Socks

As many of you know, my wife is from Mexico, and we live together here in Toronto. Her family lives in Mexico City, and we have a trip planned for a month, leaving the day after my birthday on Dec 10th.

I found a crazy deal on tickets some months back, and after 2 solid days on the phone, plus a follow up call a week later, we got it booked.. (delta...) I must have talked to 15 different agents trying to get 2 tickets booked, and then they didn't even book them.. I realized a week later, and luckily found someone there nice enough to admit their mistake and honor the original price.

Anyways..

Because my wife is not a citizen of Canada yet and is a "landed immigrant" (able to live and work here indefinitely) she still only has a Mexican passport. This means we have to jump through a bunch of hoops to enter the US. Here's what I had to do:

- Pay $10 to get an appointment with a US customs/border worker for an interview
- After you pay, there is no queue. The Toronto office works on a 6 week schedule, so you have to be doing this and have your trip booked a solid 2 to 2.5 months in advance. Once you pay, you get access to a website with a calendar, and a couple times a day at random intervals they release appointments for the final day of the 6 weeks (as they're always fully booked). This means you need to sit and refresh that fucking calendar every 10 minutes all day long in the hopes you get it in time. There are probably hundreds of other people doing the same thing.
- I was hardcore, and made sure we got it first day. My trip was leaving the 10th of Dec, and the first booking date was Dec 3rd... Plus it takes a few days for them to mail it, so it was verrrry close. We got an appointment though, success.
- Go to a Scotia Bank and pay another $131 USD in advance of the interview for a travel Visa
- Fill out a couple different forms, basic stuff, where you've worked, every school you've attended, bunch of standard questions.
- Go to to the interview, can't bring anything or anyone. Not even your baby!

Oh, and I had to call a 1-900 number once to ask a question I wasn't sure about, at $1.89 a minute...

Fuckin nuts... And this is all to land in a frickin shitty airport where they almost always lose my luggage.. endrant