Immigration

The last two week have involved a series of frustrating conversation, confusion, and a lot of over thinking things! I arrived in Nigeria on a three month entry visa with paperwork to extend my stay for up to year. We were told before leaving that everything we needed was in this packet and we would just need to bring it to immigration when we arrived. Upon arrival we wanted to take the paperwork within the first few days, but the sisters assured us that it could wait until closer to the three month mark.  I totally understand this now, because it cost around 400 dollars to extend the stay and they wouldn't want to pay it and then have us decide to leave two weeks in. As it got closer and closer to the three month mark, we continued to ask to return to Abuja to get them renewed. Finally, a week and a half ago we arrived in Abuja confident that we could get the visas renewed and be back to school by Friday. One of the sisters, appointed to be in charge of this process, took Kaitlin and I too immigration. Upon arrival we searched out the correct office in a building filled with government employees, many of whom seem to be doing a lot of nothing. Once in the right office the sister called the lady they have worked with before. She was traveling and would not be back until later in the week.  My immediate thought was why can't someone else help us, but sister got very quiet and said we should leave now. Once outside the building she explained that we have to be careful when it comes to things like this, you can't just let anyone help you. She went on to explain that if you just ask anyone they will take advantage of you, possibly seize your passport or visa paperwork and charge you to get it back. Scary! So we waited until the following Monday. When the lady opened our sealed packages, she discovered we were missing several necessary papers. With our visa expiring on the 18th, we began the rush to get all of our papers. We had to go to the bank and get an application, write letters, and get letters from the diocese. It was an extremely stressful, expensive, and confusing process. We spent so much time worrying about whether this would be completed before our visa expired. Would we have to leave? Would we be deported? Ridiculous, I know. We were also told by several people that we would be expected to leave our passports with immigration for up to eight weeks. Well, we got all the paperwork, handed over our passports, and were told we could have them back by the weeks end. So the bad news is we have to stay in Abuja for another week and miss school, but the good news is we will not be deported or without a passport.

I imagine dealing with visas and immigration is a confusing and frustrating process in most countries, including the United States. I have very little experience with the subject, but I find it a bit sad that people have to spend so much money and jump through so many hurdles to spend an extended amount of time in another country. Why can't we make this easier??? I'm sure there are reasons, but I just don't understand.