DELAY ON THE VISA PROCESS ALREADY?

You just never know what is going to happen-ever.  Not in life, not in work, friendship or even in romance-nothing.  But I could guarantee that the Kenya visa process would not be plain sailing, no matter what anyone said and so far we have had 2 strikes.  The first strike was not a major one.  Rebecca went to officially lodge my application on Wednesday last week but wasn’t able to due to the printer machine at Immigration that issues the receipts was broken and they weren’t able to leave the application without receiving a receipt which is no surprise.  Everything is receipt based here, even buying food from a fast food restaurant-there are signs saying that you must get a receipt when you make payment-so for something as important as a visa application, it doesn’t surprise me that they will not take it if a receipt can’t be given.  Part of the crack-down bribery and corruption I am sure.  So Rebecca called me Wednesday evening to let me know about that and they would head in first thing Thursday morning.  There were no issues on Thursday, my application was checked-all was in order, which was great news that they didn’t need any further paperwork and finally my application was in the system. 

Well, I was not really surprised, well I was a little, as deep down inside I was hoping that there wouldn’t be any other hold ups, when Rebecca emailed me on Monday to let me know that the processing of all applications at immigration will be delayed due to restructuring of staff by the newly appointed Immigration Director.  As people may or may not be aware, Kenya’s elections took place earlier this year and with every new election comes new staff for all government offices. The new director for immigration was finally recruited last week. They had just received information that the new director is now restructuring all the staff, not only in Nairobi but throughout the country. Therefore, processing of most immigration matters, including work permits, has been put on hold until further notice.

Unbelievably, this is a normal process in Kenya after every election and all we can do is now wait until the restructuring process is completed. We do not know how long this process will take, neither do any of the staff and are unable to tell us, as they are not sure either; however, as soon as Rebecca receives information, they will inform me immediately. They estimate the process should be completed by end of this week (fingers crossed).  So a week’s hold up at the minimum and goodness knows how long as a maximum.  My positive spin is that they can’t keep the Kenyan Immigration Office closed for too long-right?  Well this is Kenya (TIK) but it is a BIG revenue business for them and at the end of the day as long as I know either way before the 6^th of September, as this is when I depart on my West Africa trip, then I guess it really makes no difference.  Um-it can’t take that long can it?  Can it?  Well I do know it has taken longer for people, but I have my IA (Immigration Agents) on hand and in the know and it is reassuring to know that they are going through the process with me and are on top of everything.  This is why I am paying the money to have Rebecca on my team and I couldn’t be happier with all the progress reports and the stress free-ness of what is the beast of the Kenyan visa.