Getting My Visa
China on August 18, 2008 at 12:00 amOnce everything was finalized I looked into how to get a visa.
I went to the Chinese Consulate's website and they have a list of what you need, a step by step guide of how to handle taking your ticket, which windows to go to-all that, and the best time to go.
So I have these printed out and I feel ready to go. I grab Steve and Andrew and we leave for New York at 4am. Besides the fact that those two fell asleep on me while I was driving everything was serene. When we got their I took a number, deli style, and was 130.
Turns out that meant there were actually 130 people ahead of me. Normally I think of those numbers like serial numbers with no relation to the start or end, random. Not today. So I sat around all day on the steps of the Consulate because all the chairs were taken waiting for my number.
The building "closes" at 2:30pm which is when they stop allowing people to enter, but they still keep helping everyone still inside.
I must have looked pretty sad because around 3pm some guy took pity on me and gave me his number, 98, he had had enough. That's how terrible this place was the man waited all day just like me and he gave up when his number was just 10 away.
So up comes 98.
I stepped forward, this was it. I even turned back to Steve and Andrew and gave them a nervous thumbs up.
Trying to mimic the people I watched all day I handed the woman all my articles in a fashion I thought was neat and helpful. Laughing at me the woman pulls out a list of things that you need to have and checks off like 5 things I don't have. NONE of them were listed on the website as being required, not even mentioned for that matter.
Heart broken we drive back to Massachusetts.
Round 2: I meant business.
I got all the ridiculous documents they wanted and then some, no way was this woman going to turn me away for not having what I needed.
This time we left at 2am, not sleeping at all. Walking the still dark streets we approached the Consulate. Only one other was there. We even beat the protesters.
So me and Steve are #2 and #3 in line and we are ready to throw down if anyone tries to play cutsies. Every now and then someone would make the walk to the front of the line and read signs like they were lost and we would give them the death stare until they went back to their place. About 60 people were queued by the time they let us in.
A few people swooped in ahead as the doors opened, but I had #3 and I had a front row seats.
I got the same woman that turned me away the first time. She ended up giving me back a ton of stuff that she told me I needed last time I was there. Had I been turned away I would have flipped out over that, but I was in.
10 minutes in and out.
We walked to the parking garage, took a nap in the car, woke up around 1pm. Made the walk back and picked it up.
I could have paid someone else to do all this, probably cheaper to do so too because I made two trips, but it was a bit of a learning experience.
I don't understand why people like New York, it's a shit hole. It smells, its loud, there's construction everywhere, and the traffic sucks. Did I mention I hate NY.