Current Affairs:

Embassy visits in Madrid, late July:
     It's a Brave New World - or not. The good news first: I made it safely in and out of both the German and U.S. embassies in Madrid, Spain. I suffer from typical globetrotter symptoms (poor me!), such as a (another) passport running out of stamp space and worldwide immigration bureaucracy. Lets see if I can get that new employment and residence permit for the States:

U.S. Embassy: To call this concrete monster a fortress is an understatement. Tanks parked in front of the entrance gates, an entire block of Madrid's famous glitz shopping avenue Serrano taped-off to prevent parking, security in full body armor with machine guns at the hip... what a nice greeting. I had to make an appointment via a premium phone number in Germany (!) while I was in Mombasa, Kenya, two months earlier, where the government had cut off all IDD calling at the time, which forced me to use the services of friendly refugee Muslim Somalis in the old town, where they hack with pulse dialers into the monitoring lines of the local secret service (no, I am not kidding you at all). Once past the appointment screener at the security gate for the consular section, I was walked into a sealed double-gate lock, where I pretty much had to strip to satisfy the detector machines. Inside all seemed like smooth sailing - first in line, very few minutes to wait, just too easy. The friendly officer sure had a nasty surprise in store: As perfect as my renewed B1/B2 and H-1B1 applications were (for the 4th time in 12 years, I might add), the Department of Homeland Security had introduced a new rule just three weeks earlier, whereas specialty visas cannot be issued anymore until 10 days or less before the actual travel date! No chance to fight that, so off I went to Iberia, re-arranged a bunch of flights to send me through Madrid yet again at the end of September, and decided to pay the German embassy a visit.

German Embassy: Compared to the Americans, security was rather funny - a funky metal detector gate set into the entrance gate facing posh Calle Fortuny, some private security firm monitoring stuff, that's it. No people inside (did I mention that the U.S. embassy was, of course, like a zoo?), just me and an exceptionally friendly lady working in the citizen services section. Wow, German bureaucracy is improving and providing real service! She was quite impressed by my Madrid-registered passport and even filled out the forms for me - I desperately need a new passport (too many visas and stamps, boohoowoo!) and she even offered to fast-track (two months!) the application of my new special one, which will have almost twice as many pages. What a plan, returning to Madrid in September, picking up the new passport from the Germans, taking it directly to the Americans, and flying out of town after two nights of debauchery!