Last week I wrote about my latest Nigerian visa application – and how the process was much smoother this time round.
If only collecting my passport and visa had been as simple…
When I submitted my passport and application last week, I was given a receipt with the date 29th August and a collection time of 3.30-4.30 printed on it. ’29th is a bank holiday,’ I told the man. ‘You are open on the bank holiday?’
‘Eh… Yes,’ he replied.
Hmm. I wasn’t entirely convinced but left it at that.
On Friday I called the visa enquiry number at the High Commission just to make sure they were going to be open.
‘Eh… We are doing collections from 12 to 1,’ the man told me.
‘But my receipt says 3.30-4.30.’
‘Eh… but it’s a holiday so come at 12.’
So if I hadn’t called to check and shown up at 3.30 as planned, they’d have been closed! FFS.
So, I left home on Monday morning, got there at about 11.50, and went into the visa hall and waited.
And waited.
And waited.
Nothing happened. There were about 15 people waiting with me.
At 1pm I went to the counter and asked the man what was happening – when would the collections be ready?
‘Eh… They are not ready.’
‘Yes, but *when* will they be ready?’
‘Eh… We think by 2 o’clock. You can go and come back.’
FFS. Go where, exactly?
I went out to get a sandwich and was back in the visa hall by 1.30. At about 2.15pm they started calling out receipt numbers – mine was first. There were LOADS of passports awaiting collection – but I don’t think their owners knew that they had to collect them early as it was a holiday. I took my passport and got the hell out of there. Thank goodness I’d taken a book with me… I’d have been bored out of my brains otherwise.
Notes by Nectar 