Dearest Rachel -
I think I mentioned last week (although I can't seem to find anything that explicitly said so to you) that I was going to go into more detail about my preparations for next spring's trip after my follow-up visit with my agent; the idea behind it was that I could give you the whole picture of the process, once all the i's were crossed, and the t's were dotted.
Wait… scratch that… reverse it; all the i's dotted and the t's crossed.
You see, when one is about to venture into another country, one has to have one's papers in order. It's not as if these places can simply take your word that you are who you say you are, that you mean the place no harm, and you're just popping in for a day or two to look around and take in the local sights and color. Too many countries have dealt with too many bad actors to let the rest of us honest folk past; after all, the crooks didn't look all that different from the rest of us, after all. At present, it seems the only country you can just sneak into undetected and unapprehended is our own, and I'm already here. If I want to go somewhere else, however, I've got to be approved by each country I plan to visit.
Which, you might expect, involves an absurd amount of paperwork – nearly fifty pages worth, to say nothing of the fact that I need to submit both my passport and several additional passport-type photos of myself.
As a result, I headed over to our travel agency last week to go over the documentation I had to prepare for New Zealand, Indonesia, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, India, and – most exacting of all – China. Just as I remember from my trip there in college, the PRC really doesn't seem to like other people dropping in on them, especially unannounced. Their questionnaire is so exacting that the visa service provides a simplified form to fill out, which they then transcribe onto the official form, so that bumbling amateurs like myself don't make a single silly mistake – or even oversight – that would otherwise completely disqualify me from going ashore when we make port in Tianjin.
But first, I had to find the agency; they had moved their headquarters since the last trip I'd been on with Daniel. While their new building isn't far from its previous location – and with the benefit of a GPS application on my phone, it shouldn't have been that difficult to locate – I found myself searching for a good ten minutes after turning off IL-72 before I found the place last week. Despite being five stories tall, the building isn't quite visible from Higgins Road as the map software would lead one to believe; I had to drive at least the equivalent of a city block behind a cluster of newly-constructed townhomes before I spotted the place. At least when I got there, my agent was on the phone with another client, so I hadn't left her waiting impatiently for me.
But as it turned out, what I expected to be a few minutes' visit turned into a discussion lasting several hours, and even then, required that I return to the agency today to finish things off. Part of that was my fault – I had forgotten to bring my passport with me last week – but at the same time, I had been assured that I wouldn't need to bring a checkbook in payment for the various processing fees, and had left that behind as well. Both turned out to be absolutely necessary in order to complete the paperwork, as well as more passport-sized photos than either of us had expected. So, that was most of what today's trip was meant to deal with; although in the interim, I had also forwarded my China-related documents to the visa preparation company as per their request. I hope I did that part right, although given the fact that China is so persnickety, I would like to hope that I would have received notice from the company if there was something amiss, but as of yet… nothing.
I will say that my trip over today was much easier, now that I know where to go. The fact that it was snowing (you can see a few goose feather flakes in this picture, although they're more obvious when they're in motion) and windy today certainly added to the level of anticipation, as it doesn't take much wintry weather to get one in the mood for getting out of town. And I know, the winter weather has just barely gotten started, too.
And in fact, at this point, it was a fairly straightforward visit; much like what I'd expected of last week's visit, in fact, getting me out the door in a little more than an hour. We did have a bit of an adventure trying to process my visa application for Australia – which had to be done online via their own phone app. The app had trouble reading the chip on my passport, so my agent enlisted several others to help her figure out how to go about doing so. She also took my picture, as having to doff my glasses for a passport-style shot meant I couldn't read the instructions to proceed. But at least, once the required application fee was paid via credit card, it was all good; it wasn't but a few minutes later than I received an email assuring me that my entry into Oz had been approved, and I was good to go.
If only these other countries could be so accommodating and efficient. While I could make jokes about Australia's query about an applicant's criminal background (and whether they would let you in if you didn't have one, given their history), I'll refrain from saying more than that out of respect for their quick response.
As for the packet of other documentation, my agent recommended I take the documents, the photos and my passport (yes, I have to send my actual passport to these guys in Washington; suddenly, I feel imprisoned in my entire country) and send it off via FedEx, rather than trusting the U.S. Postal Service with "[my] life," as she put it. She sent me off, and wished me well – and instructed me to let her know once everything came back to me approved and ready to go. And that's what I did, giving myself a chance to grab a late lunch with Daniel to wrap up my activities for the day.
So with that taken care of, it's all out of my hands for now. Keep an eye on me and it, honey, and wish me luck. I'm going to need it.
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