PC Timeline

Timeline:
Late January, 2014 - Interest in the Peace Corps began. I was exploring something different, exciting, and purposeful to do in the near future, and I brought up the idea of the Peace Corps to Caroline at dinner one night.

February 20th, 2014 - Submitted applications. Applying as a couple, we were encouraged to submit our applications at the exact same time.

February 21st, 2014 - Completed and submitted medical questionnaire.

February 27th, 2014 - I had an unofficial meeting with a Peace Corp recruiter. He happened to be in Charlotte, NC for a career fair. This typically isn't part of the application/recruitment process, but Marques agreed to meet to discuss some of our questions and let us know what to expect.

March 7th, 2014 - Right before bed, word came from some of our references that they received an email notification from the PC. This was awesome news, because it had been just over two weeks since submitting our applications, and we were wondering what was the hold up.

March 12th, 2014 - All of our references have been submitted. The deadline on these was 10 days from when they received the initial email, so we were very happy this was completed early.

March 17th, 2014 - Still have heard nothing back from the PC or our recruiter. Initially I had pretty good communication with our North Carolina recruiter, but he has not responded to my previous three emails in the past two-or-so weeks. We are learning early on that this whole process takes the utmost amount of patience, and just because someone isn't contacting you, or responding to your pestering emails, things are normally working, albeit slowly.

March 20th, 2014 - Caroline picked up the phone and tracked our recruiter down. They had a nice conversation, and he told her that he hadn't yet received our information back from the D.C. office, but that he'd be in Charlotte the first week of April and we could try to schedule our in-person interview.

March 25th, 2014 - Received an email from an "Assessment Specialist" in the D.C. office telling us: "Thank you for your applications to the Peace Corps, and we apologize in the delay in reaching out to you. We are able to move your applications forward, and your recruiter will contact you within two weeks to schedule a formal interview". This was awesome news, as we submitted our applications just under 5 weeks ago. From what I've gathered, this is a bit longer than normal, but I'm going to chalk it up to the fact that there's two of us applying.

April 2nd, 2014 - Interview day. Caroline and I met with our recruiter at a Panera bread this afternoon. He talked with her for 1 full hour, then with me for another hour, and we all three spoke for another 1.5 hours about random topics - mostly PC related. At the end of this meeting he pulled up some countries he could nominate us for. The first two have leave dates of January 2015, both for education (elementary and ESL, I believe): Morocco, and Vanuatu. I knew where Morocco was, but have to admit I pulled up a map to figure out where Vanuatu was.  After researching that evening, we responded via email that we'd like to nominated for Vanuatu. Both of us realize that there is NO definite that we will be going here, and from what we've researched, sites change, BUT the recruiter told us to assume that's the place until we hear otherwise! Now awaiting legal information via snail mail soon.

May 6th, 2014 - After over a month of no contact, we got our legal packets in the mail. We both are heading to the police station after work to get out fingerprints done. We are under the impression we both passed the initial medical review (done immediately after submitting our application), so this legal packet is all we owe the PC for now.

May 8th, 2014 - Got legal packets in the mail back to D.C., and the next day got notification that our package had arrived.

May 15th, 2014 - Received an email from the Suitability and Security Office saying we had been legally "pre-cleared"! After we get an invitation, and accept, they will run the final National Agency Check background investigation to completely legally clear us.

July 23rd, 2014 - Received a call from our new placement officer asking some questions about updates to volunteer experience since we first applied. He said to expect an invitation in the next 6 weeks.

July 24th, 2014 -  Invitation emails came through to us both the following morning. A few days later we officially accepted the invitation and received a flood of various emails full of what to do next.

August, 2014 -  Scrambling to get all medical, dental, and passport chores done. There's a ton of paperwork that needs to be filled out and uploaded to various websites.

UPDATE 12/19/2014 - Lost track of what we did in which order this fall. We got all the forms into Health, and were fully cleared. We responded to a couple emails with PC Vanuatu staff on some preferences for site "generation" and site remoteness. We'll see where we end up. We should hear from the PC's travel company in the next few weeks to make flight plans.