Here We Go Again

Caution: Bumpy Road Ahead

On September 15, we received word from the Italian Consulate in Philadelphia that they were once again able to accept applications for the Elective Residency Visa, the essential first step on the road to residency in Italy. Now though, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, all required data would have to be sent by mail instead of presented in person. Actually Terry and I were pleased to learn this as it eliminated the need to fly to Philadelphia on a crowded plane, hire a dog sitter and spend a night in a hotel.

The welcome news prompted a flurry of preparation, mostly a repeat of what I had done when originally applying to the consulate in Miami, FL a year and a half ago. Moreover, I had begun to prepare last spring for an early summer application, never fulfilled due to Covid related consulate restrictions. But I still had to update financial information, and prepare for the new requirements we faced. We would need, for instance, a notary public to verify our signatures on the application since we could not sign in the presence of a consulate official as was normally done. We were most disconcerted, though, at having to send our actual drivers licenses in with the application. Formerly, that is, pre-covid, applicants presented their licenses to a consulate official during the application appointment to prove residency in the appropriate jurisdiction. Now, in lieu of a real license, we would be driving with a mere copy for as long as it takes the consulate to process our visas. May the saints, minor gods and all the furies spare us from traffic stops for the next several months. And, of course, our passports would be held too, leaving us without these two most precious documents.

After downloading and printing the most recent financial documentation, the next step was to get our International driving permits. Since, as I understood it, we would have to present our drivers licenses in order to get the permits, it needed to be done immediately, prior to our sending the drivers license off to the consulate. Thanks to the internet, I found an address in Hickory for AAA, the issuing entity for International permits, so off we went in the afternoon to take care of this relatively simply task.

Normally when visiting a new location we rely on guidance from our phone’s navigation system, but the AAA office was located on a major street in Hickory so easy enough to find, we thought. But when we started seeing street numbers in the 1800s it was clear we had driven well beyond the 300 block where the office was located. So, turning around, we headed back in the direction we came from, eventually arriving in the right area where we sighted a plaza of small businesses. We pulled in hoping to find the AAA office, and, yes there it was. But the sign over the door said, “AAA Blind Service,” offering window dressings, not International Driving Permits.

Ruing the wasted time and effort of our misadventure, we returned home and reviewed the information, now realizing that unless we were to drive to Charlotte, we would need to apply by mail. Thankfully, in that case only a copy of the drivers license was required, leaving our originals to be sent to the Italian consulate in Philadelphia. It seemed we had entered the world of “everything has to be done twice,” which we had experienced when applying for the ER visas the first time.

Although purchasing travel insurance was not necessary when we applied to the Italian Consulate in Florida, the office in Philadelphia did require it. So, repeating what I had done in preparation for the early summer foiled applications, I re-applied and bought the travel insurance that would cover expenses for hospitalization and, dismal thought, repatriation of our bodies should the Italian medical system fail us.

Next there would be a day of visiting various agencies beginning with the UPS office where we should find a notary to witness the signing of our applications. Unfortunately, we learned when we arrived that the notary who worked there was ill and unlikely to return to work in the next day or two. The next possibility was a local bank. Bank lobbies are not open these days so we swung into a drive through lane then were instructed to circle the building and pull up in the “slow” lane next to the window so that we could actually be seen signing the papers. When the notary eventually appeared she told us she could not serve us as something was missing; given the masks, the distance and the panes of glass between us and her, exactly what was missing was not clear, but the denial was.

Now it was late afternoon so we put off until the next day any further errands, in spite of being aware that tomorrow our area would be battered by heavy rain as the remnants of Hurricane Sally passed through. The next morning I located a UPS office where I could make an appointment and indicate whether we would need other staff to act as witnesses–perfect. Cautious after the denial of the day before, I checked the internet to see what additional papers might be needed, but found nothing conclusive. Not until we arrived at UPS did we learn that in North Carolina, the document verifing the notary’s name and bearing her/his stamp has to be provided by the applicant, and can only be secured from the Secretery of State’s office. However, the notary was well aware of the problem this posed for the uninformed and provided us with the papers even through, as she told us, she was not legally allowed to do so. Experience had taught her almost everyone would show up lacking those critical papers.

With that task completed, we headed for the post office to purchase money orders to pay the visa application costs along with the stamped, Express Mail envelopes that would be used to return our passports and, hopefully, drivers licenses. The envelopes would have to be self addressed, using our names and address as both recipient and sender as we had been instructed to do in our last visa go-around. The logic behind that is to ensure that, should there be a hitch in the delivery, the envelopes would be returned to us rather than to the sender, that is, the consulate in Philadelphia. Nevertheless, the PO employee serving us was skeptical to say the least and insisted we follow the usual method of addressing the envelope. Advice we ignored and, yes, I did verify that it was acceptable via the internet.

Glad to return home and be out of the rain, I left all remaining paperwork to be completed the next morning leaving us free to return to the post office in the early afternoon to mail our package. Instead of the two or three hours I had anticipated, it took the entire morning, culminating with a desparate search for the two stamps, $26.00 each, which were not inside the envelopes where I had placed them the day before. After multiple and futile checks inside the envelopes and through various papers, we decided perhaps the stamps had fallen out of the envelope into the trunk of the car. Not so….but miraculously, Terry spotted them lying on the sidewalk leading to our door–thoroughly soaked by the rain of the day before. After carefully peeling away the backing and applying a dab of stick glue, I pasted the stamps on the envelopes, packed the application notebook into a box and, finally, all was ready to be sent.

Of course, the very important package that it was deserved to be sent Priority Mail so that the consulate would receive it, we hoped, immediately following the upcoming weekend. That would be Monday at best, perhaps Tuesday by our calculations. Instead, daily checking of the tracking number told me that our package remained sluggishly in transit between Hickory NC and Philadelphia PA, spending what I thought was an inordinate amount of time in Greensboro, NC. Thinking of the news photos of stacks of boxes languishing in post offices due to a shortage of funds and new restrictions, it seemed nearly inevitable that this stage of the application process would be glitch-laden like so many other steps along the way. But, finally I received an email letting us know that our oh-so-important package had been delivered to the front desk of the reception area at the Italian consulate in Philadelphia at 2:45 p.m. Friday afternoon, a week after it had been sent. Relief and hallelujahs.

Italian consulates warn, with very good reason, that the Elective Residency visa is the most difficult visa to obtain. Those who apply have not been hired to work in Italy, are not enrolled in a school there, are not planning to reunite with family or serve as a missionary or diplomat– they simply want to live in Italy. To apply for the ER visa could be considered, not unreasonably, a form of building castles in the air. Still, dreamers that we are, we maintain hope that by the end of this year or the beginning of next we will be celebrating success and packing our bags to return to Anghiari.