This has been a crazy week but we know who is in control and it’s not us. Sometimes less information is better. This is the case with the Nigerian consulate.
We started the application process online Sunday and learned the application website limits any one purchase to $250 and the applications were $112 each. Denied. Oh, and you can’t use one computer to apply more than once unless you wait an hour in between. But wait, there’s more! You can only use a credit card once per month. When your card is rejected because your bank can’t think of any reason a person from Wenatchee, living in Nigeria would make a charge for tickets in Nigeria and only a couple of days later try to charge from Atlanta for an entry visa to Nigeria… that counts as one use. Even calling the bank card company and telling them to allow the charge, you still need to wait a month to use that card again. After killing four cards this way (thanks Mom and Dad for trying with us), we figured we would throw ourselves on the mercy of the consulate.
Day One:
Missed the 8 am shuttle by just about two minutes, I guess. 9 am shuttle to the airport, train 20 miles to the bus connection, bus ride to the Nigerian Consulate. We went in, loaded for bear, and were given even more home work. We already have our residence permits, so all we needed were entry visas, but we wanted to be sure. When we talked to the people at the consulate, which is in a waiting room where you take a number wait to be called (and stare at yourself while talking to a one-way mirrored window), they would have liked us to start fresh requiring all the paper work in quadruplicate. After hearing our pleas (oops – they already had too much information), they told us a few things we needed to do. One included getting our friend (thanks Karin) to go wait in line for birth certificates for the boys and send them electronically. We started down that track, determined to return fully prepared the next day. We thought we would try to bring the fees we couldn’t pay online in the form of money orders. Bus, train, shuttle.
Day Two:
Shuttle, train, bus. Left the family at the hotel today. After talking to myself in the mirror again, I was told to remove one paragraph from one of the invitation letters we had received from Nigeria. I also needed to bring more money orders to cover the difference between the amount you can pay online and the “actual” cost of the visas. You can’t pay the full amount in money order, but you are allowed to pay the difference between what you thought you needed and what you actually need (oops- that too much information thing again). I went next door to Edventured. Edwin Mmereole is a Nigerian and the owner of Edventured, where he and his wife spend every day helping people fill out paperwork exclusively for passports and visas from the Nigerian consulate. I could see it on his face he knew where my mistakes were. He informed me that sometimes trying to do things the correct way confuses people and we should try to keep it simple (duh- too much information). We just need an entry visa, so after filling out two new visa apps online in his office and juggling our money orders to make everything add up, Edwin called the actual person at the consulate and hand delivered our paperwork personally. Problem solved…? Perhaps the visas will come tomorrow. Bus, train, shuttle.
Day Three:
Only had to shuttle to and from the airport to get our hotel voucher today. Things are in Edwin’s (and God’s) hands. While enjoying the best $5.99 all-you-can-eat buffet in Jonesboro- I mean, where everything from Sushi to Prime Rib is in the buffet, including an actual hibachi grill where they stir fry whatever you put on the plate - we waited for the call to tell us to come pick up our passports. When the phone did ring, we found out that apparently news travels fast in the Nigerian consulate and our end around tactics were discovered shortly after the snap and we were stopped for a loss. We called the shuttle and quickly returned to the hotel (as quickly as you can go after chasing spicy tuna rolls with chocolate chip mint ice cream) to email the letter that Edwin had removed from our stack of paperwork the day before. Edwin ran over to the consulate with a couple more money orders to make up the difference between the type of visa we need and the one we will get (thanks for trusting us to eventually pay for those, Edwin). Perhaps the visas will come tomorrow, skip click (broken record sound). Our flight is scheduled for Friday night so we still have time.
****For those of you who might be thinking I’m stalling so I can see the Steelers crush the Packers, I think I’d have been money ahead to just by a ticket and go to the game. ****
The family is hanging in there like champs and we are constantly amazed by the generosity and hospitality here in Atlanta. For example, Lucy, a Delta customer service rep, has helped us get our hotel vouchers every day. She found out that I would not make it to the airport in time to get the voucher to the hotel yesterday afternoon. She printed it and ran it out to the airport shuttle and waited in the cold wind and rain in her short-sleeved uniform to make sure we would have our room for free. Today, as Jack handed her a little bouquet of flowers, it brought tears to her eyes and hugs all around. She said “Now ya’ll di’nt hafta do that. Ya’ll are workin’ for God…” (pronounced Gah-awd)
Thanks for all the prayers and emails. Crazy week to be stuck in a hotel room watching CNN (maybe Fox News is banned in Atlanta?), with historic winter storms causing the largest cancelation of air traffic in US history AND the whole Middle East and North Africa on fire. We would like to encourage you all to boycott the “Day of Rage” scheduled for Friday and perhaps you could throw up a few more prayers for them. We feel your prayers!
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