After X years in Dubai, I have just recently had to get a new employment/residence visa. This involved an inordinate amount of form filling, cajolling, red tape and begging, however it was finally granted and I was issued with the requisite pice of pink paper that required me to make an exit and re-entry into DXB atmosphere without burning up.
The wonderful DNRD took all the paperwork and my passport away and were churning through the process, when I was suddenly called upon to make a business trip to Jordan this week. I called the company PRO and they duly returned my passport and a copy of the visa to prove it was issued and 'in process'.
At Sharjah airport, I was turned away from immigration as 'the visa was not yet placed in my passport'. My team had to leave without me for an important gig and I was forced to spend the next 24 hours running from department to department trying to get that elusive sticker on the page. It finally appeared and I was all set to join the rest ofd the gang on a complicated and important job.
I arrive once again at Sharjah airport duly clutching my new and shiny visa and smile sweetly at the girl behind the desk. Imagine my surprise when, once again I am unceremoniously ejected from the airport with an immigration size 9 up my jacksie! Yes, I have a visa, yes it is there in pink and black in my passport...but it ain't on the damn computer yet!
'The computer says no!'
So I languish here in DK towers with the phone burning up my credit and call a Jordanian spectacular of my design, complete with 35 Roman Legionnaires, by remote control from my pit with something akin to a radio football commentry going on in my ear.
Bunch of arse!
I am off to drown my sorrows in a half bottle of JD that is calling me from the kitchen cupboard!
Happy Days to all you DF'ers!
Knight with a visa and nowhere to go!
