Ben's Journey to becoming a legal resident

In December I finally got word that my new visa was approved and ready to be picked up in San Francisco. Just in time too, my travel visa would be up in a few days. So I got online and as I was looking at flights I realized that if I waited a few days to leave the price of the ticket would drop by eight hundred euros. So I booked the later ticket ecstatic about the great deal. However I did not realize that I had actually booked the ticket for 3 days after my travel visa expired and I would become an illegal immigrant. 

The day after returning from Granada I arrived at the airport, checked in, and then attempted to pass though passport control. The officer checked my passport and then started flipping through it examining each page. After about a minute he looks up at me and says, “Illegal. No Visa.” At this point I realize my booking mistake and tell the man that I have been issued a visa and I just need to go and pick it up. He looks me up and down and then flips through my passport again and says, “No. No Visa.” He then hands the passport to a guard and I was ushered into a separate enclosed area where I sat for several minutes. Eventually another guard came in and started to talk to me in a long string of Spanish gibberish that lasted for several minutes.  He then stopped and looked at me obviously expecting an answer. I was more than happy to provide him with one, “No hablo español.” Mr Spanish Passport Control Officer then repeated himself in Spanish nice and slow for me enunciating each Spanish word. I again responded very slowly also enunciating each word, “No hablo español.” The officer, visibly annoyed, left my enclosed area and I sat again for several minutes until an actual police man entered and showed me a badge and sat down. At this point I was more than a little annoyed and was beginning to wonder exactly how much trouble I was in. Thankfully the police officer spoke English and he explained that they have to interview anyone with an expired visa. He asked me a few questions and when I explained my situation he escorted me though all of the security checkpoints. He then pointed me in the direction of my gate and apologized for the interview and for making me wait for so long.

I had an extremely pleasant flight back to the States. The plane was only a quarter full and I got four seats to myself. I reclined across all four and watched movies for hours. While watching one of my movies I noticed some Spaniard business men playing chess on the screens in the headrests. There was an odd man out so I logged in and played with the extra man. On my ipod, I connected to the internet and found a chessmaster site. You can play against the computer on the site and supposedly some of world’s chessmasters have a hard time beating this site. So while watching my movies, I played the site and would then use the moves from the computer to play against the Spaniard. The first game ended very quickly and he challenged me to a rematch. In the middle of the second game I looked over and all three guys were crowded around the screen trying to help him beat me. A couple of them even got up and wandered around the plane trying to find out who was playing him. When one of them walked towards me I quickly switched the screen to black. After his defeat in the second game, he decided not to challenge “me” again.

I had a short layover in Philadelphia and then continued to San Francisco.

My grandparents picked me up at the airport in San Francisco and I spent several days hanging out with them. On Sunday we went to church and had a large family dinner with my aunts, uncles and many of my cousins. It was great to spend some time with family after so many months of geographic isolation. My visa appointment was scheduled for 1pm on Monday. On Monday morning my grandparents and I traveled into downtown San Francisco. We ate lunch at a great sports bar, walked through some shops, and then made our way to the Spanish Consulate. We arrived on time and as I was checking in with the gentleman at the front desk there seemed to be some confusion about the purpose of my visit. I was used to being misunderstood by every Spanish government employee I had met thus far so I disregarded the encounter and waited for my appointment. I was promptly ushered through some doors and eventually came face to face with a man behind a ticket booth type glass window. He asked who I was and why I was here. I mentioned my name and that I was here to pick up my visa. He looked up at me and said that he knew who I was and that I would be unable to pick up my visa. I started to get really mad really fast. So I tried to stay calm and ask why I can’t pick it up. He replies by saying that there is no such thing as picking up a visa. In order to get a visa you have to drop off your passport and then come back the next day and pick it back up with the visa in it. (I would just like to say that the visa is a sticker they stick on one of the pages of the passport) I told him that this was unacceptable and then he informed me that I may not even get a visa and that the final decision was not made until the passport was dropped off. (I had already overstayed my tourist visa so without a new visa I would be unable to enter Spain for the next three months) At this point I am furious and just begin to tell him that he is wrong. This proved ineffective so I resorted to shoving my paperwork through the little slit in the glass and asked him to just look at it. He conceded and after looking it over said oh I remember now I was hoping you would come in at 8am this morning when we opened. If you had come in at 8am this morning we may have been able to get you the visa today. But now it is too late in the day. At this point my frustration had reached its peak. I asked him dripping with sarcasm why he would give me an appointment at 1pm if he was hoping I would come in at 8am. He shrugged and then asked if I wanted to drop off my passport and come back some time tomorrow to see if it was finished or not. We argued for several more minutes and eventually he typed my name into the computer and realized that everything was in order and that I had some special exception that made it so I could in fact pick up my visa. Thirty or so minutes later my grandparents and I left the consulate, visa in hand.

San Francisco was bright and sunny so we headed down to fisherman’s wharf and bought some crab and some great French bread. Later that afternoon my college buddy Brett who was working in the area stopped by. He spent the night and on Tuesday afternoon I was headed back to the airport. Jet lag had finally caught up with me and I could barely keep my eyes open during the car ride. Once I boarded the plane I immediately fell asleep and didn’t wake up until the plane was landing in Philadelphia.

I arrived in Philadelphia at 6:30am and my flight to Madrid didn’t leave till 6:30pm. I had 12 hours to kill. I had never been to Philadelphia before so I decided to see the city. After questioning airport information I found a train headed from the airport into downtown. I was also informed that there was no luggage storage in the airport. So me and my suitcase boarded the train and headed downtown. The train dropped me of at 11^th street station across the street from Reading Terminal Market. I wandered around the indoor market for a good half hour and eventually decided to eat breakfast at one of the bakery venders. I had a huge cranberry walnut bagel served to me by a gangster baker by the name of Tayshawn who referred to me as white chocolate. After this interesting cultural experience I headed over to see Independence Hall, the Liberty Bell, Franklin Square, Benjamin Franklin’s grave, the U.S. Mint, Society Hill and Washington Square. I eventually wandered into China Town and got a little lost. I had lunch at Pat’s King of Steaks, the inventor of the Philly Cheese Steak sandwich. After lunch I took the bus up to the old Eastern State Penitentiary and looked around the prison. I didn’t feel like taking a tour of the prison so I headed over to the Philadelphia Museum of Art and spent some time walking down Benjamin Franklin Parkway past the Rodin Museum, the Franklin Institute, The Barnes Foundation, the Central Library, the Academy of Natural Sciences, and the Cathedral Basilica of St Peter and Paul. Unfortunately I did not have time to visit any of the museums. I was soon back on the train headed to the airport. I had an uneventful flight back to Madrid and arrived just in time to see Kristin leaving for work on Thursday morning. 

Overall I had a great trip and finally have my visa. Thank you so much Nanny and Grandpa for letting me stay with you, I had a great time.