Thursday, July 7, 2011

Visa Issues .. Oh, Not again!

Got myself to land into another Visa issue again. Nothing alarming, it was the same old binary question, should i stay or should i leave and the leaving portion was actually immediate in effect (The icing on the cake). I think i have gotten used to this situation so much now, i have in fact started enjoying this (Comon! Don't judge me). I also really liked the shock expressed by the people around me when they come to hear that i might be staying in a country illegally! I love it, the confusion borne from the fact and question, as to, whether they need to sympathize with me now, or rant at me for being so irresponsible made their reaction awesome to observe.

Anyways to the fact now, my work permit carries two different dates with respect to its expiry. The one with all decorations around it states it as July02 while the one hidden under the remarks section says Oct10 and which did i take as reference? You guessed it right, the totally obscure one on the remarks section (well you need to know me to understand why i did that). How did this all start? the responsible person in me applied for my extension since the expiry is in Oct, 3 months in advance, mind you and the entire immigration desk freaked out on seeing the work permit scanned copy. Imagine the situation for a minute two expiry dates, one already in the past, the other one in an rather obscure area in the work permit, I will not mind them freaking out. There were 3 different people calling me on this and each had their own theory as to which is the expiration date. Actually no one knew what they were talking about, no one could tell me if i am still valid to stay in the country. The comment from the Immigration lawyer my HR here managed to meet was excellent --> "Its an unique case". Deja vu?
Some one should teach the immigration lawyers to say "I dont know"

Well looks like, no one gets two different dates on their work permit for expiry (I am the chosen one!) and the immigration desk at the port of entry made an exception in my case to make it confusing. Eventually my company immigration desk spoke to the service provider here and got a confirmation stating the remarks column date trumps the other date, so i am legal to stay in this country. Couldnt have asked for a better entertainment to start the week with, it was a thrill and fun ride for two days. The best portion of this ride was when my manager heard i will have to come back immediately with no resource to replace me, his reaction PRICELESS *ref: Visa card ad!

No comments: