Below is my timeline for application to the Peace Corps:
May 19, 2008: Submitted online application.
May 20, 2008: Submitted online Health Status Review.
June 24, 2008: Receive an e-mail from the Mexico country office (the one in Mexico, not DC) asking for a short bio. I am slightly confused, since I haven't even interviewed yet, but I send them something.
June 25, 2008: My actual interview with the local recruiter. It appears she knows the Mexico program expressed interest in me, they just jumped the gun in contacting me.
July 3, 2008: Phone interview with the Mexico Country Director and one of the program administrators.
July 7, 2008: I am officially nominated for the PC Mexico program (yes, a lot of things happened out of synch for me).
July 14, 2008: I receive my medical packet via FedEx.
August 2, 2008: I mail back all of my medical, dental, and eyeglass forms.
August 15, 2008: I receive Dental Clearance.
August 16, 2008: My medical packet has officially arrived in DC.
August 29, 2008: I get an e-mail from my medical officer that my doctor filled out one line in my packet incorrectly (I challenge any PC person to guess what line it was). Emergency stop by my doctor's office, then off to what was formerly known as FedEx Kinko's to use their fax machine solves the problem. I love my doctor!
September 3, 2008: I receive Medical Clearance.
September 29, 2008: I receive unofficial notice from the Mexico office that I will soon be invited. DC is still mum.
October 4, 2008: I am invited (so says the Toolkit)!
October 9, 2008: I finally pick up my FedEx package in my apartment complex office (it arrived yesterday). In it is a ton of paperwork, all enclosed in a big, blue envelope / folder. I am pretty excited and relieved that I finally have my invite in writing and know exactly when I will be leaving. Staging is about a month earlier than I had expected--for some reason, I had March 26, 2009 in my head, but it is actually March 3, 2009.
October 14, 2008: I call DC to accept the invitation. I tell my boss at work that I will be leaving at the end of the calendar year.
Total time: 149 days (~4 months, 26 days)
As you may have noticed, a lot of things happened for me in reverse order than normal. I think this was a unique situation because I had a direct line to the Mexico office in country, and I think there is a normal lag between the DC office and "real time information". From what I heard from my recruiter, something like this probably would not happen in the future, as the process between the Mexico office and DC was changed shortly after I applied.
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