bureaucracy sucks. I blame paul.

miyuki got her visa. yay! it took over four hours. there was maybe ten minutes of actual work involved.

appointment was at 10. we got there a bit early. I didn't get breakfast. this was a mistake.

at 10:30, they finally call her up. she gives them her paperwork, they get all that sorted out. a quick trip down the hall to the cashier, return with the receipt. then back to her seat. total time, about three minutes.

11:15, they call her up for her electronic fingerprinting. this took thirty seconds.

a little after noon, we get called up for the "interview"... answer a few questions, she signs her life away, and we're told to return at 2pm to pick up the visa.

we went and got some lunch at a japanese place. she got really good katsu, I had marginal at best sushi. we wandered around a bit more, she cashed her paycheque, we got some gelato (mango gelato is the greatest invention EVER).

get back to the consulate about 2:10. my logic was they told us "after 2" and they'd been horrendously late on everything, so why bother showing up at 2 on the dot? I'm not allowed in the consulate this time (some treatment of its own citizens, eh?), so I wait out front reading my book. she comes down at 2:30 with passport in hand. the visa is not what I expected...

they actually fed one of the passport pages into a machine. it scored the outer edge with an intricate border, and it's printed and embossed directly onto the page. several colours and patterns and shit. it looks quite cool.

it's now official that she'll be moving to the states next month. woot.