My visa expires on January 2, so I went to Banqiao today for my first extension (I’m a student, studying at Tamkang’s language center). I wasn’t sure if I needed to go to the police station close to the Banqiao station or the one at Fuzhong, so I tried Banqiao first. Nope, the folks there said I needed to go to the one close to Fuzhong, so my Korean friend and I walked there. After arriving at that police station, they said, “Nope! You need to go to yet another station.” Well, OK, we don’t mind walking, finally got to the right place, and I got a form and started to fill it out while friend went to get a number.
They had a sign posted there, only in Chinese, not in English, telling foreigners that if their visas expire after 12/29, they have to wait until January 2 and go to the new office to get their extensions. My friend was trying to figure out what the sign meant (we both read Chinese pretty darned good but this was complicated), but she didn’t quite understand it all, so she finally asked a clerk, and he told her. She was shocked that they would post that important notice only in Chinese and expect foreigners to be able to understand it, and she proceeded to tell them how stupid that was (not exactly the best thing to do, but she was right). I didn’t know any of this was happening; I was still filling out my form. We were very confused, and the guy drew us a little map and said to go to the new location.
OK, so we walked a little way, went past number 168, which looked like a police station, looking for number 166. There was a brand-new office being worked on, still not open, and we asked the workers if that was number 166. They pointed back the way we came. We returned to 168, where we found a police officer. Asked him where 166 was, he pointed back at the workers. WTF? Finally, we just walked back to the the other place and told the guy the office at the address he gave us wasn’t open yet. “Right,” he says, “you come back Jan. 2.” “But that’s the day my visa EXPIRES. Isn’t that cutting it a bit close? Can’t I apply for the extension now?” He goes and asks some other guy, who finally explained to me that the government is going to move the handling of visas to the immigration department, and that the police department will no longer take care of that, and that there is simply no way I can apply for the extension until January 2.
I’m really worried about having to wait until the last day, because one other person told me that when her friend waited until the final day, he was told he had to leave the country and apply for another visa! But what can I do? I have no choice but to wait until next Tuesday, but they might tell me “no” when I go! I don’t know if I should buy a plane ticket to Hong Kong on Tuesday just in case, or if I should just hope for the best.
How can I possibly enjoy New Year’s Eve when I have no idea what’s coming next week?
