Tourist Visa?

Matt has just got to stop checking the mailbox every 15 minutes from the time he gets up in the morning! The mail doesn't even arrive until 4 p.m. He's driving me crazy! And still no letter.

Stressed out about it, Matt broke down and emailed CY to tell them about our situation and asked them to priority a new letter. They answered, stating that it takes 14 days (rather than the 4-7 we had heard before) for a letter to get from Israel to the U.S. Uh oh...that will put us very, very close to that three week window the consulate says it takes to get a student visa in hand.

So, the CY representative recommended that if we don't get the letter by early next week, then we should just get a tourist visa and to try to get a student visa while we are already in Israel. Apparently, to get a tourist visa, you just show up in Israel and they give it to you as you get off the plane. That sounds a bit precarious to me. What if they don't let us have one? What if they realize that our return plane ticket is for 10 months away and the tourist visa only covers 3 months?

Maybe I should go check the mailbox again...