Facts pertinent in establishing qualifications for preferential status (8USC1154)

TJ left for his cross-country trip to Tijuana the second week of April and arrived on what just happened to be the first day of my spring break. So I took the shorter and faster route, by plane, and met him in San Diego, so I could help him settle in during his first week in Mexico. Now, we've been overseas before for international teaching, and a good school usually provides a "buddy" who is supposed to help during this transition. But I thought coming down might be a good idea, considering we have experienced a lack of support in previous situations (I won't mention names). Of course, I should've realized that the government would have the buddy system down to a science. 

The assistance was well beyond our expectations; it might've helped that we knew our buddies, because I taught their children at a school in Israel (coincidence?). Obviously, Jim and Liz provided the obligatory airport pick-up, comp dinner, and grocery run. But even better, the welcome kit of household supplies was not only already in the apartment, but also unpacked and in place. After a day of traveling, it was nice to not have to make the bed. Perhaps the best service, though, was that the phone was already hooked up on the day we arrived and that the Internet was turned on by the end of the week, without either of us having to spend hours on a telephone with someone who didn't understand nor care about our need for contact with the outside world.

And some efforts really surprised us, both in their overwhelming generosity and surprising pitfalls. A fellow non-immigration visa officer invited us to dinner. Thanks go out to John and Marissa for welcoming us into the community so easily and quickly. But at the last moment, the dinner had to be moved to another officer's house because of some concerns -- very low-grade, I must add -- about a threatening phone call. So thanks go out as well to Chris and Lisa, our new hosts, who along with John and Marissa reassured us with their nonchalance about the change in plans. 

 Another beneficial favor was that Jim was able to expedite our appointment to finalize our SENTRI pass, which is a way to save oodles of time crossing in the border by having your and your car's credentials pre-certified. When I applied by myself, the first available appointment was in August, four months away, and somehow, he changed it to two days away. He even chaperoned us to the SENTRI office, which could be difficult to find, as it is cleverly disguised amid all the border-area strip malls. He led us through the SENTRI lane, even though we didn't have our passes yet, hoping the border guards would accept our diplomatic passports in good faith. They didn't, and TJ got socked with a warning for inappropriately using the SENTRI lane -- which was perhaps the best perk of all, because he could have been fined $5,000.