African Bureaucracy = Hell

This post is going to be long and full of my venting, so get ready!

So, I just got back to Uganda from South Africa, and it was a unnecessarily crazy and frustrating process to get my visa to Uganda:

I decided to do the visa in South Africa because the Immigration office in Kampala was giving me hell about getting a visa, so I thought it would be easier to do it in South Africa . . . boy was I wrong.

I had to go to the Ugandan Embassy in Pretoria (about 45 minutes from where I am working in Joburg) 3 times:

First Visit: I get to the office and try to submit my application; the time is 12:15 pm. The secretary looks at me and says: we're closed, you have to submit your application before 11:45. I look at her and her desk that has the applications that need to be processed, and I say "Can you just take mine? I can see the other applications." And then she acts like I just shot her and huffs over to take my application. She looks at the application and says, "Where is the attachment?" and I say "What attachment?". She then explains to me that I must have a letter of invitation from someone that I will be staying with (proof of a place to live while in Uganda) and a copy of my return plane ticket. I then explain to her that this is the second visa I have applied for and the first one (which is of the exact same type as the one I am currently applying for) did not require that. She then says that since I applied for the first one in the US, it is different because we are in South Africa. So, I leave it at that and then I get those other documents organized. First trip to Pretoria = a waste of time.

Second Visit: So, a few weeks later (this past monday), I go back; I spent the whole day in Pretoria because I had to drop the application before 11:45 and pick it up between 2 and 3. This time, I drop of the completed application. She looks through it and complains that the letter from my friend Janet is not on letterhead, so how will she know it is from Uganda (I don't really see how letterhead makes that much of a difference because I can make up any letterhead I want and say it's from a Ugandan company or whatever, but oh well, I guess letterhead legitimizes all letters!), and she also complains that I printed the application form on the back of something else (but really?!?! what difference does it make, the information is there and that was all the paper I had at my office). Then, she says "Come back between 2 and 3 . . . if they will even give you a visa!" Wow; she really likes to be a pain in my ass!

So, I come back at 2. She says the visa is not ready. While I wait, a Ugandan lady who is waiting for her travel documents is asking to speak to someone else because she has a question that this secretary woman cannot/refuses to answer. the secretary says that this woman as a Ugandan will not receive special treatment here and that only South Africans get special treatment. WHAT!?!?! This secretary is South African, so how dare she insult this Ugandan woman in such a way; in her own embassy, which is actually Ugandan soil if I am not mistaken. Can anyone say xenophobia . . . how can they get someone like this to work in an embassy?!?! Then, after waiting for an hour, this secretary woman says that we must all come back (there are about 4 of us) tomorrow because the visas and travel documents are not finished. At this point, I am fuming mad!

I ask her why. She says that there is a problem with my passport/visa application that the guy upstairs cannot understand, so someone else needs to take a look at it, but that person is not in the office at the moment (now it took me like 15 minutes to get her to actually answer me, because she just kept saying: "There's a problem, come back tomorrow!"). Then I asked her if she could let me talk to the person upstairs so that I can see if there is a problem that I can fix, so that it can get done today. She refuses but I push and she calls the guy (does not let me talk to him) and says the same thing "There is a problem, and you need to come back tomorrow." So, I tell her that I cannot spend an entire day in Pretoria again, so I need to know exactly when it will be done; I ask her to promise me that it will be done by 9 am (the time she told me to come back) because I don't want to come back and see that it is not finished. She promises that it will be done by 9 am. I then ask her what time the embassy opens; she says 9 am. So, I say "If you say it will be finished by 9 am but you only open at 9 am, then this person that needs to check my application must be coming in sometime later today because he will need time to work on it; so why can't I come back later today so that I don't have to make another trip?" She then realizes that I caught her in her lie and she resorts to repeating herself without explaining and without making sense "No, it will be done at 9 am and he is not coming in until tomorrow." So I keep arguing with her and she just walks out of the office into the back, so I wait! She comes back; we argue more because I am stubborn and want to make my point. She then says "Don't ruin my day! I am not coming back!" And she leaves the office again. She has to come back because it is the front desk of the embassy, but I leave anyway.

Third Visit:

I get to the embassy at 10:30 the next morning and is the visa ready? Nope! So, I wait and then she has me talk to “the guy upstairs” and he tells me that they can not give me a visa because my letter of invitation from my housemate needs to be more specific and they need proof of employment in the US. WHAT!?!?!?! If they would have told me that yesterday, I could have organized to bring that stuff today, but now I can’t afford to come here again (too much to do). So, I tell him that I cannot come here again and that I will just get a visa at the airport. He then tells me not be arrogant. WHAT!?!?!? He goes on to say “Whose airport is that? Is it your’s?” . . . . um, no!? . . . He then goes on to explain to me that Uganda is a sovereign nation, just like the US . . . wow! that is amazing, because I actually thought that Uganda was not a country of its own! . . . So, I just ask for my passport back and I leave. R500 ($62) down the tube, but at least I did not have to deal with them again! And, when I got to the airport to get a visa, guess what they needed . . . $50 and my passport, That’s all!!!! But at least I am safely in Uganda again.

So, if you ever need to go to Uganda, just get your tourist visa at the airport!

Oh how I hate African bureaucracy! And guess what, I still have to get my year long multiple entry visa . . . good luck right?