POTUS

Ambassador Laurie Fulton introduced the President of the United States (POTUS) to a group of about fifty Embassy employees.

President Obama gave a brief speech thanking those of us lucky enough to be at that gathering for all the hard work that the entire Embassy had been doing to support his visit to Denmark and all the other aspects of the U.S. delegation to the Copenhagen UN Conference on Climate Change. He mentioned that he was glad to be able to meet some of us, since he hadn't been able to do that when he was here a couple months ago to support Chicago's bid to host the 2016 Olympics. He said how important it was to him to meet some of us, because he wanted to show that we have a President who understands the importance of the Foreign Service and its mission of promoting diplomacy in all parts of the globe. (He did try to manage our expectations, though, saying that although this was his third trip to Scandinavia in the last three months, he might not be able to come here quite that frequently throughout the rest of his presidency.)

I had come over to the Bella Center, the convention hall where the conference takes place, with both of my Consular FSO colleagues at about 10:30. We were expecting to be gathering for the "meet and greet" at 13:40, but wanted to make sure we could get through the long lines and potential transportation delays. The trains ran fine, and when we got there we got an update saying the event would start at 13:00 and we should meet at a specified place at 12:15. We walked around a bit, had some lunch, and looked at some of the different places in the convention center.

This banner is at the entrance to the Bella Center.

The U.S. Center, with an animated globe that shows how climate change affects the earth.

The meet and greet was postponed several times, and seemed like it might be cancelled altogether, as the POTUS got involved in the high-level negotiations and his schedule kept getting busier. During the wait, we did get to watch his speech to the plenary session on one of the closed-circuit televisions.

I also watched the speeches of Danish PM Lars Løkke Rasmussen and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, but I admit I didn't pay attention to any of the other world leaders. Shortly after Obama addressed the conference, it was announced that our event was moved back again to 14:30 and we dispersed. But not long after that, our Deputy Chief of Mission saw me walking the halls and said it had been moved forward again and we should gather immediately.

We dodged through the crowd to reach our designated meeting point, where Secret Service agents conducted us through a labyrinth of back rooms and kitchens to a small meeting room where there was a lectern on the other side of a rope. After we had arranged ourselves, the Ambassador came in, followed by the leader of the free world. Following his short speech, he made sure to shake the hand of each person in the room, including mine. Everyone applauded and wished him success with the climate negotiations. Barack Obama is a truly inspiring leader, and I hope I will be able to live up to the high expectations that he has for those of us who work for him.

The First Two Months in Copenhagen

We've been here two months now. They've gone by so quickly!

We arrived on a cold, gray, rainy day. Copenhagen has a lot of those, and it's always nice to be inside and warm and dry, looking out the windows at the shivery rain on the cobblestone streets. Since we arrived the days have been getting shorter and now the sun is only out about eight hours a day. When I go to work around 8am the sky is just starting to cobalt, reflected in the pools of rain on the sidewalks in front of the dress stores, the bakeries, the antique shops.

It's a five-minute walk from our apartment to the Embassy. When I get there every morning I go through the little security outbuilding and into the main building, then down the hall to the Consular section. I have my own office, but I spend more time at the visa interview window. We see all kinds of different visa applicants. Although Danes can travel to the US for up to 90 days for tourism without a visa, they are still the most common nationality of our applicants, whether they want to stay longer or get a different type of visa for work, study, etc. I've also interviewed people from all over the world who happen to be in Denmark for one reason or another and want to go to America. It's important to understand, for each case, the type of visa that would be appropriate, what the qualifications are for that type of visa, and whether the applicant meets those qualifications. So it's very bureaucratic, but there's also a big element of detective work and, in the end, a lot of judgment calls. The wide variety of applicants keeps the work always interesting.

In addition to doing all the non-immigrant visa (NIV) interviews in Copenhagen, I'm in charge of running our NIV unit - updating our procedures and work flow, coordinating with Washington on unusual visa cases, and managing two Danish employees and two Americans who got jobs in the consular section while their spouses are assigned to the embassy. They all have their own roles in the visa process (communicating with the applicants to answer questions, managing the appointments schedule, data entry, printing the actual visas, and a wide range of other important parts), plus they continuously help me understand how to do my job. It's interesting being the "boss" of people who have been doing this far longer than me and know a lot of things I don't. I'm trying to share my own knowledge with them so that they can be as helpful to my successor as they have been to me. My own boss the Consul is probably my most important mentor. He's been a consular officer in Saudi Arabia, Honduras, Bangladesh and Iraq. The amount of immigration law and regulations he can retain in his head is almost scary. The consular section that he runs consists of me and my staff, another first-tour officer who is in charge of immigrant visas and services for American citizens in Denmark, his staff, and a couple other locally hired employees. It's a very fun team to work with; everyone is enthusiastic about doing a good job.

There's also a lot to do outside of work. We had Thanksgiving dinner with my boss, his family, the other vice-consul, and a few other guests from the Embassy and expat community. They had a great traditional American feast. We've also been enjoying walking around Copenhagen. There are lots of parks. We've been to the Danish National Gallery of Art and another famous art gallery that was founded by Carlsberg beer founder J. C. Jacobsen. We've visited Rosenborg Castle, previous residence of the royal family which is now a museum exhibiting the crown jewels of Denmark and other national treasures, with each room devoted to a different former monarch. We've gone to the top of the Round Tower, a 17th-century astronomical observatory. We've walked on Copenhagen's celebrated pedestrian shopping street and visited the symbol of the city, the statue of the Little Mermaid in the harbor. There is still a huge amount to see and do, but what we've already seen has been great so far.