Suerte con ella!

Here we are in Managua on Tuesday at 9am after Elder's successful visa interview at the U.S. Embassy. Happy, happy, happy!! Felices como dos tortolitos.

We had to leave Leon around 5am to make it to Managua before his 7am appointment. We arrived just on time (phew! I was getting nervous) to drop him off at the embassy. A few days ahead of time, we worked on fulfilling various bureaucratic requirements for the interview, including:

• Pay $141 fee in Bancentro Bank (you don't get this money back if the visa is denied!), upon which you receive a PIN to allow you to make a phone call the next day to get your appointment time. We were surprised - and a little nervous - to get the appointment so soon - only 4 days after he called!
• Get passport photos taken, digital and hard copy
  
• Fill out long online form which you have to continuously save to your computer because it keeps kicking you out and erasing your work every few minutes!
  
• Gather evidence of "ties to Nicaragua" to prove that you won't arrive in the US and stay on illegally to work.

This last piece is the key, and is the reason it is so difficult for Nicaraguans to get tourist visas. The vast majority of applications get denied. Nicaragua is a poor country where good employment opportunities are few and far between, so the possibility of a better life - or at least more opportunities - in the US is very compelling. Thus the US Embassy here receives lots of visa applications. To prove your ties to Nicaragua, they will often ask to see proof of regular employment with a good salary, savings in a bank account, and ownership of any assets you have.

We gathered all those things, but there was no guarantee that the visa would be issued. We were particularly uncertain because Elder's current work is as an independent consultant, so he isn't on a regular payroll which we worried could be a mark against him. However, in his favor was the fact that he had a tourist visa last year, and he made several trips to the U.S. during that time, always returning to Nicaragua. In the end, I think that is what got him the visa this time. And last time the main reason he got the visa was probably because he was working for the Millennium Challenge Corporation - a US government initiative (and also because it was our destiny to be together, of course).

Here's how it went down:

He waited for about an hour in the waiting room. Then a little after 8am, he was called to line up. I had been picturing him invited into an office where he would sit down across the desk from a consular officer and have an actual interview. Perhaps even be offered a spot of tea and a little friendly chit-chat before getting down to business (okay, I didn't really picture that part).

But it's not quite that civilized. They line everyone up together and speak to you through a bullet-proof window with a small opening to pass your documents through - no physical contact allowed. As you wait in line, you can hear the other people's interviews through the speakers and watch as everyone else gets their applications denied before it's your turn at the window. The interview itself lasts a few minutes if that, and they decide right then and there - approved or denied!

When Elder got to the window, a young, blond, blue-eyed fellow greeted him with gringo-accented Spanish and asked the following questions:

• What are you going to the US for? (Tourism)
• What do you do for a living? (Software development)
• When was the last time you went to the US and for how long? (November, 9 days)
  
• Have you had a US tourist visa before? (Yes)
  
• Who are you visiting? (A friend)
  
• Where did you meet her? (When I worked for Save the Children USA, she spent a summer there as an intern). He was referring to his friend Anita, not me. We heard that it's best not to mention an American girlfriend/fiance because that information could actually be a mark against him, showing potential incentive to stay in the US beyond what the tourist visa allows.
• Are you married? (No)
• Is the person you are visiting single? (Yes) The officer chuckled.
  

With that, the officer said, "Okay, your visa has been approved for two years."

Then he added with a twinkle in his eye, "Suerte con ella." (Good luck with her.)

He clearly thought that the "amiga" Elder mentioned was really a love interest that he was going to visit in the US. Well, he wasn't too far off. He must have recognized the face of a man in love and assumed that this amiga was the reason.

Though the object was misplaced, it was the perfect sentiment with which to send Elder off to the US.

¡Suerte con ella, Elder! ;-)