I first submitted my application in February, hoping to get it out of the way before I had to deal with other visa applications, such as for China and India. The first step when applying for any Saudi visa is to fill out an online form on a website run by a Saudi company called Enjaz. They require that you upload a photo of yourself, but I couldn't make the site work. I read that you needed to use Internet Explorer 6.0 on Windows XP and any other configuration would not work. I visited my old high school, where I used to work in the tech lab, and was able to find a computer matching those requirements. Unfortunately, I still couldn't get the site to upload my photo. In the end I had to pay Travisa $30 to do the Enjaz portion of the application for me. After completing that process I was to write a specific code on my paper application and then mail that in to the Saudi Embassy in D.C. Only three days after sending it off, I received a call from someone in their office asking me about the details of my trip, specifically about my same-plane-turn on the way back. I told him it was something my travel agent did and that I only wanted the visa for June visit. He said that the visas are only valid for 90 days, but would check with a supervisor to see if I could be granted an exception. He told me the answer was no, and I received my passport and forms back in the mail with a note saying to mail back four weeks before travel.

Four weeks before I was to leave, I mailed the same paperwork and my passport back to the Saudi Embassy and a few days later received a call from a woman at the Embassy. I spent a few days playing phone tag with her, which was quite difficult because I'm on Pacific time, and they are only open 8-12/2-5 eastern. I normally get up around 9 pacific and am in class during the 11-2 that they are open in the afternoon. Two days into phone tag I was transferred to the student and journalist visa desk and spoke to a very nice Saudi-American woman (or at least she had an American accent) who gave me her direct line and told me to call back the next day at a specific time and she would walk over to the office and make sure my visa was dealt with. When I woke up the next morning at 7 to make the phone call I had already received a phone call from my phone tag partner saying that she was mailing my application back if I didn't call her that day. Thankfully I got through to the second woman and we had a conference call where the first woman asked me again about the same plane turn around. I told her I was going to change that flight (which I actually might do) and she said alright, thank you. Four days later my passport showed up with the visa. Both times I was never asked why I wasn't taking the Royal Jordanian flight the night of my arrival (it was because there was no D inventory that night and I would have sat in Y), which is not consistent with many reports by people on this board. I guess I was just very lucky.