A visit to the Embassy
I paid a visit to the Norwegian embassy today with a letter to hand to the ambassador. I spoke to his secretary and then the head of the VISA section. They called up the Norwegian Directorate of Immigration who insisted that they are working on the case and- here this- I can expect to wait for anything up to 10 months! Read more
And so UDI, I protest…
So, having waited those five months, having emailed UDI (Norweigian Directorate of Immigration) many times, the Norwegian embassy in Harare even more times and even the King of Norway four times, and receiving from non of these parties a response that would tell me when I would get the VISA I must protest. To this day I am told “we do not know when your papers will be processed.”
Five months later! Not acceptable. In my own country where government departments have all but fallen apart, I applied for a passport and got it within two weeks. So, will someone please tell me, how a country, which has year after year been said to be the best place to live in the world, cannot process a VISA application in five whole months?
Can someone tell me how in an age of online transactions that take five seconds to process, it should take so long for a man to get the paperwork so that he can be with his wife?
And so I protest. Vehemently, I protest.
Starting Monday, 2nd March 2009, I am going on a reunification fast and I will drink only water till I get word about when I will be with my wife. I am also hoping that this action will bring attention to this issue and urge the UDI and other immigration departments around the world to fast track family reunification VISAs.
Sorry sweetie, but I protest.
Five months of waiting…
I have been waiting now for almost five months. It will be 5 months on March 7th. No sign of a VISA. No sign that there will be a sign of a VISA- and yet they told me two months. What system is this, designed to keep people apart for so long? What bureaucracy that does not make way- even for love?
