Well today was an interesting and frustrating day to put it mildly.  We were up early today full of excitement to attend Toronto and  finally pick up our Visas. We rented a car (sold our car awhile back) and were on the road at 7:30 am. We left early because the consulate is only open until 12:30.  We had gathered up our required documents as indicated in the email “Your visa application has now been approved, and you have now 30 days in which to pick it up. Kindly bring your passport and airline ticket to this Consulate for its issue.”

We drove through heavy traffic to arrive at the consulate around 10:45 am and took a number (#45) and waited for our turn. There were numerous people there and the consulate was very busy. After about 15 minutes our number was called and a very friendly consulate staff member asked us what she do could do for us. We told her that we were there to pick up our approved visas. She said, ok that will be easy and asked us for our flight info.  We provided her with our flight itinerary and our passports and that’s when we knew something was wrong. She looked at our passports and said you won’t be able to get them back today. They need to put the visa into our passports and they won’t have time today. We offered to wait all day if needed to get them, but to no avail. She said that we needed to get a prepaid postal envelope and they would mail the passports back to us sometime next week, when they had time to affix the Visa to our passports. She told us that Tuesday next week is a Spanish holiday and the consulate is closed. Not what we wanted to hear, but at least it was a step forward towards our goal of getting the Visas.  So we headed off to find a post office in order to get a prepaid Xpresspost envelope that they wanted. Of course the consulate is only open until 12:30 and time was quickly going by….  we found a post office nearby and bought a prepaid Xpresspost envelope (total cost about $13.00). We returned to the consulate and took another number and waited for our turn. We noticed the staff member was out in the waiting area and we were able to speak to her.  We provided her with the Xpresspost envelope and she reviewed it and all was good.  Of course we had to ask….. (because you just never know)  did we need two envelopes? one for each  passport?  She looked at us, smiled and said no one will do.

We left the consulate shortly before noon upset, frustrated and not completely surprised. We knew there would be setbacks and bureaucracy, throughout the process. Today we thought we were at end of the process for the Visas. On the up side we are approved and the Visas should be “in the mail” next week.

We left downtown Toronto in heavy traffic and drove home. It was a long day with lots of emotions, but the good news is that the Visas will eventually arrive.