Visa Problems

So last Thursday I arrived at the Ugandan Ministry of Internal Affairs with a letter in hand explaining that I would be working here as a volunteer. I was frustrated when I was given a list of more than 6 documents I would have to present in order to obtain a volunteer permit. I was told that the Ugandan embassy in Canada had issued the wrong visa, that I had been volunteering illegally for a whole month and that I would have to return to Canada to get a criminal records check.

Through some quick thinking I managed to gather all of the documents including a scanned copy of my criminal records check and returned to the ministry of internal affairs at about 11 today. Thinking it would take about an hour to get through, I planned to go home and rest for the remainder of the afternoon as I have a fairly severe throat infection which is not clearing up. Well first when I got there I had to wait for 30 minutes for the person who was assisting me with my case. Then once it was clear that I had all of the documents I was sent to the visa desk where a very surely woman (who previously threatened to deport me) started suggesting that I would need to provide a bank statement for UCA, which was of course indicated nowhere in the list of documents. So after processing requests of 5 other people she showed my file to her supervisor who went back to the assistant immigration commissioner who had been the person who was assisting me and we sat and talked about it and they decided that it would be better to issue me a special pass since UCA wasn't an NGO but a corporation. The excruciatingly frustrating part about this was that I didn't need any of the documentation which I spent days compiling for the special pass.

Nevertheless the sent me on my way to the casheir, who promptly informed me they had just closed for lunch and that I should return in an hour. During my hour wait I was pontificated to by a born again christian and then had to stand in line for 20 minutes at the cashier. Once at the cashier's post I turned over the documentation and tried to pay at which point I was informed that I would have to come back tomorrow because they needed to assess my fee and that I would have to go to a bank, which is not near by to internal affairs to pay the balance and return with the receipt. At this point I lost my cool and exclaimed that I had already been there for three hours and so they agreed to do the assessment then but I had to wait another 45 minutes.

Once I was given the assessment the teller explained that I would have to return with the receipt, have it verified, submit my application some new official and then return for it two business days later.

That of course wasn't the end of it, I then had to take a Boda Boda to the bank where I waited 45 minutes to exchange the american dollars I had taken out of the bank to pay the fee for the visa, its price is listed in American dollars, and then stood in line again to pay the fee.

I ended up getting home at the same time I would most nights, and now the power is out. Of course.