Friday, April 1, 2011

A is for ARC

Image forthcoming.  Need to charge my camera battery.

Today I picked up my Alien Resident Certificate (ARC), the identification card that goes with my resident visa, from the immigration office.  This is a replacement ARC; I lost my original and had to reapply for it.  Ugh.

This visa thing has been a mess from November.  I originally got a three-months visitor visa that was extended to six months, with a February expiration date.  But when I applied for my Resident Visa, it turned out that the visa processing office in New York had given me the wrong visa type.  They had given me a visa for exchange students, but I'm not here on exchange; I'm here with a program.  My resident director threatened the people at the consulate in Taiwan to use her political connections because she was so exasperated with the entire procedure.  I asked her how screaming at a service person fit in to her Buddhist way of life.  She replied that the Buddha appears to people in the forms most needed to "wake people up", so if yelling was what it took, then so be it.  (She's kind of my hero.)

But then I lost my ARC a couple of weeks ago.  It didn't even came home with me.

I'm kind of an absentminded person, so things easily slip my mind.  I'm going to try to use this experience to be more careful with my stuff.  Because going back and forth to process these loose ends of my visa have been a huge hassle, and I'm glad it's all over.

Happy April Fool's!


6 comments:

  1. Marjorie - I'm your first comment. I look forward to following you A-Z journey. You are in the group of blogs I committed to making sure I comment on each day as part of my challenge.

    Glad to hear your problem worked out ok.

    Lisa
    Inspired By Lisa A-Z

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  2. I saw the word ARC and immediately thought of a plot arc. How dumb am I? I'm glad the back and forth is over and you don't have that stress anymore!

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  3. I'm glad you got a replacement ARC in the end, and that someone stood up for you. Go Buddhist lady!

    I'm visiting via the A-Z hop. Nice to meet you. I'm #883 on the list. :)

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