Passport after passport
Hola
peeps.
Flew into Kampala from Juba last week Wednesday, attended US visa interview on Thursday, that lasted less than 10 minutes, and was informed to pick up passport on Monday at 3pm. Showed up to pick up passport, and while those ahead of me were issued theirs I was handed a form to provide supplemental information, scan and email it back to an address. Okay…so after form is sent, what’s typical duration for receiving passport? Lady at reception had no clue. Why wasn’t I asked for extra information during the face-to-face interview or contacted prior to passport-pickup time? Nada. But I am not based in the country and have already moved flight once, not to talk of hotel bills; anyone I could talk to about this? Still no idea.
I walked away hurriedly and planned to find the nearest scanner so I could quickly complete form and send back to the embassy before close of business that day; maybe, just maybe, I’d have passport back the following day. Then, I scrutinized the form properly:
Flew into Kampala from Juba last week Wednesday, attended US visa interview on Thursday, that lasted less than 10 minutes, and was informed to pick up passport on Monday at 3pm. Showed up to pick up passport, and while those ahead of me were issued theirs I was handed a form to provide supplemental information, scan and email it back to an address. Okay…so after form is sent, what’s typical duration for receiving passport? Lady at reception had no clue. Why wasn’t I asked for extra information during the face-to-face interview or contacted prior to passport-pickup time? Nada. But I am not based in the country and have already moved flight once, not to talk of hotel bills; anyone I could talk to about this? Still no idea.
I walked away hurriedly and planned to find the nearest scanner so I could quickly complete form and send back to the embassy before close of business that day; maybe, just maybe, I’d have passport back the following day. Then, I scrutinized the form properly:
- Surname and Other Names: Easy.
- Names and DOBs of Siblings (Step, Adopted, Alive, Deceased): Easy.
- Social Media Platform and Identifier/Handle: Easy peasy, lemon squeezy. See why I never signed up for Twitter or Instagram and deleted Facebook account eons ago? One needs to be careful what one posts online. But hold on, I thought the ACLU sued against this? Didn’t I already answer this when I submitted my original application?
- Email Addresses and Phone Numbers for Past Five Years (Private, Work): Easyyy-ish. Wait, why do they need this anyway?
- Work History for Past 15 Years (Address, Phone Numbers, Title, and Job description): Okayyyy, now this is getting weird. 15 years?!!!
- Travel History for Past 15 Years Outside Country of Residence (Locations visited, Dates visited, Source of funds, Length of stay): Now I am getting a headache. How am I supposed to remember travel dates since 2004? I must have at least 2 passports that are long since abandoned. 15 years for goodness sake?! I have 3 passports with me and the furthest goes back to 2013!
After
calming myself down by banging head against the wall severally, I cancelled a
supper date and tried to remember older siblings’ year of birth and email
addresses at previous jobs. Then, I printed a copy of CV as work history and set
about tracking where I had been in past 15 years. I decided on constructing a
table that would be divided into years and got only as far as 2007 before I
decided on a break for dinner. Following a meal at a West African restaurant
with pal David and a colleague’s cousin, whose spa I tried out on Thursday, I returned
to hotel at 930pm and typed as much of travel history – in 10-font but it
still ran to eight A4 pages - as I could remember until 130am. I made it so
detailed, by including overnight transits, such that whatever poor sod’s tasked
with reviewing it would get tired of reading and inform their superiors to
cease requesting such folderols for future visa renewals. Woke up night
receptionist at hotel and by time we were able to print, scan and email
documents it was 3am. Trudged off to bed smiling at effort I put
into travel history and new stuff I learnt. Never paid much attention to entry
and exit stamps, but while reviewing pages of passport I noticed subtle
differences for the first time. For instance, at the South Sudan airport, entry
and exit stamps have same oblong shape but with ‘entry’ and ‘exit’
inscriptions; in Kenya, the entry stamp is rectangular while the stamp for exit
is a triangle; Uganda also has a rectangular entry stamp but a circular exit
stamp; the UK only has an entry stamp; Nigeria surely has the coolest, with both
rectangular-shaped entry and exit stamps but with a silhouette of a plane
landing for the former and a plane taking off for the latter. Yup, it’s
official, I am a geek.
Woke up at 830am the next morning wondering if I was requested to provide additional information primarily ‘cos I am Nigerian? But I have Nigerian friends in Uganda who’ve renewed their US visas without hassle. Or is it ‘cos I am based in South Sudan? Met an Ethiopian acquaintance from Juba who received his visa yesterday. Or is it ‘cos I travel a lot? Surely that should be a boon and not an obstacle, right? Or could it be that I am a South Sudan-based Nigerian who happens to have multiple stamps on his passports? I really would love to find out. Efforts to contact the US embassy by phone yielded diddly, and just when I had determined to head over there and cause someone to talk to me, I received an email from them. Half-expected to read they now required a list of most frequently used emojis, instead I was informed my application remained under “administrative processing” and was offered the opportunity to pick up passport the following day if I needed to travel, until process is concluded. I jumped at the chance and got travel agent to purchase a ticket for last flight to Juba, as original return plane ticket wouldn’t afford enough time to pick up passport and make flight.
Got to the embassy at the designated time yesterday and was made to queue up with those scheduled for a visa interview. Huh? Assumed I’d show up, be handed passport and head to airport. Instead, I waited for ca 20 minutes until I was called. Was asked if I’d wait for another 4 hours for administrative process to be concluded, so I’d pick up passport with visa and not have to return on another date. U what? Had no choice but to acquiesce to their request and cancel 255pm Uganda Airlines flight booking.
This was without a doubt the most expensive visa I’ve applied for. In addition to 8-night hotel stay, I moved flight to Juba thrice and had to be pay charges for the original flight changes as well as a separate flight cancellation. Plus, I had run outta clothes even though I made sure to pack for any eventualities. Thus, on way to the Entebbe airport this morning I had to wear shirt, socks and underwear inside out and doused cologne all over just to reduce stench of clothes. Good thing I had a jacket to wear over shirt so it didn’t make my weird dressing so obvious. Oh, I chose to wear pants back to front, ala Kris Kross; hey, if I am forced to recycle clothes I might as well go all out, right? In a foolish bid to curb my overpacking issue, I packed just enough toothpaste and dental floss to last a week. Isn’t that complicated, you ask? Well, not if you disinfect the non-writing end of a pen and unspool floss from its housing onto pen and squeeze out toothpaste into a Ziploc bag. Hey, y’all asked.
While passport was being handed over, I enquired of the lady behind the counter why I wasn’t informed a day after interview that additional information was required, or the reason why supplemental information was required in the first place. She gave standard, boilerplate answers that left me none the wiser. I really need to find out what issue is, especially as I am supposed to travel to Canada in January for equipment inspection and doing Europe twice next year, for Paris and Berlin marathons. Must I get a house, family and private plane in Kampala/Nairobi due to visa delays to be expected from being a South Sudan-based Nigerian who travels a lot? Ha.
Got back to Juba apartment 4 hours ago and immediately unpacked and took a nap. Thought about past week spent in Kampala and realized it wasn’t such a waste of time after all. Sure, the trip cost an arm and a leg, but got to experience new stuff I hadn’t on previous trips to Uganda, like:
Woke up at 830am the next morning wondering if I was requested to provide additional information primarily ‘cos I am Nigerian? But I have Nigerian friends in Uganda who’ve renewed their US visas without hassle. Or is it ‘cos I am based in South Sudan? Met an Ethiopian acquaintance from Juba who received his visa yesterday. Or is it ‘cos I travel a lot? Surely that should be a boon and not an obstacle, right? Or could it be that I am a South Sudan-based Nigerian who happens to have multiple stamps on his passports? I really would love to find out. Efforts to contact the US embassy by phone yielded diddly, and just when I had determined to head over there and cause someone to talk to me, I received an email from them. Half-expected to read they now required a list of most frequently used emojis, instead I was informed my application remained under “administrative processing” and was offered the opportunity to pick up passport the following day if I needed to travel, until process is concluded. I jumped at the chance and got travel agent to purchase a ticket for last flight to Juba, as original return plane ticket wouldn’t afford enough time to pick up passport and make flight.
Got to the embassy at the designated time yesterday and was made to queue up with those scheduled for a visa interview. Huh? Assumed I’d show up, be handed passport and head to airport. Instead, I waited for ca 20 minutes until I was called. Was asked if I’d wait for another 4 hours for administrative process to be concluded, so I’d pick up passport with visa and not have to return on another date. U what? Had no choice but to acquiesce to their request and cancel 255pm Uganda Airlines flight booking.
This was without a doubt the most expensive visa I’ve applied for. In addition to 8-night hotel stay, I moved flight to Juba thrice and had to be pay charges for the original flight changes as well as a separate flight cancellation. Plus, I had run outta clothes even though I made sure to pack for any eventualities. Thus, on way to the Entebbe airport this morning I had to wear shirt, socks and underwear inside out and doused cologne all over just to reduce stench of clothes. Good thing I had a jacket to wear over shirt so it didn’t make my weird dressing so obvious. Oh, I chose to wear pants back to front, ala Kris Kross; hey, if I am forced to recycle clothes I might as well go all out, right? In a foolish bid to curb my overpacking issue, I packed just enough toothpaste and dental floss to last a week. Isn’t that complicated, you ask? Well, not if you disinfect the non-writing end of a pen and unspool floss from its housing onto pen and squeeze out toothpaste into a Ziploc bag. Hey, y’all asked.
While passport was being handed over, I enquired of the lady behind the counter why I wasn’t informed a day after interview that additional information was required, or the reason why supplemental information was required in the first place. She gave standard, boilerplate answers that left me none the wiser. I really need to find out what issue is, especially as I am supposed to travel to Canada in January for equipment inspection and doing Europe twice next year, for Paris and Berlin marathons. Must I get a house, family and private plane in Kampala/Nairobi due to visa delays to be expected from being a South Sudan-based Nigerian who travels a lot? Ha.
Got back to Juba apartment 4 hours ago and immediately unpacked and took a nap. Thought about past week spent in Kampala and realized it wasn’t such a waste of time after all. Sure, the trip cost an arm and a leg, but got to experience new stuff I hadn’t on previous trips to Uganda, like:
- Live band at hotel on Friday nights, where singer unashamedly reads song lyrics off his phone. I get it may be hard trying to remember lyrics to a gazillion songs but surely there’s no need to recite the ‘La la la la la’ portion of Stevie Wonders’ My Cherie Amour from one’s phone.
- Banana Gonja chips. Same as plantain chips so no need to start panicking once my stash from Nigeria runs out.
- Massage where masseuse seemed to be enjoying her job a tad much. At start of massage I directed lady to concentrate on pain in right pinky finger (from trying out stunts on quad bike in Bali) and middle finger on left hand and left ankle (from football in Juba on my birthday last month). She spent a desultory 10 of the 90-minute massage on these problem spots and concentrated instead on auditioning for the role of Uganda’s Catwoman, using my oil-drenched back as a canvas, complete with meow sounds but thankfully no scratches. I wish I were kidding.
Tot ziens and God bless.
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