Angry Blog
OK Kids, since I haven't done it enough, here is another post in which I am going to bitch about stuff. Today's topic: VISA/Passport issues. OK, this is going to be complicated, and involves my travel plans, among other things.
I have been on the road and planning a number of things. At this point, some things are set in stone:
May 13 - Depart China for HK
May 15 - Depart HK to Malaysia
These are set in stone. Meanwhile, the following was the plan for the next several weeks:
This Weekend - Party like a rockstar
Next Friday (Apr 28) - Fly to XinJiang to meet up with old friend Lisa (aka Brown Girl for those of you "in the know") and her friend for the May Holiday
Following Friday (May 5) - Return from XinJiang
So althogether I was going to be doing a lot of travel. In the meantime, my passport has gotten old and crusty and the photo was close to falling out. As such, I was getting more hastle from the immigration checkpoints and at some point soon I would no longer be able to use it. Since I still have to hit up 10 more countries, China was my only choice for a place to replace the passport for a new one. HOWEVER, the old passport had my Chinese Visa in in.
OK, so the plan was going to be easy (and the US Embassy actually came up with it):
1) Replace Old Passport
2) Have Old Visa (still with 50 Days validity) transferred to the new passport by the Chinese government
Step 1 has been accomplished. When they gave me the new passport, they punched holes in the old one and told me to bring both to the Chinese Police Authority to transfer the visa. When I went there, I was told that I would need a new passport since the old one was no longer valid. Make sense? It doesn't to me either!
So anyway, this all went down this afternoon. Later I spoke with the woman from my language school (which sponsors my Visa) to ask for assistance. Her response was that a) she was going on vacation next week and b) asked me why I didn't check with the Police Authority before getting the new passport. OK, this is what pisses me off:
A) She knew this was the plan and said nothing about it being problematic
B) The US Embassy also advised me that this was the correct course of action
C) The Police Authority doesn't exactly have the best command of English, and since I'm no expert on Chinese immigration law I'm kinda screwed her and would assume that my "visa sponsoring school" would be a little more supportive in this process.
Anyway, I'm just stressed because
A) nobody has any bright ideas about the best course of action (although I have to go into school tomorrow, Saturday, to try to sort this out
B) I might have to surrender both passports for some period of time while I'm supposed to be in XinJiang, which means I need to kabosh the trip which pisses of Lisa, makes my travel agent angry, and I'm stuck in Beijing for the week which could also kinda blow
OK, that’s me venting. Any advise of course would be appreciated. Have a good night!
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