VISA hell part one:having obtained our passports, birth certificates for us and for el hadji (his son), his police record (empty of incidents), our marriage certificate, color ID photos of us of very specific nature, 130 USD, and filled out three information forms, we hit up the embassy at 8 am, that is, as soon as it opened. we chilled in the main room after walking through metal detectors and got called into the little room after about five minutes. there are always tons of people waiting in the main room and i always get called within ten minutes to go into the little room and see this one lady at one of the windows. i dont know if i get preferential treatment because i am a citizen or what, the other people still waiting look senegalese although of course i cant be sure.
so i give my papers to the lady and she takes them and tells us to sit down. then we are called up again by that lady and some conselate comes over and starts asking me questions. (ponge is there with me but i am the one petitioning for him to come to the states, he is not petitioning for himself - its called a petition for an alien relative, form I-130)
he asks me where we met, what his birthdate is, what his parents names are, when we decided to get married, if any of my relatives came to the wedding, do we have pictures of the wedding (yes, lots, but not with me), what im doing in the country. he says he is asking me this so that they know i am not trying to gain immigration benefits for someone who doesnt deserve them, for the majority of the petitions that is the case. i wonder what he defines as deserving, but i just say 'gotcha' and keep answering his questions. after awhile we get our originals back and our passports and im directed to go pay the fee and have seat again until someone calls me. fucking sweet, this means we got approved. the approval is just to start the VISA process, not to grant him immigration status, but without it we'd be a little fucked.
so we sit around forever while im getting nervous/stressed because i have an interview at ten with the head of the ngo im studying; and i really need the information but i also really need to complete this process im in, so i decide to just wait. maybe the guy will be late, everyone always is late for everything there. about ten to ten we get called up and some other lady ive never seen before (the first one is the one i have seen at least three times already when i was in asking questions previous times) gives us the forms he needs, a copy for him and a copy for my reference but now the forms are for him instead of me>>
anyway i take a cab to the ngo and find out the guy isnt even there, i wait and read some documents for two hours and translate a refugie questionnaire for use in the gambia into english for one of the other interns. my interviewee doesnt show up so i leave a politely irritated note with his secretary giving my contact information if he can do the interview by phone or email (he has a copy of the questions already). this is the second time he has stood me up; the last time we had arranged an interview saturday morning and i get up, get dressed and walk all the way there (this takes about 45 minutes) just to have him cancel on me upon my arrival. hellOOO its called a telephone. we have one, he has one; wheres the problem?
anyway i need to get to my paper for which i have no material since people barely cooperated with me during the internship. which is really too bad, i could have learned a lot; but i also would have had less free time to play with ponge, so...im not too upset, just stressed about the paper i have giving the working title of 'paper from hell that sucks really bad'
