Bureaucracy knows no borders

Argh!

We have to get work visas in order for all of this to happen. Apparently, to prove that we are real people, we are required to physically go to the consulate to get the visas. I suppose this is OK, and it gives us an excuse to get out of town for a mini-vacation. There are consulates in a select few cities, the nearest of which is San Francisco. But there is also one in Chicago, which is close to my family. The problem is, we aren't sure if Chicago will process our visas because we live out of their midwest jurisdiction.

This should be an easy enough problem to solve. I call up Chicago. Get an recorded message. "If you know your party's extension, please dial it now. Otherwise, please dial 0." I dial zero. "Exiting the system. Goodbye!"

OK, maybe San Francisco can tell me what I need to know. However, my Spanish is not all that great (¿Donde es el baño?). Unfortunately, the recorded message is only in Spanish. At the end, a recorded voice, in English: "The mailbox is full. Please try again later. Goodbye."

Maybe e-mail will work...

-sean