That's why I was at immigration a couple of weeks ago. Trying to be legal. I was trying to renew my kids' visas and mine as well. We have two different sorts of visas and in the order of all things visa, I have to get the kids' approved first and then apply for mine.
Here's how it goes:
1. Get a letter from the school saying my kids do actually attend.
2. Print out all forms. Guess which ones are still being used. Fill them out. Make copies of every official document of each member of the family that you can possibly think of. Get pictures made of the kids. Not the school pictures that you have on hand. Those have blue background. Must have red background.
3. Take all the forms to immigration. Take a number. Sit (if you can find an empty seat). Turn in paperwork about 2 hours later. Go home.
4. While waiting for a week, go open a bank account (since you don't have one here b/c you just use ATM machines). Banker will ask you to go home and make a bunch of copies of documents that they will later never ask you for. So that makes 2 trips to the bank.
5. Go home and print out bank statement showing all the money you just stuck into the bank account you didn't want.
6. A week later go to immigration to pick up kids' visas. Yay!
That's the good news. The bad news is that on the day my kids' visas came out, my own visa expired. So I had to spend time at immigration applying for a one month visa in order to buy time to renew my year visa. And the other bad news was that Mr. Grumpy was working at immigration.
I hate to write about everything that happened during that SEVEN HOUR visit to immigration but it did involve the following:
1. 200 people jammed into one room
2. a bored, hungry, thirsty, about-to-pass-out anonymous lady
3. a cold bottle of water for sale downstairs that the anonymous lady could not leave to go buy (in case her number was called while she was gone)
4. a squatty potty that the anonymous lady could not visit because of same reason above.
5. Food that anonymous lady did NOT bring with her because who thinks they are gonna spend SEVEN HOURS at immigration?
5. same lady contemplated crawling across the desks and hunting for her paperwork on her own
6. a nice Indian lady who offered anonymous lady a piece of candy about 6 hours into the ordeal. (anonymous lady forgot all polite protocol, though she did smile and say thank you as she snatched the candy and stuck it in her mouth. I do not remember if she even took the wrapper off, I think she was pretty hungry)
7. And Mr. Grumpy, who I already mentioned.
Add it all together and, as they say back home, the anonymous lady was "fit to be tied" (you have to say that in a Texas accent. "Fit" has two syllables and "tied" is pronounced "tad" as in "add a tad more bacon grease to that thar gravy Hunny")
Wait. You may say. What did going to the bank have to do with anything? Well, yes, that is a good question. The bank document was needed for the next trip when I applied for the longer visa, but could not apply for on the same day as the kids' visas because I had to then go back to the school to show the new visas and get a second letter that I could not get that day because immigration was an hour away. See, that was an easy answer.
And when the anonymous lady drove home, feeling defeated and completely frustrated at a wasted day, she remembered to be thankful. In spite of it all, she went home with visas for the kids and a temporary extension for hers. And it's all just part of the package right? We all have things we just hate to do. But sometimes we just gotta put on our big girl panties and do it.
I have one more trip to make to immigration to finally have legal status in the country for another year. And in the end, I get to live here. Legally. Peacefully. And when it's all said and done, thankful too.
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