Moving to Cape Town: A Rollercoaster of Visa Challenges, Travel Mishaps, and Culinary Inspiration
Life has a funny way of presenting grand adventures when you least expect them, or perhaps, exactly when you’re ready to embrace a major change. For us, that adventure began with a monumental decision: to pack up our lives in vibrant Portland, Oregon, USA, and embark on an international move to the breathtaking city of Cape Town, South Africa. This isn’t just a vacation; it’s a significant relocation, driven by my fiancé’s long-held dream of studying at the prestigious University of Cape Town (UCT). After years of discussion, 2024 emerged as the year to finally take the plunge, trading rainy Pacific Northwest days for the stunning landscapes and vibrant culture of the Southern Hemisphere.
This blog post serves as a comprehensive update on our journey so far, explaining the reasons behind our absence and why you might soon notice a delightful array of new recipes featuring unique, perhaps unfamiliar, ingredients making an appearance here. Our new life in Cape Town promises a fresh culinary landscape, and I’m eager to share the flavors and inspirations from our global move with all of you.
Navigating the International Relocation: The Visa Application Gauntlet
Relocating to another country, especially across continents, is far more than just booking flights and packing suitcases; it’s an intricate dance with bureaucracy and logistics. The visa application process for South Africa alone proved to be a seriously involved and often nerve-wracking ordeal. To even initiate our applications, we were tasked with ordering and collecting a slew of certified personal documents, a process that felt akin to a scavenger hunt through our personal histories. Birth certificates, marriage licenses, police clearances, financial statements – each document had to be perfect, certified, and often apostilled, adding layers of complexity and cost.
Adding to the pre-departure checklist, we also had to secure a place to live in Cape Town, sight unseen, from thousands of miles away. The pressure of signing a lease for a “flat” (not an apartment, as we quickly learned from local terminology) without the absolute certainty of our visas was immense. The final hurdle for the initial application phase involved purchasing our plane tickets. And here’s a crucial detail for anyone considering a similar international move: since we didn’t buy return tickets (as our stay is indefinite for the time being), we were required to pay a substantial deposit to the South African government, a rather intimidating “just in case they have to kick us out of the country” measure. Furthermore, entrusting a package filled with our passports and all these irreplaceable personal documents to be shipped across the country for processing was, understandably, not a fun experience; it felt like letting go of a piece of our identity into the void.
After approximately a month and a half of diligently jumping through administrative hoops, gathering every conceivable document, and double-checking every form, we finally reached the moment of truth: submitting our visa applications. We had strategically given ourselves nearly two months for the visas to be processed and returned, a timeline that seemed more than ample, especially considering the official guidelines suggested the process could theoretically be completed in a swift 5 to 10 working days. To safeguard against any potential mishaps, I ensured our precious package was sent via Priority Shipping with a robust tracking number, hoping to minimize anxiety and guarantee its safe arrival. Little did we know, this was merely the prelude to a series of unexpected challenges.
Early Hurdles and Mounting Frustrations
Before the real saga began, we experienced a few minor panic moments that, in hindsight, felt like dress rehearsals for the main event. The initial apartment we had set our hearts on in Cape Town unexpectedly fell through, forcing us back to square one in our long-distance housing search. There was also a moment of intense worry that we had somehow jeopardized my fiancé’s financial aid for UCT, which thankfully turned out to be a false alarm. Certain essential documents proved exceptionally difficult to acquire, requiring multiple phone calls, emails, and persistent follow-ups. And, of course, the ever-present frustration of executing international wire transfers and navigating bank fees added to the growing list of time-consuming nuisances. These were all solvable issues, certainly, but they chipped away at our patience and energy, transforming what should have been an exciting preparation period into a frustrating, drawn-out affair. These initial annoyances, however, paled in comparison to the truly crappy, horrible, and stress-inducing events that were about to unfold.
Obstacle 1: The Mysterious Saturday Delivery Mishap
The first significant snag in our meticulously planned timeline involved the delivery of our visa application package. Despite assurances that deliveries wouldn’t occur on weekends, our package was inexplicably delivered to the South African Consulate General on a Saturday. The critical issue? No one was there to sign for it. Did you know that if the post office attempts to deliver something and fails, it doesn’t automatically go out for redelivery the next business day? We learned this frustrating lesson firsthand. The tracking information, which had been our beacon of hope, mysteriously stopped updating, leaving us in a state of anxious limbo. Fortunately, this particular hurdle had a relatively straightforward, though time-consuming, fix. I was able to request a redelivery online, and after some nail-biting, we confirmed that the South African Consulate General did indeed have our precious applications securely in their hands, and, even better, they were complete. The initial relief was immense, but the unexpected delay had already cost us valuable time in a process where every day counted. And so, the agonizing waiting period truly began.
Obstacle 2: The Prepaid Return Envelope Blunder
If there’s one thing I’ve learned from this experience, it’s that I have no business mailing precious things. My inexperience with important postal procedures became painfully evident. Having lived in an age where most critical transactions and communications happen online, I hadn’t realized that tracking numbers are assigned to the parcels themselves upon creation, not merely upon shipment. When I initially mailed off our applications, my singular focus had been on making that outbound package as iron-clad and secure as possible. I meticulously double-checked everything, but regrettably, I hadn’t given nearly as much thought to our return envelope, beyond ensuring it was also a Priority Shipping envelope so we’d receive our visas back quickly.
About a month after submitting our applications, we received a call from the consulate informing us that our visas had been approved! The relief was palpable. They inquired about a credit card number to cover the return shipping. My fiancé promptly informed them that we had included a prepaid return envelope, which they then used. This was excellent news, except for one critical detail: because of my oversight, we didn’t have a tracking number for the return. We rationalized that since it was Priority Shipping, it wouldn’t be an issue, and our passports, now adorned with their precious visas, would arrive swiftly. We were optimistically wrong.
Obstacle 3: The Visa Delay and Mounting Anxiety
The initial few days post-approval were filled with hopeful anticipation. Our visas, given the Priority Shipping and relatively short travel distance, should have arrived within two to three days, four at the very most. When five days passed with no sign of the package, a familiar flutter of panic began to settle in. We wondered if they hadn’t gone out in that day’s mail as expected. A quick call to the consulate confirmed they had indeed been dispatched on the suspected day, deepening the mystery. At this point, my fiancé, ever the pragmatist, asked me how much postage I had affixed to the return envelope. I confidently replied that I had carefully weighed the envelope, our passports (the visas are stamps within the passports, so these were the crucial items we were waiting to have mailed back), and even a couple of extra pieces of paper to ensure sufficient postage. His concern, however, was that the consulate might have sent back more than just our passports – perhaps additional documents – potentially rendering my postage insufficient and causing the delay. The possibility of under-postage became a fresh source of worry.
The stakes were getting higher. We now had only about three more days before we were scheduled to move out of our apartment in Portland. The prepaid return package was addressed to this apartment, meaning any further delay would subject it to the unpredictable process of mail forwarding to one of our parents’ houses, adding yet another layer of potential complications and uncertainty to an already tense situation. The countdown to departure was ticking louder than ever.
Obstacle 4: Desperate Measures – The Race for New Visas
Thursday arrived, and our departure for Cape Town was scheduled for Monday. Our visas, which should have arrived two weeks prior, were still nowhere to be seen. We had tirelessly called every post office we could think of, hoping to locate a held package, and had checked back with the consulate multiple times, each call ending in frustration. At this point, the feeling of desperation was setting in; we truly believed these visas represented our one and only shot at making this move, and we felt utterly powerless, simply having to “wait it out.”
Logically, one of three things should have happened: the package should have arrived, we should have received a notice for due postage, or it should have been returned to the consulate. Since none of these scenarios had materialized, we reluctantly concluded the worst: our precious visas, and with them, our passports, were likely lost in the mail. This grim realization propelled us into action. Friday was our absolute last day to accomplish anything significant before our move, so early Thursday morning, we decided to pivot to a radical new approach. After a flurry of frantic phone calls, an astonishing piece of information emerged: the consulate could, in fact, issue us brand new visas the very next day. The catch, of course, was that we would first need to acquire brand new passports for them to be stamped into. Yikes was an understatement; it was an incredibly daunting and expensive prospect.
Without hesitation, we spent the next couple of hours in a whirlwind of activity: booking an urgent flight to Los Angeles for that very afternoon, securing a last-minute hotel, and scrambling to gather every essential document and item we might need for this impromptu cross-country dash. The dream of Cape Town felt like it was hanging by the thinnest of threads.
Obstacle 5: The Ironic Twist – Visas Arrive During the LA Dash
As we were en route to the airport for our emergency flight to Los Angeles, a peculiar sense of déjà vu, or perhaps a prophetic premonition, settled over us. My fiancé voiced it aloud, repeatedly, on the entire drive: “They’re going to come today because we’re doing this.” And, true to his prediction, they did. Our original visas, lost no more, finally arrived in Portland while we were mid-air, flying towards LA to apply for replacements. The irony was almost unbearable. Unfortunately, given the last-minute nature of our emergency flight booking, there were no affordable flights available that departed after the mail had arrived that day, forcing us to take the chance of leaving before confirming their non-arrival. It was a gamble that ultimately ended in a bittersweet victory.
We had a connecting stop in Phoenix, and the moment I turned on my phone at the airport, it exploded with texts from our mothers, excitedly informing us that it had indeed finally happened – our visas were home! The overwhelming mix of relief, frustration, and sheer exhaustion was immense. To add another layer of logistical headache, we quickly discovered it would actually cost us more money to simply fly back home to Portland than to continue to LA. So, we resigned ourselves to spending a night in a rather “skeezy” hotel in Los Angeles and, on Friday, one of our absolute last days on American soil, we found ourselves killing time at LAX. My poor fiancé had to endure at least a month’s worth of my whining and emotional rollercoaster in just a few short hours. It was a testament to his patience and our shared determination that we navigated this bizarre, unexpected detour with our sanity mostly intact.
Obstacle 6: The Long-Haul Flight Cancellation
After the LA detour and a brief return to Portland, we finally made it back to PDX, completely packed, visas securely in hand, and with a renewed sense of purpose. Following a lovely, albeit tearful, farewell dinner with our families, we boarded a red-eye flight to New York, the first leg of our international journey to South Africa. After an already exhausting five-hour layover at JFK, we were finally ready at our gate, buzzing with anticipation for the long flight ahead to Johannesburg.
However, fate, it seemed, had one more major test for us. Our flight was initially delayed as engineers scrambled to find a part that needed replacing on the plane. Hours crawled by, and at this point, my fiancé and I had managed to snatch only about four hours of sleep in the last thirty. Then came the dreaded announcement: the flight was officially cancelled. The disappointment and exhaustion were incredibly discouraging, but thankfully, the airline handled the situation commendably. They provided us with accommodation in a decent hotel (though the food was memorably questionable; I can be quoted as saying, “This might be chicken parmesan, or some kind of fish…”), arranged transportation, and supplied us with vouchers for snacks at the airport. It was an unforeseen setback, but we were determined not to let it dampen our spirits entirely.
Amidst the frustration of the cancellation, we experienced an unexpected highlight. While waiting in line at the hotel, we had a delightful realization: we were standing right behind the very famous South African golfer, Gary Player! He graciously took the time to chat with us for a few minutes, sharing insights and well wishes for our move. He even let us get a picture, which, unfortunately, ignited a small picture-taking frenzy around him, but the man remained a true gentleman throughout. It was a surreal and memorable encounter that injected a much-needed dose of positivity into an otherwise grueling day.
Obstacle 7: The Final Dash – Missing the Connecting Flight
The airline commendably rescheduled all of our connecting flights after the cancellation, but the new itinerary presented us with an incredibly tight window: approximately one hour and twenty minutes to navigate customs, retrieve our checked bags, recheck them for the domestic flight, and clear security again in Johannesburg before catching our connecting flight to Cape Town. It was an almost impossible feat, especially for first-time international arrivals in a new country. We managed to race through the initial stages, getting to the point where we could recheck our bags with seemingly just enough time. However, for reasons that remain unclear, it took an agonizingly long time to confirm our rebooked status and issue new boarding passes. With the precious documents finally in hand, we launched into a frantic sprint through the vast O.R. Tambo International Airport, desperate to make it to security. We had a mere 10 minutes to clear security and reach our gate before it closed, a truly Herculean task.
While panting heavily in the security line, my fiancé, despite the chaos, managed to ask me what seat I was in. “Pant 20 pant E pant,” I gasped, a clear indication that I desperately needed to work out more. “That’s weird,” he replied, “me too.” Uh oh. A sinking feeling began to set in. It quickly became clear that the airline agent, in the rush of rebooking, had inadvertently printed two copies of *my* boarding pass for *both* of us. The man at security, after a quick glance, informed us we would have to return to the airline desk. At that very moment, it became unequivocally clear: we were not making that flight. The irony and frustration were amplified by the realization that our checked bags had already been loaded onto the very flight we were now destined to miss.
Defeated but not entirely broken, we trudged back to the airline desk. The agent who had misprinted our passes, mortified by the error, walked us back to baggage claim, assuring us they would help us get our bags onto the correct flight. The resolution, like much of our journey, was somewhat piecemeal: one of our bags arrived on the earlier, missed flight, another came on the correct, later flight, and the third arrived on the subsequent flight. All in all, though, through a combination of luck and persistent tracking, we eventually recovered all our luggage. It was a chaotic, physically demanding, and mentally exhausting final push, but we had made it.
Settling into Our New Cape Town Life and Future Culinary Explorations
Now, after what felt like an endless gauntlet of visa challenges and travel mishaps, we are finally moved into our new flat in Cape Town and slowly but surely getting settled. The initial days were a blur of unpacking, adjusting to a new environment, and eagerly awaiting the setup of essential utilities. I actually drafted much of this post in Evernote while we impatiently waited for our WiFi connection to be established, feeling cut off from the world. But at long last, we have it! It might be a bit slow and occasionally unreliable, a far cry from the seamless connectivity we were used to, but it’s a connection – our lifeline to family, friends, and the wider world.
The sheer relief of finally being here, with our visas and bags safely in tow, is indescribable. Cape Town is already proving to be an incredible city, bursting with natural beauty, diverse culture, and a palpable energy. Our journey here has been a true test of patience, resilience, and problem-solving, solidifying our bond and preparing us for whatever adventures lie ahead. While the initial weeks are focused on acclimating to our new surroundings and my fiancé beginning his studies at UCT, I’m already buzzing with inspiration from the local markets, unique produce, and vibrant food scene. My next couple of blog posts will undoubtedly chronicle our initial explorations and discoveries here in Cape Town, offering glimpses into our new life and experiences. And soon, very soon, I’ll be back in the kitchen, experimenting with exciting new ingredients and sharing a plethora of fresh, globally-inspired recipes that reflect this incredible new chapter of our lives. Stay tuned for a taste of South Africa!
