Visa Issues Part I

Something that I had not fully appreciated when I first decided to do study abroad was the amount of paperwork you've got to get done in order to get a visa to stay in a foreign country for a year. I just recently resolved a bit of the stress associated with this process so this seems an ideal time to document it. Check it out:

In order to get a visa to stay in Argentina as a student for longer than six months, I need to get an FBI background check, in addition to paying the $130 that everyone has to pay just because we're Americans. This $130 is apparently payback for The United States imposing a similar fee on everyone who wants to stay in the U.S. They're not subtle about this--they suggest that this is the reason for the fee on the website. Oh well.

As for the FBI background check, this requires me getting fingerprints from my local police department so that I can send these to the FBI and they can make sure that they didn't already have these fingerprints on their record. They don't. But just to find out I have to pay the FBI another $18. Getting the fingerprints involved considerable hassle as I had to come in a couple of different times due to my misunderstanding where they needed to be sent and because the place is only open to do fingerprints on Mondays and Wednesday from 4:30 to 5:45.

After I get these back--presumably to insure that I didn't somehow forge the FBI documents--I need to get a secretary of state (of Ohio, not Clinton) to stamp said document with what's called an Apostille, basically a step up from a notarization in official status. It certifies documents for the purpose of foreign governments. All this to prove that I'm not a criminal in the U.S. although apparently they would have been fine with my being a criminal if I were to be staying in the country for less than six months. Bureaucracy.

All this is just a prelude to what I'll have to do once I actually get to Argentina in between my traveler's visa expiring and my getting a year-long student visa. Fortunately I will have staff from the Butler Institute for Study Abroad helping me out with that.

The fingerprints have been sent and are currently being processed by the FBI (or I sincerely hope that they are). I had to request to get them expedited so that they could come in time for me to get the apostille and bring them with me to Argentina. Updates on that to come.

First Post

My name is Stephen Cabrera and I'm a third year undergraduate student at Case Western Reserve University. In a little over a month, I'll be leaving my hometown in Cleveland, Ohio to study abroad in Buenos Aires for a year, in what will be the longest time I've ever been away from Cleveland. My aim with this blog is to archive some of my experiences while in Argentina, note my observations about the country and allow my friends and family to read about what I'm up to without my having to write people specifically on a regular basis.

In light of this blog's purpose, this post and the ones that follow are a little premature, but I want to get in the habit of writing everyday before I leave, so in this month before I leave I'm going to try to write as much as I can (both here and elsewhere) about the place I'm leaving. This includes Shaker Heights, where I live, and various other places in the greater Cleveland area where I go to school and spend much of my time.

Also, in case you were wondering, the name of the blog comes from informal names given to Americans (gringos) and Guatemalans (chapines) respectively. As my background is half of each I thought that it served as an appropriate moniker for me and that "in Argentina" summed up the aim of the blog in chronicling my journey.