Documents

Document Drama
This week's dramma involves getting my resident permit. A month ago, I submitted about 20 pages of documents to immigaration in application for a residence permit. Becuase I was unsure of my address (the official address is on a cross street), we had arranged with immigration for them to send an email when it was ready. So far, no email had been forthcoming though I have checked my spam box every day for the last three weeks. I have also been checking my mailbox every day, just in case the papers were sent to my home address. Yesterday morning, a voice in my head told me to go to the immigration to see what was going on. The immigration officer spoke excellent English. She looked up my file on the computer and found that they had sent me a letter last week with a notice that one of the apartment owners had not signed the document. In this letter, I was supposed to get the signature and resubmit the document by September 13. The immigration officer printed a copy of the letter for me and asked me to fill out two more documents; one requesting an extension and the other that she had provided me a copy of the letter requesting the document. The immigration officer also asked me about my mailbox: Did I have a key? Yes. Did I know where it was? Yes. Was my name on it? No, but the owner's name was. She advised me to add my name to it because official documents can only be left in mailboxes that have the recipient's name. 

 From immigration, I went to the secretary's office at the school and asked her to help me contact the apartment owners. On the way, I met the director of the institute as she was going to class and briefly explained my findings at immigration. She promised to contact the owners, who are her friends. I met with the secretary as well. She called the owners and set up a meeting with them for that evening. She also gave me their contact information. In the evening, the landlord and landlady came to my apartment. They offered to sign the documents outside my door, but I insisted that they come in. It would be much easier to sign at the table. They both signed. They also connected me to their daughter, whom they have designated as property manager. Now I have a way to contact them directly if something else comes up. 

 I returned to immigration this morning. The documents are ready to send now. I should receive them in the next two or three weeks. There is a backlog of applicants and the immigration office in September, so processing documents is a little slower.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

August Blessings

Image
“Lord, make me a blessing” I prayed as I began my third journey to Sherborne to visit a friend of many years. A pastor I know often says that “blessed people bless people.” I was certainly blessed by her hospitality, encouragement, fellowship, and simple adventures. After a very busy time of administering exams, organizing English camps, navigating my place in the schools where I worked and the church where I served, and endlessly questioning my intercultural and linguistic skills, my stay in Sherborne was relaxing and rejuvenating.   To be sure we did use our language differently. I adjusted to calling dessert “pudding”, though there was no pudding. I learned to call the sidewalk “pavement” and paved roads “tarmac.” We hung the laundry in the garden, which I would have called the yard. The yard, short for courtyard, is where we sat on sunny days to eat lunch or entertain guests who came for tea; I would have called it the patio. I already knew that my British friends called...
Read more

Fall Colors and Cityscapes

Image
 October 21, 2024 Last week, I learned from my university students that Monday and Tuesday were fall break. (This does not coincide with fall break at the vocational high school  which is for a week starting next Monday or the high school which is for a week starting next Wednesday) With an unexpected holiday, a friend in Budapest suggested a hike on Gellert Hill to look at the fall colors.  I almost missed the train. I was up at 6:30 for my daily Bible reading with the gang in Shanghai, which we finished quite early this morning and all my picnic preparations were done last night, but 8 o’ clock still creeped up on me and caught be by surprise. I had to look for my letter from the university that gives me a 50% discount on train fares and my ID. I also looked for my charger to make sure my phone would have peak performance. Somehow I had it in my mind that I was taking the train at 9:44, but I had told my friend 8:44. I stopped at the ATM on the way and arrived at the tr...
Read more