Saturday, March 18, 2006

Well, we got screwed

I have been going after the elusive "student visa" for 6 months now..... In order to get things done immigration wise in the Philippines, you have to "play ball"....I have a "friend of the family" inside that was "helping me". As it turns out, after a lot of money, time and energy, they produce for me a completely useless visa. The date on it invalidates my schooling that I have taken, and prohibits me from going to school in Baguio for 1 year! Of course, nothing like receiving this news 72 hours before my scheduled flight home. To make matters worse, I need to get a couple of other letters so that my visa is not "used up", therefore causing me to have to restart the entire procedure. Since there is no time to get this done within our scheduled return, we must unfortunately extend our return flight home to the 28th... Karen was real upset, I have managed to retain my cool. I am starting to get used to this stuff. I suspect that the woman helping us is basically ripping me off, but at this point, I cannot jeopardize the time and effort I have spent going to school here ,therefore she has me over a barrel.

3 comments:

jef said...

I'm sorry to hear that dude. I hope this "charade" will turn out well for you.

Joaquin said...

well, it looks like we have our ducks in row, now.. I needed a bunch of stuff, ACR, I-Card, etc. I just assumed that I was getting ripped off. However, I am up to about 46,000 pesos on this whole affair....

jef said...

newsflash...that is a rip off hehehe. Forgive my kababayan though for doing this to you. Anyways, I hope you will get out from this fluke soon. God speed