Azul y Vampy
08-20-2007, 05:13 PM
My husband FINALLY got his Mexican passport renewed, with an expiration date of 2012! :bounce:
So here’s what happened since our last attempt. We found out that the Mexican Consulate was having a “mobile consulate” near Chicago over the weekend. Their office hours would be from 9 am-3 pm. On Friday night (actually Saturday at 2:30 am) we were on our way to Hanover Park, IL (which according to Mapquest, it’s 87 miles from our home). We arrived there at 4 am, and there were already 2 huge lines, one for passports and the other for matricula consular. Gladly, the passport line was half the size of the matriculas, but was still long enough to make us doubt whether we’d be one of the lucky ones. Around 6 am, a guy came out and started handing out numbers. They only gave 150 numbers for passport, we were probably #170, so needless to say, we didn’t make it. :cry: We sat on the car for almost an hour trying to decide what to do. We leave to MX in 3 weeks, we couldn’t make an appointment to go to the consulate in Chicago, the next mobile consulate would be in Indiana, and it was one of my godson’s birthday party. So we had to make an executive decision, and decided to stay in the area, and try again for Sunday.
We drove around to find a hotel (we don’t know anyone in this area), the closest hotel we found was about 20 minutes from where the consulate was. We decided to sleep all day, and go back that same day and spend the night outside the building. However, I couldn’t get any sleep, so we left the hotel after only being there for 7 hrs. Remember that we had not planned to stay in IL beforehand, so we didn’t have a change of clothes, or blankets, hygiene products, umbrellas, nothing. We found a walmart on our way back to the consulate, we bought an umbrella, poncho, some travel-size personal products, and a sweatshirt for my husband, because he was only wearing a short-sleeve shirt. We went to have dinner, and then back to the mobile consulate. We got there at 6:30 pm, and we were the only ones there :go: It had been raining all day, so it was kind of windy out, so we stayed in the car. Around 7 pm, another car showed up, so then my husband came out and talked to him for a couple of minutes. He was there for a matricula, so we kind of became friends, and decided to help each other out. We both took out our chairs (thankfully, my husband plays soccer, so we always carry in our car two of those folding-in-a-bag chairs) and set them up at the front door of the place, and went back to our cars. Around 8 pm, more people started showing up, and my husband and our new friend decided it was time to go sit out in the cold. After taking a quick trip to a starbucks, I left our car and joined them out in the cold. We were the first ones in line. After I finished my venti vanilla crème, I started to get cold, and started shivering. Our new friend lived about 10 minutes away, and offered to get me a blanket, if we saved his spot. I said “por supuesto” After almost an hour, he came back with a clean, just out of the dryer “covertor” (one of those really warm, heavy blankets used in MX). Everything was nice and dandy, people kept showing up, everyone took turns to get more coffee and snacks… until 1:30 am, when it started to rain. It only rained for about 15 minutes, but a lot of people were unprepared. Everyone bunched up together with people with umbrellas, ran to their cars, or sought shelter under nearby structures. After the rain stopped, everyone went back to their places. Before this had happened, a really nice guy with the consulate was checking everyone’s papers to make sure they meet the requirements, and if not, so that they could get any missing documentation. Around 2 am, he came back and started handing out the numbers. We got #1! He said that everyone with a number didn’t have to stay in line, but to make sure we were back in the same order by 6 am. So most of us left, and we went back to our car to get some sleep, which was a good thing because it started to rain again. My husband went back there at 6 am sharp, and they were allowing everyone with a number inside the building, it was still raining. But they didn’t start processing passport until around 8:45 am. My husband was the first one processed, and was out with his renewed passport by 9:30 am! He was so excited, he said “this was a really good experience to get us prepared for CDJ, if we can do this, CDJ should be a piece of cake” I just smiled, and thought “we’ll see”.
Anyway, I know this is a really long story, but I’m just so excited to know that our screwed-up weekend was worth after all.
-Azul :rockon:
So here’s what happened since our last attempt. We found out that the Mexican Consulate was having a “mobile consulate” near Chicago over the weekend. Their office hours would be from 9 am-3 pm. On Friday night (actually Saturday at 2:30 am) we were on our way to Hanover Park, IL (which according to Mapquest, it’s 87 miles from our home). We arrived there at 4 am, and there were already 2 huge lines, one for passports and the other for matricula consular. Gladly, the passport line was half the size of the matriculas, but was still long enough to make us doubt whether we’d be one of the lucky ones. Around 6 am, a guy came out and started handing out numbers. They only gave 150 numbers for passport, we were probably #170, so needless to say, we didn’t make it. :cry: We sat on the car for almost an hour trying to decide what to do. We leave to MX in 3 weeks, we couldn’t make an appointment to go to the consulate in Chicago, the next mobile consulate would be in Indiana, and it was one of my godson’s birthday party. So we had to make an executive decision, and decided to stay in the area, and try again for Sunday.
We drove around to find a hotel (we don’t know anyone in this area), the closest hotel we found was about 20 minutes from where the consulate was. We decided to sleep all day, and go back that same day and spend the night outside the building. However, I couldn’t get any sleep, so we left the hotel after only being there for 7 hrs. Remember that we had not planned to stay in IL beforehand, so we didn’t have a change of clothes, or blankets, hygiene products, umbrellas, nothing. We found a walmart on our way back to the consulate, we bought an umbrella, poncho, some travel-size personal products, and a sweatshirt for my husband, because he was only wearing a short-sleeve shirt. We went to have dinner, and then back to the mobile consulate. We got there at 6:30 pm, and we were the only ones there :go: It had been raining all day, so it was kind of windy out, so we stayed in the car. Around 7 pm, another car showed up, so then my husband came out and talked to him for a couple of minutes. He was there for a matricula, so we kind of became friends, and decided to help each other out. We both took out our chairs (thankfully, my husband plays soccer, so we always carry in our car two of those folding-in-a-bag chairs) and set them up at the front door of the place, and went back to our cars. Around 8 pm, more people started showing up, and my husband and our new friend decided it was time to go sit out in the cold. After taking a quick trip to a starbucks, I left our car and joined them out in the cold. We were the first ones in line. After I finished my venti vanilla crème, I started to get cold, and started shivering. Our new friend lived about 10 minutes away, and offered to get me a blanket, if we saved his spot. I said “por supuesto” After almost an hour, he came back with a clean, just out of the dryer “covertor” (one of those really warm, heavy blankets used in MX). Everything was nice and dandy, people kept showing up, everyone took turns to get more coffee and snacks… until 1:30 am, when it started to rain. It only rained for about 15 minutes, but a lot of people were unprepared. Everyone bunched up together with people with umbrellas, ran to their cars, or sought shelter under nearby structures. After the rain stopped, everyone went back to their places. Before this had happened, a really nice guy with the consulate was checking everyone’s papers to make sure they meet the requirements, and if not, so that they could get any missing documentation. Around 2 am, he came back and started handing out the numbers. We got #1! He said that everyone with a number didn’t have to stay in line, but to make sure we were back in the same order by 6 am. So most of us left, and we went back to our car to get some sleep, which was a good thing because it started to rain again. My husband went back there at 6 am sharp, and they were allowing everyone with a number inside the building, it was still raining. But they didn’t start processing passport until around 8:45 am. My husband was the first one processed, and was out with his renewed passport by 9:30 am! He was so excited, he said “this was a really good experience to get us prepared for CDJ, if we can do this, CDJ should be a piece of cake” I just smiled, and thought “we’ll see”.
Anyway, I know this is a really long story, but I’m just so excited to know that our screwed-up weekend was worth after all.
-Azul :rockon: