Immigration Day

Yesterday, we had to go to the huge immigration office at Chang Wattana to renew our visas for another year. We managed to avoid this place last year because it was the site of a large protest. A number of other offices had been opened throughout the city. Our part of the city has fewer foreigners, so our local branch was not as busy and made for a relative easy trip. This same office remained open after the protests were squelched, and we are thankful to be able to do our "90 day report" at this location. However, visa renewal is not a service offered there, so we headed off to the land of the long wait.

We looked up all the information we could find to be as prepared as possible for an exhausting day. We read that it was immensely beneficial to be at the doors at opening time. With this in mind, we used a taxi "radio service" the night before to arrange for a taxi to be at our front gate at 7:30 am. Even in the normal morning rush hour traffic, we should have arrived before the 8:30 am opening. However, at 7:00 am the service called to say a taxi was not in the area, so one would not be coming. I thought the whole purpose of calling ahead was so that a taxi would be "in the area," specifically on our street at a certain time. There was nothing we could do about it now, except for to try to hurry and get out of the house a little earlier. Unfortunately, everyone was still sleepy from a busy weekend and not wanting to be rushed. We left the house right on time at 7:30 to walk to the bus stop. When we don't want a taxi (this is the third time we've taken one), available ones are all over the place. This particular morning, they all seemed to be occupied. We decided to take a bus to the end of the skytrain line, where taxis usually wait for fares.

When bus number 122 was two stops away from where we wanted to be, we heard a loud explosion and the engine died. The driver attempted a couple of restarts, unsuccessfully. We all filed off the bus. Another bus was not in view, but we were right next to a subway station. We took the subway one stop and finally able to get a taxi to take us where we wanted to go. The taxi was clean and had working seat-belts! He also started the meter without any argument. He was a very friendly man, and Philip was able to practice some Thai on the trip. Traffic was bad, and Philip asked if it was usual traffic or if it was due to the upcoming holidays; it was just the every day traffic. We arrived at the correct building without further incident.

We walked in the doors of the office at 8:45 am - not too bad, considering all the unplanned travel of our morning. Fortunately, Philip had found the correct forms and filled out all the paperwork at home the night before; the officials would not give a queue ticket until the paperwork was complete. We were number 69-74. Philip had been told that the officials took a lunch break at number 70 regardless of what time it was. We settled down for the long wait. At first, we had six chairs all together. The girls drew and worked on Christmas activity sheets I had printed from Focus on the Family. They hadn't eaten much breakfast, so we started in on the snacks early: banana chips, crackers, fruit. A large open area was nearby, so the kids were able to play there. Philip invented a game where one person walked a path on the lines of the floor and another watched carefully and then walked the same path. Hollis created simple, logical paths that all of us older than Meriel could follow. Meriel would start out correctly but would get confused at the first or second turn. Meriel wandered on complicated routes, making random squares and backtracking. No one could successfully follow her. When we tired of this, Philip read to the girls from a book of American Tall Tales, while I chased Simeon around the room, keeping him out off "Staff Only" places.

At noon, the officials were on number 60. A man came through, announcing that the entire area was closing for an hour. We packed our bags and went off to find lunch. Every person who worked in the entire, huge office complex, as well as everyone visiting those offices, was also on lunch break. We looked around the building for a bit, letting the kids run and burn off some energy. When the lines had dwindled, we got lunch and headed back for the second part of our wait.

With only eight numbers ahead of us, I didn't want to unpack the bag. Eris got a piece of paper and scrunched it into a ball. Simeon chased it around while the girls threw and kicked it. Before our number was called, a person came around with a sign for 60-70. This started the process for checking our paperwork. The lady behind the desk was the same lady who had processed our visas at the other location a year ago! She definitely remembered us, and Philip recognized her. She was very friendly throughout the whole process. The letter from Philip's contact at Thammasat University apparently had the wrong wording, "visa application" instead of "visa extension." The Lord gave us grace from this woman and her boss, and they allowed us to use the letter instead of requiring us to get a corrected one. We also had copies of everything required. We had prepared copies of everything we could think of - birth certificates, marriage certificate, death certificate of our great grandmothers - but sometimes they still think of something else. This time we were set.

After the paperwork check, we had to pay for the visas and have our pictures taken. By this time, everyone was fussy and tired. Hollis kept slipping off the chairs and getting minor injuries accompanied by loud crying. Meriel did not want her sisters to touch her and was having a hard time not completely breaking down. She displayed extraordinary control, and we were able to help her use her words to tell us how she was feeling. She looked at the camera when it was her turn, but we told her she did not have to smile. The lady told me that I could take the kids out of the office to the waiting area while Philip completed the last step of approval (we hoped) of the visas. When we had our visas in hand, we thanked God for His provision and that we wouldn't have to do this again for another year.

The trip home by bus, then skytrain, then bus was uneventful. We had an early supper, Christmas cookies for dessert, and I was in bed shortly by 9:30 pm. Meriel prayed that everyone would sleep late in the morning; a prayer not be answered, however. Maybe we'll all go to bed early again tonight.