THE RENEWING OF MY TOURIST VISA – KENYAN STYLE

Now that I had all my West Africa visas, I now had 3 days to renew my Kenyan tourist visa before it expired.  It sounds urgent, but from what I have heard and the experiences that have been posted on NES (Nairobi Expat Social) it sounds like it doesn’t involve too much effort and if you have everything and get there early it should be easy peasy.  Well, as easy peasy as you would expect of a Kenyan Government department.  It is a little bit of bad management on my part, as I probably could have amended my London dates back in May by 3 weeks and then I wouldn’t have had to worry about getting the visa extended.  THEN I was hoping that my work permit was going to be processed and approved before now so that I wouldn’t have to worry, but as per previous blog entries, the Kenyan Immigration has been closed for the last 8 weeks as they have had a massive reshuffle and restructure with the appointment of the new immigration director.  I’m just thankful that they re-opened part of the department that extends the tourist visas last week, as I would be in a whole lot of trouble, along with hundreds of others I am sure, of being in the country illegally.  But re-open they did in time for me to renew mine and Steve and I were off to town this morning.

I knew I needed 2 passport photos, but after that I wasn’t sure what else I would require, so I just took my folder that had all my trip stuff for West Africa with copies of my passport, additional passport photos, bank statements, yellow fever certificate, my trip itinerary and flight e-ticket all just in case I needed to prove that I was leaving in 3 weeks, and because I am not sponsored by a company this sometimes brings up more questions and I’ve always believed it is better to be over prepared than under prepared.  I also bought US dollars as well as enough local currency should I need to pay that way.  If I was under prepared, it was either going to take more time or more money paying Steve for the taxi and his time, yes over prepared was the best way to go. 

From everything I had read, it was suggested that you get into Nyayo House (immigration) early and with them opening at 8am, Steve said it would be best if he picked me up at 6.30am.  This visa business is full of early starts, especially having to work with the unpredictable Nairobi traffic.  As this pedantic, finicky proved this morning we got pretty much what you would call a free run (still sat in traffic) but by Kenyan standards a clear run and we made it to Nyayo House at 7am!!!  Besides getting in early for Immigration it is also good to get in early for parking purposes as well and when we arrived in at 7am we had our pick of parks, even though that early, it was starting to fill up.  We had only sat there for 10 minutes and the parking man was onto us and paying 200KSH gave us a full days parking.  Imagine paying 2.60AUD for parking in a capital city, in Brisbane it would cost 30-40AUD for the day.  Imagine.  I had bought my travel internet modem (that was the best 65AUD) I have ever spent and also my book which I read till exactly 8am and with a wave to Steve and a promise to keep in touch with how things were going I made my way to the front gate.  Nyayo House is a massive 2 building structure and after getting scanned at the front gate by soldiers I was on site and a little uncertain where to go.  I walked through the main doors and saw an unhelpful looking customer service desk where I asked where to go to renew a tourist visa and I was directed to a side entrance back outside the main building.  There were A LOT of soldiers around, like over 100 of them and I think it may just have been the safest place to be in Nairobi city, which is just as well as I didn’t see another mzungu in the whole compound.  Nyayo House is a skyscraper in Nairobi.  It hosts several government departments such as immigration and also serves as the headquarters of Nairobi Province. The building is located on the corner of Uhuru Highway and Kenyatta Avenue and is 84 metres high and has 27 floors.  Planning of the tower started in 1973 and it was initially set to be named as Nairobi House. Construction started in 1979, and the building of the house was completed in 1983. Nyayo House is particularly known for its detention facilities in its basement, often called as "Nyayo House torture chambers.   The former torture chambers have now been opened to the general public. 

I found the right entrance and climbed the few steps to sigh a relief that they were open (you just never know here).  There was a table at the entrance of the doorway that was loaded (neatly) with all the forms you needed for any business that people had with immigration.  I found the tourist renewal form and made my way to a counter where people could fill in forms.  There were a handful of people around, but it looked like the get there early was good advice.  When I had completed the form I saw in small print at the bottom of the form that if you are extending a tourist visa you also need to fill in what they call an ‘Alien Form’.  So just to make sure I had everything I went back to the entrance, retrieved the form and filled in that one to, just in case I did actually need it. 

So now it was counter hop time.  There is a row of counters, each in an individual booth numbered 1-9 and each booth is clearly labelled on what is processed there.  So Booth 6 was where the ‘tourist renewals’ were done and there was nobody in line.  So I walked up and the officer looked up as I gave the form over and he said I also needed another form, which I produced the alien form and he asked if I had 2 photos, checked my passport for my current tourist entry visa and then asked for a photocopy of my passport.  I hadn’t of thought of bringing one, but luckily I had my West Africa folder and I knew that I had a copy in there, so I was able to pass that to him and he wrote some reference numbers on the top of my alien form and told me to go to counter 4 and he kept my passport.  I just assumed this was the way it was done and I would just go with the flow.  There were 2 people now in front of me at booth 4 and we waited, and waited and waited.  For some reason the guy in front of me got called to booth 5, I guess he was trying to help out as the people at the booth window in front of me had apparently yet to be served.  There was a uniformed woman that was walking around making sure people were at the right place and as she came to us, after checking with the guys at the window that they had yet to be served, I asked if she could check who was supposed to be at out booth.  She then went behind the scenes and you could see her talking to a guy, looking at a form of roster and then them both looking at the clock and tapping their watches, so by all that it seems booth number 4 staff member was running late.  She came out and said it shouldn’t be too long and then 10 minutes later a lady arrived and without taking her coat off she set straight to work processing the 2 guys in front.  It seemed this counter was the payment for the alien card and the lady that was late takes the money and then passes it to another lady that sits behind her….AND she wasn’t there, so when it came to my turn, I paid and then had to wait some more for the ‘till lady’ to come in……..  She was another 10 minutes, and when she arrived, I was given my receipt for the 2000KSH payment, handed my form back and told to head to counter 2.  In her defence once she started serving it was a quick process.  One of the requirements for extending your initial tourist visa past 90 days is that you need to register as an alien in the country and receive an ID card.  It is another form of ID (so you don’t have to carry your passport) and it also theoretically gives you entry into some national parks and other attractions for a lower residents price. 

While I was waiting in queues and booth/counter jumping there was an older mzungu couple next to me and at the start of the morning, they arrived at the same time as me, and they had filled in their forms and were asked for copies of their passports, which they didn’t have, and immigration do not photocopy for you, so with a few choice words they had to leave to get their passports photocopied.  They were back, after I had completed a few more stages and they were next to me with the payment officer (the one that was late) and she asked for another passport photo as they only had one and you needed 2.  Well you could see the steam coming out of their ears as they only had one and no spares (do people not carry passport photos in their purses in case?).  So again they had to leave in search of a place to get some passport photos taken.  I felt sorry for them, but a little organisation goes a long way that is for sure and I had to make sure I kept the smile off my face every time they looked at me!!!!

I was off to counter 2 and had a nice gentleman behind it and I was given another form (for the alien card) that I had to fill in with black pen which was an A3 size form, so I headed back to the counters where people were filling in forms, completed the form and then handed it back to counter 2.  I was told to take a seat and that he would get back to me.  So I sat on some chairs and pulled out my book to read until my name was called 10 minutes later.  I walked back to counter 2 and the officer was asking a few questions, checking over my form and made a comment on my single status and when he doubled checked that I wasn’t married, he told me I needed to find a good, kind, honest Kenyan man-like HIMSELF!!!!!  Really, hitting on me as I renew my tourist visa!  I took it in my stride and he called another clients  name and we were both escorted down a small corridor to a small waiting room, and it had a sign that said fingerprints-so I am assuming this was going to be the next process.  With a big smile and a wave goodbye counter 2 boy left and we were left waiting for the ‘next move’.  I could see in the room and there was an older man in a white lab coat reading the newspaper at his desk….as we waited.  He read that for 10 more minutes and he finally got up, inked the ink pad and then my name was called.  Fingerprint man then sat behind a small desk and he rolled all my fingers on my right hand on the sticky ink pad and then all my fingers on my left hand and then the third form I had filled in was printed, and then the four fingers were re-inked and also printed for both hands.  Fingerprint guy then opened a hand towelette for me to wipe my fingers clean and then I was given a perforated section of the form and told to head back out to collect my passport from counter 6. 

There seemed to be a few more people now in the main immigration hall and booth 6, where my passport was, had 2 people in front of me, but he saw me come out and even though he was serving someone he called me over and handed me my passport back…..and then I wasn’t sure what to do?  Was I finished?  I checked that I had a new stamp in my passport, which I did-I’m now a legal resident again for another 3 months, even though I only needed 3 weeks and I figured the small perforated part of the form I was given was for my records and I decided I had all I needed and left.  As I was walking out there was a mzungu man yelling at a Kenyan out on the front steps.  He was using some pretty harsh profanities and from the gist that I could get as I walked, very slowly past the confrontation was the mzungu has paid money (for his visa) and the Kenyan guy was asking for another 3 weeks…..  You need to be so careful if you are paying people to help with your visa applications, and he was still yelling as I rounded the corner for the front gate that I passed through on my way in. 

So I now had ALL the visas I needed and it was such a relief.  Even though it looked like a lengthy process from start to finish it only took me an hour and 10 minutes, which I think is really good, especially for here and I would HATE to have to do that process when the place is really busy….  Actually I can’t even imagine it.  The best piece of advice I can give is GET THERE EARLY and have all the right documents.