A Day in Sydney

I spent all day yesterday in Sydney. I got up at 4:30, left my house at 5:15, boarded a plane at 6 am, and landed in Sydney at 7:30 am. About 8:30 am I arrived at the MLC Centre on Martin's Place, where the US Consulate is located. I took two elevators to get to the 10th floor where the reception area is, then took another elevator to the 24th floor where the actual offices are. Following the tradition of all government offices, I waited about 2 hours to be seen for 10 minutes. A bit painful when you consider the amount of time and money it took to get me there. Oh well, it had to be done. The news I came away with was good and bad.



The MLC Centre, where the consulate is located


The good news first- I turned in all the paperwork for Jared's visa and they said it looked good. We had everything they needed and now we just have to go through the routine police check and medical exams- just like I did when we came here 2 years ago. Once we have the rest of the paperwork completed (which is yet to come, in the mail) and the results from the medical/police check, then we can contact them to schedule Jared's interview. Now, here is the good news. I do not have to be with Jared at that interview. This means that the kids and I can leave whenever we want! We feared that I would have to stay with Jared, possibly going to that final interview with him, in order for all this to be processed.

Now, the not so good news is that we have to apply for Ashley's US passport before we can go. We knew that we had to report her birth abroad. However, the information on the US Consulate website is a bit confusing - Children of US citizens born overseas with one parent being a non-US citizen, blah blah. She has an Australian passport, which she traveled on when we visited the US last year, so we thought she might be able to enter the US with this, then we could process the rest later. Not so. Anyway, so this is what makes the news bad... Ashley has to travel to Sydney in order to apply for the passport. OUCH. How many plane tickets to Sydney do we have to buy? Why on earth do they NOT have an office in Brisbane? Seriously.




Harbor Bridge, from The Rocks

That's ok. At least we have an idea of how long it will be. The website says Ashley's passport takes about 4 weeks to process. So we need to fly down to do that asap. Jared's paperwork will take about a month to complete (once they send us the papers), then he has to schedule the interview, then it will be processed- about 4 more weeks? Not sure. But at least we are getting a timeline forming here. Now if only we could get someone to ship our things- I had one guy come to give me a quote and it was outrageous. So I have two more companies scheduled to come and give me quotes this week. Hopefully they will be a bit more competitive.

I didn't take too many photos in Sydney since I have been there before and took tons of pictures of the usual places. Here are a few from my day. (note: I tried to load more than this but Blogger won't load them for some reason)



Catching the train to Bondi



A market at Bondi where I spent the afternoon



Grabbed some Krispy Kremes at the airport to thank Diane and Tom for taking care of my kids.