Phnom Penh (Part 1) – April 1st, 2017
Apr 3rd, 2017 by rallyadmin
The drama really starts 10 days ago. I’ve already gotten my Cambodian visa. You can get them on arrival at the Phnom Penh airport but that can be a long wait. Surprisingly, you can also get one on line. Fill out the form, upload a picture, pay by credit card, wait a few days and you get ana email with a PDF file attached that contains your visa. Probably no less secure that standing in line at the airport.
Next is the Chinese passport. I downloaded the forms from the website of the company that I’ve used many times for visas, filled them out and uploaded a picture to the website so that I didn’t have to get more passport-sized photos done at my local RiteAid.
I checked may passport for blank pages and found three of them. That should be enough. More on this later. Before I could print the forms and send everything to the visa agency, I get an email informing me that the photos do not meet the standards that the Chinese require for passport photos. The background is not pure white. It’s almost white. Okay I’ll re-shoot the photo.
Of course we don’t have a single wall that is white. I take another photo and photo shop the background to PanTone white. Resubmit the photo. A few hours later another email rejecting the photo for some unspecified reason. All right, already. Off to RiteAid and get some official passport photos. Back home, load everything into a Fedex pack and drop it off for overnight to the visa agency. Still have three weeks to departure.
A week goes by and a phone call from the visa agency. The Chinese won’t give you the visa: your passport doesn’t have enough pages! “It’s got three blank pages.” Yes, but they say that a stamp on one of the reverse pages has bled through to the blank side and they say that your passport only has 2 blank pages and they won’t give you the visa until you get a new passport.
This getting serious. Now it’s only 2 weeks to departure. “Can your agency handle the passport renewal?” “Yes, the next appointment is Aprill 22nd.” “You do know that I’m leaving on March 30th?” “I’m sorry but that’s all we can do.” “Send the passport back and I’ll try to get an emergency replacement here.” Grrrrr.
This is getting very serious. I’m running out of time. The ironic part of this kerfluffel is that the only reason I need a Chinese visa is for an overnight stay in Beijing to see my niece, Melissa, and her baby and husband, Fernando, whom I’ve never met. My plane tickets are based on the stauy in Beijing and if I cancel at this late date, I don’t know if I can even get another flight that gets me to Phnom Penh for April 1st. More grrrrrr.
I very reluctantly call my congressman’s local office in Rock Hill. I hate the thought of asking his office for assistance. The moron’s only accomplishments after 3 Terms in office is to have voted for ObamaCare repeal some 50 plus times. I feel like a hypocrite having to call his office and ask for help. But these are desperate times.
I get a staffer on the phone and explain the problem. She can help (hurray!). She’ll call me back in a few moments after she tries to get me an appointment at the passport office in Atlanta. Less than 10 minutes later, she’s back on the phone. She’s gotten me an appointment at 8:30 the next morning and I’ll have the passport later that day. (Super hurray!!)
While, I have her on the phone I ask her about who she actually works for. It turns out that she no longer works for my congressman, the Republican, Mick Mulvaney. He’s been appointed as the new Trump administration budget director which is the Peter Principle on steroids. Until we have an election to fill the vacant seat in June, the office works for the Clerk of the House of Representatives, not Mulvaney. I can sleep easier. The situation is starting to show some hope.
Spend the night in a hotel in downtown Atlanta and at the passport office just a few blocks away promptly at 8:30. Fill out the passport application. Answer some questions about why this application is an emergency renewal. (The State Department no longer adds pages to existing passports. Now you choose either a thin 202 page or a thick 52 page passport on the application.) Show my flight itinerary. Everything ids in order. “Be back by 2 this afternoon and you’ll get the new passport.” Damn! This might actually work.
At 2 on the dot, I get the new passport. Put it and all of the visa application materials (which had been sent back to me with the old passport) into a Fedex pack and drop it for overnight to the visa agency. Back in the car and up I-85 to home is mid-afternoon Atlanta traffic.
I call the visa agency and tell them. They tell me that everything should work out okay. They’ll deliver all of the materials to the Chinese consulate tomorrow. The Chinese will return it 5 days later on the 29th. I’ll have the morning of the 30th in plenty of time for my evening flight to Phnom Penh. Damn, this is going to work.
Obi-wan