Time for a Visa!

Getting a visa has been more difficult than I anticipated; I have a little more empathy for people who want to get American visas or become American citizens now! First of all, I had to get approved through campusfrance.org (www.usa.campusfrance.org). The web site was pretty confusing for me, but I was happy to discover that they don't actually care how detailed and specific you are on the form. I was a bit worried when I first started filling out all the different sections but I just tried to use common sense and it let me complete all the sections just fine!

One of the weird quirks about CampusFrance is that they don't take any sort of online payment. So, I sent them a money order, but I sent the first one for the wrong amount. So that was a bit of a hassle because they had to mail me back the original one and I had to send them a new one before they could process my application. But, it all worked out and I got approved through CampusFrance, so now I'm half-way to having an official long-stay visa!

Now all I have to do is go to the French consulate in Chicago and give them a mountain of paperwork and hopefully get approved for my actual visa!