The Saga of the invalid VISA

This story starts, not with me, but with 5 Americans who got arrested after I arrived for going into the mining province illegally and taking pictures illegally. That kind of set the stage for the border patrol to say everyone must have a VISA before coming to Congo, made possible by the very new Congo embassy in America. Now you have to go to contact the embassy to get your VISA and they will no longer give you a VISA at the border, even the 8 day VISA that before was so easy to get. As I was leaving today, two Americans were turned away and walked back into Rwanda, not sure what they were going to do. Given this situation, it was all the worse that the VISA I got in Beni was no good.

I was in Beni with my 8 day VISA like always, and then someone from the school converted it for me. I wanted to leave Congo two weeks later so I said if I can get two more 8 day ones, that would be cheaper than the one month VISA, but I don't know if you can or not. They checked and the guys at the OFFICIAL office in Beni gave me a 15 day VISA, costing the price of two 8 day VISAs, or 70 dollars. Everything is fine, and I leave Beni, the 15 day VISA passing through the hands of no less than 4 immigration officials at the airport who all say nothing about it being a problem.

I arrive at the airport in Goma, the last 10 minutes of the ride being pretty bumpy as only a small airplane can be, and my stomach was a little startled. It wasn't feeling too bad, but it definitely wasn't right. Oh well, no need to worry as I was almost back to Maji Matulivu and I could grab some food and relax a bit. It was just about 1pm.

I waited in line for immigration at the airport and when it was my turn, it didn't take more than two minutes before they took the passport of the last muzungu behind me and put mine aside. Sure I thought, hold back the young kid in hopes we can get some money out of him. I have been asked for money before, and it looked like another time I arrived in the airport.

They finish with the other guy and there are three people behind the desk and they begin asking where my visa is. I show them the paper I have that says 15 days on it and they keep looking in my passport. Beyond a week visa, it is stamped in the passport. I showed them the paper and the four people (a woman came now too) were all talking about different things. The one person kept talking about not having a visa, another talked about the list of places on the paper that I could go, and another guy was talking about something completely different. It was hard to follow them all, and they would periodically turn and ask me things.

At one point I got them all to listen to what had happened, how I went to the OFFICIAL OFFICE in Beni for immigration and that was what they gave me and they could call there and see. Finally an older officer came over too and he recognized me (as he should since I had to give him 10 dollars to write "Beni" on my original visa because it only said "Goma") and it sounded like he was arguing for me, taking on two of the guys at once, and more or less winning, but then just agreeing with the third guy.

I get shuffled into the side office, and they begin to ask me things like "do I know it's illegal to not have a VISA in Congo?" I kept saying yes, but I have one. Turns out, two week VISAs don't exist, and given the Perfect Storm of other events happening since I went to Beni, it really was a big deal.

I called the logistics people at HEAL Africa and the immigration people ended up taking me to the official office in the city. There I talked to the head guy (who did not know Swahili so they translated his French to Swahili for me) who again acted like I had done this on purpose. They called Beni and got my official record there, showing that they gave me a two week VISA and even how much I paid for it. Oh well. They put me in another office where an official filled out a formal report, three handwritten pages, carbon copied, and I had to sign them all. It was in French too so the logistics guy from HEAL translated for me, again into Swahili. I signed them, handed over (well, it was actually under) 150 dollars and everything seemed like it would be okay. By this time it was after 4pm when the office was supposed to be closed, and they kept my passport saying we could get it the next day.

Well, we never got it the next day because they wanted another 100 dollars before they gave it back. Saturday I came to HEAL with the money and the logistics guy went to the office and got my passport. I was looking at it and there still was no VISA! I asked and he said they would have my name at the border and it won't be a problem. Well, to me that sounds kind of like a problem.

I went to the border with a friend and the two Americans were just turned away before me. They looked at my passport, turning each page looking for the VISA. They went into a back office and came out looking confused. My friend went and talked to the guy and then they called me back too. Turns out, they wanted 50 more dollars, which my friend said no way to, and I told him what had happened and he said "Okay, hakuna shida" (no problem). 10 minutes later, my passport was stamped (on like the second page, and I'm on page 6 or so) and I was on my way.

I hopped on a bus on the Rwandan side, and three hours later I was in Kigali. Kind of a crappy situation, but nothing else I could do. There was no higher authority to appeal to and now I know next time to get my VISA in America before I get here.