Final Visa Appointment!
What a great day. Yesterday I had an appointment for help registering in Cl@ve, so I would have access to more appointment options for getting my TIE (without it I was having an issue getting an appointment). At the Cl@ve appointment I was told I needed my TIE to get signed up for Cl@ve. Basically, shit out of luck. However, the woman was nice and directed me to the local police station, which is where I went, hopeful. At the police station, I was told there was a police station specifically for foreigners and gave me the address and said it may work to just show up in person, sin cita. I learned how to ride the suburban train - Renfre - and took the 30 min ride. I landed in a place where I had to walk 30 minutes in 90 degree weather and then saw a significantly long line of people... at least I was in the right spot. Realizing this might be my opportunity to submit all of my documents - that I thankfully had with me - I stepped into a roadside photo booth and with sweat dripping down my back, hardly any makeup on and three day unwashed hair that had been under a hat, tried to take a decent photo for my soon to acquire residency card, yay!
Before getting in the long line, there were a few people asking questions to a police officer under an umbrella and I proceeded to tell him I was unable to make a cita and could I submit my documents in person. No. He was nice and with long, dark, beautiful eyelashes like all of the police officers here, gave me a slip of paper on how to make an appointment... which is what I had been trying to do for days. He motioned to just keep trying over and over again.
I said muchas gracias and hit the road, back to Madrid. HOWEVER, he told me that sometimes at 2pm appointments for the next day would show up on the website so I decided to check at 1:45 and BOOM! I snagged an appointment for the next day in a southern part of Madrid 1.5 hr away. I figured out how I would get there by 10:10 in the morning and set my alarm excitedly.
<< insert here - I then met up with Volta Run Club in Retiro and went for a sweaty 5K run, had a beer and met a ton of cool people. I was so happy and high on endorphins that I couldn't sleep >>
7am my alarm goes off and out I go. Off to Aranjuez! First I take a metro, then bus and finally I arrive. The bus was nice! I arrived an hour early for my 10:10 appointment. Now, here is the fun part! I walked right in, sat down and didn't have the correct Tasa 790 form (showing I paid a certain amount in taxes 16.40E). I submitted payment and the form in LA and had the receipt, however, it was not correct. This is the translation I recieved on what I needed to do to make the correct payment (and I could then come back, show the receipt and all would be good):
"You have to go to a phone booth located behind the church and pay at a bank located as you leave the phone booth on the right. Go straight ahead and there you will find "La Caixa"
Thank God a guy named Javier overheard the conversation and probably say my total look of confident confusion that I could indeed find this mystical phone booth! Having gone through the excact same sitation three weeks prior - he was there to pick up his residency card - he knew where to go, walked with me there, let my change from the 20E I put into the machine go to his Bizum account so I could proceed with the tax payment. He was my knight in shining armor! We walked back to the police station together, I submitted my final paperwork and then we hopped on the bus to go back to Madrid together. I am SO grateful for him! I know I would've figure out this mystical phone booth sitation by myself somehow but it would have taken much longer and been much more frustrating and I would have needed to set up a Bizum account on the street. What a day!
It has been so interesting how every time I have hit a wall or needed help while in Madrid, someone has appeared. Complete strangers have shown such kindness towards me, it has made me feel so supported. I have never had this happen in the US, and definitley not in LA where everyone is out for themselves. Javier saw I needed help and he patiently offered to help! It was such a blessing.