Thursday December 20th

Close call

Yesterday I dropped off our visa applications at the US Embassy in Reykjavík. The place was pretty heavily guarded (policecar at the front of the dead-end street, metal detector and guards inside), but all went well. Then this morning at 10am (still in bed) we get a call from the Embassy saying that we need to come down there at 11am since there is some problem with Finnur’s application. Apparently he needs some special approval to be able to work. So we get out of bed double quick and drive all the way downtown and get there just in time. At 11:15am we get called to the window, and the guy informs us the J2 visa holders are not permitted to work in the US. This was news to us, so we told him that it was F2 visa holders that couldn’t work, but the J2’s could. We then showed him Finnur’s “Employment Authorization in the US” card from the INS, which he found very interesting. He doubled back to talk to his collegue, and after a little conference he came back saying that all was in order and that our visas would be ready after 2pm tomorrow! Isn’t it remarkable how Finnur always gets into bureocratic trouble?!?!? But all should be well now.

After that I went to the dentist, who scolded me for not using dental floss, then cleaned my teeth and sent me on my way. Now we’re at home in Mosfellsbær and it’s raining outside. Finnur has a cold and I’m about to load some pics up for the website. Hopefully that won’t take too long…