Visa appointment

On Friday, I went to my visa appointment at the French consulate in San Francisco. I was a little early so I wandered around the surrounding area. The consulate is right next to the entrance to Chinatown, but I stepped into an American Apparel. There was a family shopping there and I got so excited to hear them speaking French to each other; it made me anxious to go to France.

The appointment went well. You have to have a receipt printed off the consulate website to be let in at your appointed time (a little early is okay). Then you go in and sit in a row of blue chairs and people get called up one at a time, and you all have to scoot up a seat like in an assembly line. The only thing I didn't have was the second page of the OFII form, the one with the list of all the branches in France, which wasn't necessary but apparently they usually take it.

Laundry list of tips:
Make a copy of everything!
If you bring a pre-paid self-addressed secure envelope write down the tracking number for yourself.
Despite what the American assistant's handbook says, they didn't need a utility bill as proof of residence.
They did take a copy of the CERFA form (the pink one), even though it doesn't say on the website.
They take your fingerprints so don't commit any crimes.
You get a receipt that you'll want to hold on to, especially if you come back in to pick up your passport and visa.

I should get my visa processed in 10 days, and Natasha got hers really quickly, so that's reassuring. The lady was nice and was happy to see I was flying through Ireland, since she was Irish. There were lots of other language assistants there doing the exact same thing as me!