Sad Foreign Service News For Me

My Foreign Service candidacy (well, all of them, including the Oral Assessments in May) were terminated this morning as a result of my not having filed taxes during the two years I was working abroad in Japan. I was instructed in orientation that I was not to file U.S. taxes, as I was paying Japanese taxes.

This instruction was wrong. I must now wait 2 years to apply for any more Foreign Service positions.

Though I am disappointed, I see this setback as an opportunity to continue my work in Guatemala and to improve my candidacy for 2017. Honestly speaking, I'm not very sad at all - the issue was resolved last year - and I can only move forward from here. Thank you to everyone who has helped and who continue to help me realize my goal of working with the U.S. Department of State. Please ask me any questions about this and I will freely answer :)

What Would You Do #1: Funny Business in the Visa Line

In the month leading up to my Oral Assessments, I am going to post a hypothetical situation, and the responses I've received from readers here and in other forums to which I belong. I hope this series of 4 hypotheticals will prove useful to all those preparing for their own Oral Assessment. 

(The following hypothetical was taken from the 2014 Consular Adjudicator Oral Assessment Study Guide.)

"You have been doing visa interviews at post for a few months and have heard that local visa brokers have created files on all interviewing officers that they sell to visa applicants. You start to notice that people waiting in line for an interview suddenly decide to use the restroom when they are about to be called up to the window of a visa officer you hear has a broker file that says she is very tough. One day, an applicant pushes the person behind her to the front of the line to avoid the tough visa officer, and this applicant then appears at your visa window. What do you do?"

Below you will find answers from other who tackled this hypothetical.