STO: Life as an immigrant

When I came through Dublin airport off that Friday night/Saturday morning red eye, the immigration official asked me how long I was going to be here. I told him until December but that I didn't have my student card, and so he stamped my passport through for 30 days and said I had to go to this bureau to get a student visa if I wanted to stay here longer. That was fine, my study abroad adviser had told us that was protocol. Well, apparently nearly all of my friends were fortunate enough to get stamped out through December 31, even though they didn't have any documention proving they were a student either. They thank kind-hearted immigration officials - I blame racial profiling. It's ok, I'll probably accidentally spill a bowl of sticky rice on my way out.

Ok so I have a ton of forms to gather to apply for this student visa. They made it seem so easy, but I need my student ID card, proof from the university that I am actively a student, written proof that I've paid my tuition, a bank statement showing that I have funding of over €1000 (not as simple without an ATM card) and my passport. Ok, well it takes me a week to gather all that and on Tuesday morning, since I don't have class until noon, I venture towards city centre to collect legal status in this country. The Garda National Immigration Bureau, as it is called, is about as ordinary a building as I can imagine, with grey rock and dull glass the only external images. I arrived around 11am, hoping to be in and out in 20 minutes so I could make it to my class.

Nope. As I walk into the waiting room, I am greeted by a massive crowd of people of all colors, garbs and tongues. It's a stunning scene that I'm not sure I've ever seen before. It's a crowd that you might see in Beijing magnitude-wise, but much more heterogenous. It's like the New York city subway except that people are angry and disenchanted for different reasons. I look around for a place to get a queue, and realize that the line to get a number is 50 deep, and that another 200 who already have numbers are still glumly waiting. I imagine this is what Ellis Island was like, except with a big statue in sight and more Jews.

I can't wait in line, so I go to school and return after classes at 5. When I return, the queue is empty although the waiting room is still packed with bored expressions. It seems no one likes going through immigration - I can only imagine the uncertainty running through those minds. Well I stand at the front of the queue for about 5 minutes before I realize that something's up - there's no one there to call me up at all. Then I realize that they are no longer handing out numbers, even though it's just past 5pm and the place is open until 10. So I ask an official, "what gives?" Well apparently all those people in the waiting room? Some will be waiting until 10. Sucks. So I'm going to go next Friday, when I have the day off, and hopefully I can get things done then.