Ben has long held a special place in his heart for Arab refugees. When we heard that an acquaintance of his was teaching what is called the "Chaldean" refugee students in San Diego and requesting books for her classroom, It made sense to visit. In the "El Cajon" district we found Spanish and Arabic intermingled. It was one of Ben's dreams come true! And there were Arabic pastry shops:
The San Diego consulate refuses to give work visas without appointment and since every consulate is different and they don't always answer their phones, sometimes it's tricky to figure out where to go. The San Diego actually answered that we'd have two extra weeks of waiting for an appointment via a Tweet on Twitter. Since Calexico didn't need an appointment, that was where we went.
At the Calexico consulate we found out that immigration had sent Ben with one number different on the work visa code: a number which made the difference of six months! My visa was correct saying that I could work for a year but Ben will have to return to the States within 6 months to correct his. For a fee. After paying a fee for them messing it up; once to the Calexico consulate and once again at the border!
Speaking of which- we got to cross the border!!!
The consulate visit took a good four hours, so we were able to drive to San Felipe, Baja California.
Progress!
