For two weeks in January, my wife, son and I were on pins and needles waiting for a Czech Republic visa to arrive for son’s Chris winter/spring semester. The two-week ordeal caused sleepless nights wondering how we could get through to the Czech embassy in New York. They never answer the phone, leaving one simmering on hold  and listening to computer-generated classical music.

Chris eventually got his visa and showed up a week late for his spring/winter semester at Charles University in Prague. All is well now. But everything that could go wrong in visa-ville did.

He originally applied in October in plenty of time for his planned Jan. 18 departure. The Czech web site says allow for 60 days processing so all should have gone without a hitch. Well, the embassy called him in early November and said they were returning his new U.S. passport because he had not signed it. Yes, you have to send them your passport into which they insert the visa. They hold it hostage while process the visa. God forbid you need it!

The passport did not arrive back to him for two weeks so now he was cutting it close with his application officially arriving on Nov. 23.  Around New Year’s, we started to worry. Nothing was arriving in the mail nor was his assigned tracking number showing up on the Czech web site signifying approval.

We inquired to no avail. No humanoid ever answered no matter how many messages we left or how long we stayed on hold.

With a week to go before departure, we started to panic. The company that arranges these overseas adventures which are standard for college students these days, was not terribly helpful. In fact, an official with the company  set off the panic when she they told Chris he could not attend the program if he was late which at that point looked like a certainty.

Georgetown University which he attends was already in session so there was no going back there for the semester. And what about the $20,000 in tuition we paid for the semester!? Would that be returned? We also faced the prospect of him attending community college, doing nothing for a semester and not graduating with his Georgetown class (2010).

The little matter of the late visa was turning into a calamity. Fortunately, with so many late visas, he was granted a week’s extension to get to Prague.

Chris contacted Sen. John Kerry’s office which basically blew him off (and Chris worked for Kerry in the 2004 election!). I tried to enlist the help of a Czech emigre Tomas…he really did try, but he couldn’t get through to the embassy. I consulted a friend whose son attended the same program four years earlier. He urged Chris to go just with his passport – good for a 90-day stay – and worry about the visa over there.

But the company official said that loophole had been closed and it didn’t matter: the Czech embassy had his passport. He couldn’t go anywhere outside the U.S.

FINALLY, my wife e-mailed Rep. John Tierney’s office on Jan. 20. His delightful visa and immigration person Rosemary responded within an hour and promised to call the Czech embassy. But how would she get through? How could she stand hours of tinkly classical music on hold? SOMEHOW SHE DID! She was a miracle worker. She called to say the embassy would contact Chris by 4 that afternoon. And indeed, someone named Clara called to inform him his application was missing a key piece of documentation (yes, that was Chris fault, but it could have been supplied much earlier had we known).

Clara urged him to FAX the doc and promised approval the next day (all the while we thought the delay was the fault of the Czech police who conduct background checks on visa applicants).

Clara called the next day to say it had been approved and that it would be mailed that day or the next. Chris had sent the Czech visa folks a prepaid USPS overnight return envelope when time started to look tight.  Chris told Clara okay and hung up. That’s what 20-year-olds do (now 21). When we learned he didn’t ask, beg and plead with Clara to send it that day, we fumed. My wife made him call back and leave Clara a message requesting it be sent the same day. After all, this was Wednesday and his rescheduled flight left on Thursday.

Of course, they didn’t send it that day so we canceled Thursday’s flight. Chris was constantly checking the USPS package tracking  web site to learn if it was in route. It constantly wasn’t. The site was often down so we didn’t know when or if it had been sent. With our luck, it would be in a truck absconded by aliens. We were snake bit. STRESSED to the MAX.

Finally, at midnight the day after approval, Chris burst into my bedroom and informed me the USPS tracking service was reporting “accepted” for next day delivery. We were ecstatic! But it still wasn’t here. At 7:30 the next morning, our friendly postmaster called and said it had arrived at a mail facility in North Reading, Mass. and that it would be in our hometown by 9 or 11. He called back at 9 and I went to pick it up.

Chris was on a plane at 4:30 that afternoon winging his way to Prague via Frankfurt.

There are heroes in this story.

— Rosemary worked miracles and got the embassy to act. Without her intervention, Chris would still be at home.

–United Airlines (for Lufthansa) changed the ticket three times on short notice for a mere $100. The agents we spoke with were great.

— Clara helped a lot once we reached her.

— And Chris really held up well during this ordeal and learned a few life lessons along the way.