I married last week in Cali and endured the mess at the U.S.
embassy twice in the past few days.
Dec. 30th: The U.S. embassy consular sections closed for a
week. There was no internet posting, no phone messages, and
the security people could not answer simple scheduling
questions. There was no posted info in the lobby to this
effect.
I had a window between the Cali-Bogota and Bogota-LA
legs of my flight on the 7th of about 2 hours. I arrived
at the embassy this time at 1:15. Windows 1-4 were still
closed, and a long line of bored, sullen bombas and their
spouses snaked around a few poles.
One man told me he had been waiting for an hour and a half.
My wife kept grabbing phones--the ones that allow conversation
between the customer and consular officer side of the thick glass.
A little harpie of a security agent kept screaming out, "This woman
is not in the front of the line! Do not serve her."
Suddenly, the blinders opened on window number 4.
With miraculous, perfect timing, my wife grabbed a phone, slid under
the glass our (ticket), and handed me a phone. Without greeting the
consular officer, I slid under the glass all our paperwork, and then
said to her, "I came her last week but you were closed. Shall I
complain to my Congressman about the NON-information on the website,
the NON-message at the front gate, the NON-phone access, or from the NON-staff that WAS here." She laughed, and I quickly added that I had to catch a plane at three.
She said she would expedite our paperwork. She approved the
paperwork in about two minutes, I paid the fee in window number 1,
and then had all the documents certified in window number 3. We
left at 1:20 and we were back at the airport at 1:30.
About 100 men and bombas stood there dumbfounded.
We will always treasure this bureaucratic miracle, and the enraged
looks from the midriff-bomba crowd in the lines. My wife saw the
same bombas in the doctor's office yesterday and received the
same looks. The fact that I married a clever, resourceful woman instead of some Cali arm-candy delights me more and more.
The wait between visits is about 30 days right now.
