to Taza on Thursday – and I just told him no – to stressful and to much – I couldn’t deal with making a rush back to Taza for nothing plus I paid for the hotel through Friday and the hotel wouldn’t give a credit for Friday even though I am an Ibis Le Club member.

So we went to bed excited at the thought that we would inshaAllah have my husbands visa tomorrow sometime.  We got to the consulate super early 8 am only to be told by the private security that visa pick up wasn’t until 2pm.  See – this contradicts what my husband was told on the phone – so just be aware the right and has no idea what the left hand is doing at the Casablanca Consulate.

We ate lunch at the Americana Grill once again and made liberal use of their WiFi.

So at 1:30pm my husband and I lined up for him to pick up his visa.  We crossed the street with about 6 other people only to wait standing up for another 30 minutes.  The consulate REALLY needs to invest in benches for people to sit on – as they have people cooling their heels 30 minutes or more constantly.

Finally the Moroccan private security told everyone to line up at the bullet proof outside window once again.  My husband name was called – he was given his visa – told to pay the ELIS fee and to not open the packet the person at the window gave him but give it to the Customs/Border person at his Point of Entry (POE).

We were both smiling and thrilled – we thanked the security people and told them inshaAllah we would never see them again!

Left the consulate to head to our hotel, pack for travel in the morning at 6:30am and promised ourselves to celebrate the visa with a nice dinner at a later date.

Finally the visa process was done and now began the process of my husband quitting his job.

Alhumdualillah.

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