First Post: Passport Panic!

In my experience of trying to initiate and maintain a blog (with my first, failed attempt being found here: perfectlypeachy.blogpot.com), the first post is the most difficult. I’ve spent too much trying to come up with something profound to say, getting my thoughts on paper, and then deleting and starting over again, and again. Alas, I have nothing profound to say, which is likely partially explained by the state of “brain-dead” that typically accompanies the last few weeks of the semester.

I’m scheduled to leave for Delhi a week from yesterday (see details in the "About" page), and until a few days ago, I had a surprising sense of calmness about the trip. I’ve gathered most of the clothes and belongings (my suitcase has been nearly packed for about a month—neurotic over-preparedness, I know), and I have looked over my packing list too many times. I was actually concerned about how relaxed I was feeling. This NEVER happens; surely, I had to be missing something…I had, and it happened to be something rather significant.

While procrastinating from my final papers and projects on Friday evening, I decided to browse the U.S. Bureau of Consular Affairs website, just for fun. I started to panic when I read that, "All U.S. citizens need a valid passport and valid Indian visa to enter and exit India for any purpose." and "U.S. citizens wishing to visit India are responsible for requesting the correct type of visa from the Indian Embassy or Consulate." ummm, what? I’ve traveled abroad plenty of times for periods up to three months at a time, and I have never been required to have a visa. I frantically searched the web, hoping I just misunderstood what I had read. However, there was a lot of clarity in the consular’s statement that, “If you don’t have a valid visa you may be immediately deported.”…to me, that sounds like serious business. I quickly sent an email to Kim, a friend who is living in Delhi and has been my main go-to person in planning my trip, hoping she could point me in the right direction. I went to bed that night seriously hoping that my panic was unwarranted, and that I’d wake up to an email from Kim telling me that I was catastrophizing the whole thing—I’m an independent and educated lady with a decent amount of experience traveling abroad, surely I couldn’t have missed something so important, right?

Wrong. Kim let me know that I do, in fact, need a tourist visa to get into India, but said that if I take care of it ASAP, I might actually get it in time. Unfortunately, the Indian consulate office often requires that you make a reservation at the nearest Indian consulate—which happens to be in Chicago. The website wasn’t much help and is quite confusing, and because it was the weekend, I have to wait until Monday to reach them by phone. I had planned all along to drive to Chicago on Thursday night after I finished up the last of my school and work responsibilities, spend Friday at my parents’ home near Chicago making last-minute preparations, and leave from O’hare on Saturday. Since I can’t get to Chicago earlier this week, I currently have an appointment at the Indian consulate on Friday and, assuming I don’t have any problems in getting my visa approved (although, I’ve learned that I too often assume wrong :/), I’ll get it by the end of the day on Friday, and still be able to leave Saturday. Talk about procrastination!

I’ve been encouraged by other Indian travelers to find “humor in the chaos,” so I suppose this is the first test of my ability to do so. I keep telling myself that even though the inconvenience of trying to obtain a visa within days of when I’m scheduled to leave is seriously not cool, its much better that I found this out now, and not when I arrive in India and am subsequently deported.

Just for fun, I gasped when I pulled out my travel documents and took a look at my most recent (and extremely unflattering!) passport picture from when I was 17. Oh my, I do not miss those painfully awkward adolescent years. I cannot wait until 2015 when I can have it renewed and have a hopefully, less embarrassing, picture taken.

Then, while completing the online visa application, I was required to submit a recent, passport-sized. When I looked through my photos searching for an acceptable picture, I considered sending in this one…

Obviously not a recent photo, but certainly one of my favorites (it was taken my senior year of college when I let my friend, Steph, cut my bangs). I was hoping the Indian consulate would have a sense of humor and pity, and approve my visa application. This is not the picture I sent in, btw.

Anyway, my fingers are crossed that, the next time I update, I will have a visa in my hands and will be on my way to India! Thanks for reading!