Here's the crazy line up of how amazing it was to get Mohale's visa. Thank you for praying:
Before a visa could be processed, the consulate needed the Dr's medical report. Monday morning (yesterday) I called and they told me it would send at 11am. I called that afternoon and the consulate had not received it. When I called the dr office they were defensive and insisted it had sent at 11:00am. We called the consulate several more times Monday and were told the report was not yet there. They figured it must be held up in security. This morning (Tuesday) we were on the phone early only to be told the medical report had still not arrived so his visa could not be processed. Because our flight home is tomorrow and the airline requires any reschedule of flights to be within 24 hours, desperation mounted at the thought of an $11,000 mistake and concern over the costs of more hotels, airline tickets etc...not to mention how tired we are. We called the Consular we had met at the US Embassy in Lesotho last week. He said he'd contact the Johannesburg consulate. Two hours later we were again told they still did not have the medical report. Because we had only hours left to reschedule our flights, stress mounted. The cost of rescheduling 10 flights and finding another hotel with room for 10 etc this last minute knotted my insides-
We drove to the dr office. The office staff said a consulate employee had just left with the report (Meaning it was never sent!) (Perhaps the US Consular in Lesotho had called them!). The US Consulate in Johannesburg closes at 3:00 pm daily. David took Mohale and rushed to the US consulate arriving 2:55. They let him through security and took him back where the visa interview had taken place a few days ago. They told him they had sent someone to the Dr's office an hour earlier and gotten the report!! It never got sent!!! As David and Mohale shared Doritos and Diet Coke from a vending machine, the employees at the US Consulate in Johannesburg created Mohale's visa. After they had closed for the day, David was handed Mohale's new visa!!!!
We are coming home!!!
Before a visa could be processed, the consulate needed the Dr's medical report. Monday morning (yesterday) I called and they told me it would send at 11am. I called that afternoon and the consulate had not received it. When I called the dr office they were defensive and insisted it had sent at 11:00am. We called the consulate several more times Monday and were told the report was not yet there. They figured it must be held up in security. This morning (Tuesday) we were on the phone early only to be told the medical report had still not arrived so his visa could not be processed. Because our flight home is tomorrow and the airline requires any reschedule of flights to be within 24 hours, desperation mounted at the thought of an $11,000 mistake and concern over the costs of more hotels, airline tickets etc...not to mention how tired we are. We called the Consular we had met at the US Embassy in Lesotho last week. He said he'd contact the Johannesburg consulate. Two hours later we were again told they still did not have the medical report. Because we had only hours left to reschedule our flights, stress mounted. The cost of rescheduling 10 flights and finding another hotel with room for 10 etc this last minute knotted my insides-
We drove to the dr office. The office staff said a consulate employee had just left with the report (Meaning it was never sent!) (Perhaps the US Consular in Lesotho had called them!). The US Consulate in Johannesburg closes at 3:00 pm daily. David took Mohale and rushed to the US consulate arriving 2:55. They let him through security and took him back where the visa interview had taken place a few days ago. They told him they had sent someone to the Dr's office an hour earlier and gotten the report!! It never got sent!!! As David and Mohale shared Doritos and Diet Coke from a vending machine, the employees at the US Consulate in Johannesburg created Mohale's visa. After they had closed for the day, David was handed Mohale's new visa!!!!
We are coming home!!!
Our flight leaves tonight. Scheduled arrival is 1:00pm Thursday afternoon.
We will be home with Mohale for the holidays-
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