Visa Renewal Adventure

The time has come for our family's yearly visa renewal here with the local police.

Visa renewal is almost always a hassle in this culture. It seems that you never come to the place where the people know you and you know them and there are no crazy questions or petitions. This year is even worse as a result of the earthquake and other situations that have taken place already this year.

Every year we are required to present (sometimes for the 3rd, 4th, or 5th time) government issued health exams, business licenses, employment permit, tax registration, commercial approval certificates, all up to date and in order, or else you can't apply for your visa renewal.

This may sound reasonable, but you often run into hurdles. For instance, today I called the lady in charge of issuing our visas. Her office is in a city about 40 miles away (1 hr). I wanted to know if she would be in the office today because I had been in there both yesterday and the day before but she wasn't there either day! Our visas expire on July 1st (Tuesday) and today is Friday. They don't work weekends.

So I call her and ask if she will be in the office today. She says yes, and quickly runs through the list of things that we would need to bring, including one document called an "employee permit". I told her that my employee permit also expires on July 1st and it is currently in the process of being renewed. She said, "Well, you've got to have that or we can't give you a visa. Don't come until you have it." I said, "My visa expires really soon. And that document is in the hands of government officials. There is not much I can do." She replied in so many words, "Well, that's too bad. You can't get your visa until you bring me that document."

Thankfully, when I called the guy about my "employee permit" he said that it was done and in the mail. So I should have it by tomorrow (Saturday) or Monday at the latest, just in time to apply for our visa renewal before Tuesday. But under normal (sane) circumstances, we would have applied for the visas on Wednesday (2 days ago).