Great article on ACS services!

This week, the Washington Post published a wonderful article  on American Citizen Services at embassies abroad. I hope everyone who wonders what I do and everyone hoping to become a consular officer reads this article! Consular officers work long hours helping Americans abroad, especially in an emergency/disaster.

I am glad the article mentions STEP, a program that allows travelers to receive emails and information about their destination. For example, if there is a hurricane coming while you are visiting the Dominican Republic, you would receive periodic emails with information on what to do.

The ONLY thing I think it missed was a mention of travel insurance. In the DR, many Americans called us because they wanted us to pay their hospital bills, something we couldn't do. Anyone can get into an accident or become ill while abroad, and the financial and medical consequences can be disastrous. We had tragic cases where the family members felt their loved one was not getting adequate care in the DR, but they could not afford the $50,000 to evacuate their loved one to the U.S. Please, next time you travel, be sure to purchase travel insurance. I thought this NY Times article was very informative.

Overall, very pleased to see this positive coverage!

Busy! (ACS work)

Life is different since I joined the American Citizens Services (ACS) unit. Every unit in the consular section is busy, but ACS has a unique feel to it. We are only 5 officers plus our Chief, serving more than a million U.S. citizens who live or visit here. We work tremendously hard to answer every email and phone call, to make sure that nothing falls through the cracks, to help U.S. citizens in trouble, and to manage expectations of U.S. citizens who sometimes feel we are not doing enough.

Services provided by ACS include medical assistance, welfare and whereabouts (eg, trying to find a U.S. citizen that someone is worried about), assisting with the death of a U.S. citizen, visiting U.S. citizens in prison, managing children's cases, repatriating destitute U.S. citizens, and much, much more.

The medical assistance cases are some of the hardest. When a person is hospitalized in the DR, their family members are really upset to learn that the U.S. Embassy cannot medevac them or pay for their care. I understand that people are desperate in that moment, and I empathize. We do our best to help in whatever way we can- sometimes it is just visiting and letting the patient and the hospital know that we care. Sometimes it is urging the hospital to do what it is supposed to do already or making calls for the patient. Since I joined ACS, I have become a big proponent of travel insurance. Hospitals here don't accept U.S. insurance (including Medicare), and they won't allow a patient to leave until he/she has settled her bill, which can be in the tens of thousands. The NY Times recently had a great article on travel insurance. I highly recommend it now for our visitors, and will buy some the next time we travel outside the country.

ACS officers also adjudicate U.S. passport and Consular Report of Birth Abroad (CRBA) cases. Some are quite simple- a citizen lost her passport at a resort and wants to travel soon. A U.S. citizen and his wife had their baby in the DR and want to register her as a U.S. citizen by birth. But some are quite complicated, like the case of a 17 year old who claims to have been born in the U.S. (often Puerto Rico) but never applied for a U.S. passport before. We are usually on the interviewing line for about 3.5 hours every morning except Friday. That is a big difference from IV, where we interviewed for approximately 7 hours daily. That is also good, because we have so much else to do OTHER than interviewing.

In the midst of all of this, we are preparing for hurricane season and for our move to the New Embassy Compound next year. I also participate in many consular section-wide projects. I have been working longer hours lately, because there is just so much to do. I'm feeling guilty about my kids, though they are just fine. I almost always make it home for dinner.

All this to say: I am exhausted at the end of the day, and by Friday, I am like a wet noodle. My husband knows there is no way we can watch a movie on a Friday night, because I will be asleep within 15 minutes.

I haven't yet figured out whether I am an "ACS person" or a "visa person." Rumor has it that consular officers are usually one or the other. I really enjoy helping our citizens and I enjoy the variety of our work - every day I handle a million different things. I like interacting with so many different sections of the Embassy. The work is never boring, and it is often quite rewarding. But it is also highly stressful, and I don't know yet if I will pursue ACS jobs in the future.

I must mention that we could never achieve our objectives without our absolutely amazing local staff. They are dedicated, tremendously patient, kind, empathetic, and hard working. The ACS team is truly top-notch.

We have only four months left at post. The days are racing by. 

Changes

I was in Miami last week for an adoption conference. I've been assigned to handle the adoption portfolio in my new unit (for family/non-FS friends- I previously worked in the Non-Immigrant visa unit, where I processed visas for people who want to visit as tourists. This week I started work in the Immigrant visa unit, where I will issue -or deny- visas to people who plan to move to the U.S.). The conference was interesting, the food was great, and I'm excited about the portfolio, as I've always been interested in international adoptions. The DR doesn't do a lot of adoptions, as the requirements are pretty cumbersome, but any experience will be helpful.

Today was day three in IV. It's a big unit- about 8-9 officers, 30-40 local staff, hundreds of applicants a day, and the highest rate of immigrant visa fraud in the world. There is a lot to learn, but I have an advantage, coming from NIV, so it's not overwhelming. I wish I could blog more about work, but it's just not advisable.

In other news, it feels like summer is just around the corner. We're looking forward to seeing family and friends during our rest and recuperation (R&R) trip in May/June. We're having some visitors before that- mom and my friend H! - and will host some officers from Haiti. We're thinking about summer camp and next year's school tuition.

Before we know it, we'll be bidding and celebrating our year anniversary at post!

First day of school

Much to our surprise, our son quietly said goodbye to Daddy this morning and bravely stepped into his Spanish-only kindergarten (or pre-primary, as they call it here) classroom. How did he get so big!? Apparently his favorite part of today was going to the English-only classroom (in his bilingual school, they spend about 3 hours in each classroom). When I saw him tonight, he said he had a fun day. Fingers crossed that this positive outlook will continue.

little imp wanted her pic taken too

In weather-related news, Hurricane Irene passed by Santo Domingo but did cause flooding and destruction in some parts of the country. We barely had any rain at all, but the wind was impressive. We have been watching the projections, thinking of the rest of the Caribbean, and worrying about the East Coast.

I started on the visa line yesterday and today interviewed 42 people. It felt like 150! The norm for our post is probably 85-100 so we are not as busy as some. My colleagues are great and I'm really enjoying getting to know everyone and grateful for their patience with me.

Tomorrow marks two weeks at post!

3 weeks and counting

Sitting at home waiting for the pre-move surveyor to come. We pack out in 2 weeks. ACK! Before writing that, I didn't actually realize. Deep breaths.

My family left for Oregon yesterday. We usually go there every summer to visit with D's parents and 3 sisters, one of whom lives in Alaska w/ her husband and 3 kids. They will be gone for 11 days, which is the longest I've ever been separated from my babies. I'm sad I couldn't go with them- I am one of those lucky people who loves her husband's family and enjoys spending time with them. I also love Oregon and especially Sunriver, OR,  where they are renting a home. My kids are going to enjoy some good old-fashioned American fun with their cousins- bike-riding, walking on trails, playing in the woodsy playgrounds...as we like to say in the B household, 'doesn't get much better than that.'

But the good news is that 1) I'll have uninterrupted time to get ready for packout, and 2) I love my job! I'm not sad in the least about having to go to school every day.

Consular training continues to be awesome. We have been doing interview role plays to prepare for the real thing, and although the first day was mildly terrifying, by the third, I felt pretty good. We finished non-immigrant visas and will soon start learning about American Citizen Services, i.e. all the ways we can help (or are unable to help) Americans in trouble abroad. I'm really hoping to be able to do a rotation in ACS while I'm in Santo Domingo.

Let's see, what else? We sold our little car in about 1.5 days. Nice work, D! Goodbye, Goldie...we will miss you. You were our first car and brought our little M home from the hospital. Thanks.

Still trying to ship the new one. What a nightmare of a process!

We have some 158th classmates leaving this week- goodbye and good luck, friends! See you next time!

Ok, off to review my to-do list!

ConGen

This will have to be quick. I should be doing something more productive, but once the kids go to bed, I am worn out!

I must say that my basic Consular course (ConGen) is awesome. I love it. I'm totally overwhelmed, but it's fabulous. It appeals to my detailed and organized nature- I am really looking forward to actually doing my job! I wish I could say more about it, but I'm not allowed. This blog will have to focus on my life outside work.

I really wish I had pushed myself to accomplish more over the last month, because I am now quite busy. All that "white space" during ConGen? Um, yea. There's a reason. During that time, I'm supposed to be reading the instructional guides or working on Case Studies. I'm also taking the Spanish for Consular tradecraft course, which requires 1-2 hours of computer work plus an hour of conversation practice every week.

So now I'm stressed. Because I have to not only excel at this course, but also get us ready to leave for post. Ack. Somehow, it'll get done.

I hope.

Catch Up

Let's catch everyone up to speed on a few FS things.
There are 5 FS career tracks, or cones. The State Department describes them in this way (http://careers.state.gov/officer/index.html):
* Consular: Consular Officers protect Americans abroad and strengthen U.S. border security.
* Economic: Economic Officers work on economic partnerships and development, support U.S. businesses abroad, and cover environmental, science, technology, and health issues.
* Management: Management Officers run our embassies and make American diplomacy work.
* Political: Political Officers analyze political events.
* Public Diplomacy: Public Diplomacy Officers explain American values and policies.

Basically, Consular officers help Americans in trouble abroad and issue visas. A Con officer spends a lot of time on the visa line, interviewing applicants, using language and cultural knowledge to determine if they are being truthful or not. They say Con officers have the best stories and really get to know the pulse of the country. I love that. I also am attracted to the American citizen (Amcit) work. I used to think about pursuing disaster relief work but couldn't handle the thought of tremendous tragedy, all the time. It sounds like working in ACS (American citizens services) can be tragic and difficult (helping report an Amcit death, visiting Amcits in prison, helping with child abduction cases) but also mundane (helping with lost passports, registering Americans born abroad, etc). I like that variety and love the idea of using my customer service, language, and cultural skills and knowledge to help my fellow citizens. I feel like I will really be able to make a difference to someone who is scared, lost, or helpless. I hope so.