March 2010 – I discovered the University of Oklahoma has a study abroad exchange program with the University of Iceland. I filled out an application to study abroad in the Spring of 2011 with the help of my advisor, Kristian Savic. I also sign a lease for the 2010-2011 school year but only from August 15th to December 15th because of my plan to study abroad.
I mean how hard could it be, right?
August 2010 – I moved in to my apartment with roommates Colin Chisholm, Adam Love, and Sean McGee. I paid a visit to Kristian who I visited multiple times towards the end of my freshman year to ask him numerous details and to try to make sure the study abroad process would all work out somehow. He told me that the official deadline is not until September 1st, so even though we filled out the application very early, we still would have to wait until we get the official acceptance letter from the University of Iceland.
September 2010 – School is going as planned. Classes are slowly getting tougher but nothing too serious yet. I visit Kristian again asking him when we will hear from Iceland. He emails some faculty at the University of Iceland and determines that although the official application deadline is September 1st, the applications must be reviewed and decisions are not made until October 1st. Kristian also lets me know as soon as I am accepted I will need to apply for a Student Permit which deadline is November 15th.
October 2010 – Midway through October, no news from Iceland. I check the mail everyday expecting a packet from Iceland only to be disappointed. Late one night I get an email from the University of Oklahoma’s study abroad system telling me I have been approved and endorsed to study abroad next semester. I got overly excited and emailed Kristian to find out what that meant. He said your application went through on our university’s side but we still have to wait for Iceland’s side. Another week passes, nothing. I send an email to a faculty member at the University of Iceland asking if the acceptance letters normally take this long. She tells me that it takes about a week or two to review all the applications then up to two weeks to ship to the American addresses. A couple days before the end of October, I find the awaiting package in my mailbox. I rip it open and see what I have been waiting for since March: the acceptance letter from the University of Iceland. Hoorah! Along with the letter there are two booklets. One’s title is Guide for International Students and the other’s is How to Apply for a Student Permit in Iceland.
November 2010 – A week into November, I decided to get rolling on the student permit application since it is due in a week. I opened the booklet and proceed to read into the details. These are the key points I picked up on:
Spring semester – Application and all supporting documents must have been received by the Directorate of Immigration no later than 15 November each year.
An application for a student permit shall have been approved BEFORE the applicant arrives in the country. This means that if an applicant is in Iceland before the visa has been issued, he must, without exception, leave the country while the application is being processed.
The following documentation must be submitted with the application:
- A completed application form for a residence permit signed by the applicant
- One passport-size photo
- A photocopy of the applicant’s passport
- Criminal record check
- Medical insurance
- Financial support
- Housing certificate
- School confirmation
- Processing Fee
This was no ordinary permit application. This was a beast from hell.
Friday, November 12th comes around and I have everything except the processing fee which I had to deposit to a Bank in Iceland. I needed to make a bank transfer from my bank to the one Iceland and include the receipt in my application. I also needed to put an insurance deposit on my student housing in Iceland to reserve it for me which was also due the 15th. I go to my bank explaining the transfers and that the deposits need to be in Icelandic Kronurs, (ISK) their form of currency. The banker proceeds to make the transfers as normal except when she discovers the ISK is not a supported currency in their system. She apologizes but does not know what to do. I could only think that these deposits had to be made today and now because I had to go out of town for an Ultimate Frisbee tournament in an hour and I was skipping class to go to the bank. Luckily, I had the OU Study Abroad office phone number in my cell phone so I called and asked for Kristian. I explained the situation and he quickly informed me of the website xe.com that provides up to the minute monetary conversions. I told him the figures in ISK and he relayed me the amounts in USD. I made the bank transfers and jumped in a car to Missouri.
After I finally got back from the tournament, it was November 15th. I get an email from Kristian saying that the Criminal Record Check I needed for my application had to be issued by the Federal government due to a change in policy for this semester. So basically, the ones I had before by the local police department and the Texas Government were void. I went to the website to find out how to apply for the FBI Criminal Record Check. I found out I had to get a fingerprint scan and after I mailed in the application, the process could take up to 12 weeks. 12 weeks from November 15th is February 7th. Classes began in Iceland on January 10th and there was a mandatory meeting on January 5th.
Panic ensued.
I scrambled to get a fingerprint scan and mailed the application for the FBI Criminal Record Check on November 16th. I asked the police officer if he knew about how long the FBI Criminal Record Checks actually take. He said he got his in about a month. This was encouraging since a month would only be December 16th and I could still plan on going legally. A week later I called customer service to check on the status of the record check. A very irate lady explained to me that it is a 12 week process, they get hundreds of applications a day, and no, I could not do anything to expedite to process. I called the next day asking the same question. The man who answered seemed like an optimist and told me if you don’t have it in 6 weeks, call us. I called the next day and got another annoyed female and another different answer that some have been arriving in 8-10 weeks, but it is a 12 week process.
Uh, what the hell?
December 2010 – the first day of the month I get an email from the Directorate of Immigration in Iceland that said as follows:
In order for the Directorate to process this application further, the following documentation must be submitted:
Criminal Record Certificate. The certificate must be issued by the country/countries where the applicant has resided for the past five years. Criminal Record Check must be dated no earlier than 6 months prior to being submitted to the Directorate. Please note that individuals, who have resided in the U.S.A. during the past five years, intending to apply for a residence permit in Iceland, must submit a Criminal Record Check issued by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. According to the above the criminal record background check that was submitted with the application is not sufficient since it is not from the FBI.
Panic ensued.
I emailed the sender of this email begging for an extension while trying to explain that their whole system was flawed and 12 weeks from the time I received my acceptance letter is passed when classes start in Iceland and I needed a temporary residence permit in order to wait for the FBI record check while in Iceland.
She responded with an email granting me a deadline extension to February 1st, but no the Directorate of Immigration could not give me a temporary residence permit.
Finals come and go. I moved out all my belongings from my apartment (my lease ended) and drove home not knowing where I would be living in a month, whether it would be in Iceland or in a van if I had to go back to OU in the spring.
The end of December, I emailed the same lady who granted me the extension deadline to remind her that I was still waiting on the FBI record check. She responded that she would hold my application until January 15th. If I still didn’t have it by then, let her know. What that meant, I had no idea.
January 2010 – January 1st was spent in Pasadena, California watching my brother march with his high school in the Rose Bowl Parade. My flight was scheduled for January 3rd, and I still didn’t have my FBI record check. The last time I called to check the status of my FBI record check was around December 28th. They said it still wasn’t ready. I canceled the flight and missed the mandatory meeting. I got home January 4th from California. That afternoon my dad throws me my mail. There is an envelope from the address that I sent the FBI record check application to. I open it up and there it is. The date of completion said mid December on it. It took two weeks to ship I guess. A miracle regardless. I rushed to the post office and mailed it USPS with a delivery date of 3-6 days for $30. For some reason I did not choose the 1-3 day option for $50 I don’t know why. $50 to mail something just seemed ridiculous at the time. Six days pass and no email from Iceland. I am spamming their inbox with emails asking them if they have it but I am not receiving any response which is very unusual.
Tuesday, January 11th – I’m already missing class. I decide that I’m going January 14th even if I don’t have the record check. If I don’t have it by then I’ll just email them and let them know. But with or without the record check I’m going anyway. I look at flights for Thursday, January 14th and find a flight from DFW to Boston then Boston to Iceland. I try to book the flights on Priceline. It says the flight(s) are full, please choose another set. I do. It says the flights are full again. I choose available seats and everything and yet it still tells me the flights are booked. I go to Expedia. Same thing. I go to Bestfares.com. They don’t even have flights listed for that day for some reason. Travelocity. Same thing.
I quote my dad, “Man, someone don’t want you to go.”
I accept the fact that flights are unavailable for whatever reason on Thursday so I will have to settle for flights leaving Friday, January 14th which puts my arrival on Saturday. I said screw all the dumb flight navigator websites, I’m doing this myself. I book the flights as follows: 8:40 a.m. DFW to Charlottle, North Carolina, 1:45 Charlottle to BOSTON, 8:35 p.m. Boston to Iceland. Time of arrival in Iceland: 6:40 a.m.
Every night from then on was like Christmas but instead of losing sleep over getting presents in the morning I was losing sleep over if I would get any present at all. It was all or nothing when I woke up. There would either be that stupid email I’ve been waiting for since mid November or there would be nothing and I’d be forced to wait another day.
Wednesday, January 12th – I wake up to news.
A huge snowstorm just hit the Northeast, canceling flights.
An email from Iceland saying they don’t have my record check yet.
Panic ensued.
I check the Boston Logan Airport website. A travel advisory is put on all flights in and out of Boston from Wednesday, January 12th at noon to Thursday, January 13th at midnight. Good thing I didn’t book my flights on Thursday after all, I guess.
Thursday, January 13th – My last day in America. Hopefully. I wake up to an email.
They got my record check and I have been approved to enter the country.
Everything is normal again.
Clutch.
Friday, January 14th – I have not flown in a plane since middle school so I was pretty nervous that something was going to go wrong like most of this whole studying abroad process already whether it be in security, the weight of my suitcase, or the worst case scenario of a delayed flight causing me to miss my Iceland flight. But security went by easy as pie. I actually didn’t get patted down once. I leave DFW. I get to Charlottle. I leave Charlottle. I get to Boston. For some reason there are not any people checking bags for Iceland Air. There are signs that direct me to the line for Iceland Air but there is no employee at the weighing station. I wait about 30 minutes. She finally shows up. I check my suitcase. I go towards international security. I hand a man in uniform my passport. He takes it very slowly stares at me while flipping through it making conversation. He looks down at it and back up at me as if in slow motion. He hands it back and says “Full….metal…jacket…” I’ve never heard a “have a nice day” sound so dead and void of expression. I get through security and realize I can finally chill out for a couple hours til my flight. I grab some lasagna from Sbarro’s and call my dad. I also facebook chatted Kevin Parsons for about 5 minutes. When my flight finally got called for boarding I walked through the door, down a escalator and took a couple turns surprisingly until I finally entered the plane only to be greeted by two Icelandic women flight attendants in navy blue tailored outfits and hats. There were covers on every seat I passed with different Icelandic words and sayings. Passenger announcements are being recited over the airplane speakers in full Icelandic. I take my seat still shaking from the surreal nature of it all. Colin calls me. I tell him I’m about to do it. He says, man you’re really about to do it. I have a window seat. A lady says hello and sits next to me. She asks me why I’m going. I tell her. She tells me how much of an experience it will be. She is from Sweden. She tells me a story of how she met her best friend through a study abroad program at her university. The next year she ended up studying at her friend’s university. She said to this day they still talk Swedish to each other. Her best friend proceeded to take the aisle seat next to her on the same row. She introduced me. Announcements came on over the plane speakers in Icelandic again. I did not understand a thing. They came on in English. We were ready for departure.
Seeing Boston from above lit up was beautiful. Being half asleep and waking up to a window full of black ocean and icebergs is bloody terrifying.
We land. It is surreal. I get off the plane and take a bus to baggage claim. I get off the bus praying that my luggage did not get lost. It did not. I follow the green arrow saying I have no foreign goods to claim. As I walk more men in uniform watch me as I pass. A lady directs us to a passport check-in booth if we are staying in Iceland. I prepare all my documents proving I have a right to stay here legally. This moment approaching had caused me so much grief over the past two months. I approach the booth of two men. Not being prompted to do anything, I handed the man my passport. He asks with a smile on his face, “How long you here for?” I respond, “Uh, well I’m studying abroad so a semester.” He flips to the first page of my passport, stamps it and hands it back. I look at the stamp and all it says is the date with no indication of my length of stay. I walk down a corridor and that’s it.
I’m in Iceland.
I didn’t know whether to go crazy that it was so easy or to just be happy that I finally arrived.
And that’s my story.
But it’s only just begun…
