Thursday, June 20, 2013

If not one thing, it's another

At the start of the month, when going with Callie to the hospital for the physical exam, I reminded Jackie that my visa expired in 20 days. He told me we'd take care of it on the 15th. 

The 15th came and went, and so on the 17th, I reminded him my visa expired in 3 days. 

Cue a rushing to the police station, being stuck behind about a hundred children going abroad and needing passports, going into the station itself, seeing cubicles and whatnot only to discover that in China, you need to reregister each time you leave the country. Nobody told me this. It's not even on the list of things in Chinese they gave me. 

But also! I didn't leave the country. Technically. I went to Hong Kong. 

Nope. Guess it counts as a different country to the Chinese system. I had left customs, so I had to reregister with the police. 

Which meant that we had to leave the police station on the 17th and try and find a way to register me. We went to a hotel, but they said they couldn't, try again tomorrow. 

We returned the next day to find that I could register- it would take 48 hours, which was the same amount of time that my visa would expire. So, I could register, but my visa would expire by the time I was registered. 

Jacke then went to Zhengzhou. I'm not sure why, he never told me why. But when he came back, on the 19th, Jenny and I had papers that proved our residency when we turned in our passports for the visa. 

Visa granted- less than 24 hours before expiration. (I am unable to get the visa by myself; Jackie, my boss, has the paperwork necessary to extend the visa). 


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