Thinking about Visa's makes my head hurt. I called an airline to see about a round trip ticket with an open date on the return trip, and the guy said they don't do that anymore. What they do now if a "Refundable Ticket," which are more expensive than a regular ticket. Way more expensive.

Basically, I would purchase the round trip ticket with the return trip as far in the future as the airline will let me book it, then before the return trip date, I cancel the ticket (possibly reschedule) and get a full refund. Let's just say the price of this round trip ticket would equal a trip to Australia and back.

I'm not sure about all my alternative's at this point (I haven't called the US embassy in El Salvador) but I could possibly buy a one way ticket to El Salvador, buy a return ticket when I get to the El Salvadorean airport, go and get a visa, then cancel the just purchased plane ticket (some airlines give a full refund if cancelling a ticket within 24 hours of purchase). Or I could just buy a refundable ticket for a one way trip back home when I get into the airport at El Salvador and I wouldn't have to keep buying a ticket every 3 months when I leave the country and return to renew my Visa.

Decisions, decisions.