Marrying A Foreigner Part VI

Its strange how the same department or authority but located in different branches has different procedures. When I was in Damansara making enquiries, I did see a checklist on the notice boards and after talking to a guy that married a Filipino as well .... well, I found out more information.

Example ... for application of a social visit pass at the Damansara office, you will need to produce among other documents ... your wedding photograph and also your wedding invitation card.

Now, at Shah Alam, you are also required to produce your wedding photograph but you don't have to submit your wedding invitation card.

The thing is, according to the guy I was talking to ... it was really tough for him when he was making all the applications for his wifey's social visit pass. On first application, they only gave his wifey a 3 months pass. On 1st extension, its another 3 months pass. On 2nd extension, its 6 months pass. On 3rd Extension, another 6 months pass. And on 4th extension onwards, they gave a yearly pass.

And to make things worse for him, for each application for extension, he was told to submit the same documents that he submitted previously. The same documents, copies of marriage cert, wedding photograph etc etc. He just couldn't understand why he has to submit the same things over and over again. Poor guy.

I hope I will have an easier time ....

Marrying a Foreigner Part V

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRGHHHH!!!

Check out the news today. Announced that foreign spouses will be given 5 year visas.

But I am skeptical. Why? Look ... they did say its subject to validity of the foreign spouse's passport. How many passports you know has validity period of more than 5 years? If your passport's validity is 3 years, they will only grant you up to 3 years.

Really? I am still very skeptical. I am worried. What's the catch? Any terms and conditions attached? Does it apply to every foreign spouse? Or to certain nationalities only? How come some people I spoke to last time were only given 3 months visa + another 3 months visa, then 6 months visa, then another 6 months visa and finally 1 year visa. And all this while, they said foreign spouses will be given 1 year visa instead of the monthly visas etc. I still see people going through that 3 months, 6 months visa thingy.

I can only wait and see .... hopefully its as good as it looks. My only problem is taking time off to go to the immigration. Its not easy for me to take time off ... not easy at all ...

Marrying a Foreigner Part IV

Immigration. I love immigration. I love immigration.

Thursday, 15 March. The day I decided to go to the immigration. I have the forms. Spent weeks trying to figure out ... how to fill the forms. Should be simple right? Yes. .. it looked simple but I was worried. Worried for technicalities. Worried for things like, you should write in caps. It should be type written. Not hand written. It must be blue ink. etc etc

We woke up at 530am. Grabbed quick breakfast and headed over to Shah Alam. Arrived at 7am. I thought .. should be alright. I was so wrong. The line was already friggin long. We were all lined up in a corridor. Wifey and I just sat down on the floor and made ourselves comfortable. Initially it was ok ... but after a while when there were more people, the air became stale and stuffy. My wifey was beginning to feel woozy. Me ... I thought to myself, all it takes is one joker to fart a stinker and we are all dead.

There were a lot of people in the queue. Hundreds. But what I was curious was that my dad's understanding from putrajaya was that they process the filipinos over here in Shah Alam. But the people I saw were mostly from Indonesia. In fact ... almost the entire corridor was just packed with Indonesians. I have to thank this big fat Indonesian lady. Reminds me of Big Momma - the movie, Martin Lawrence? Big Momma's House? She was very vocal whenever some jerk tried to cut queue. They will just pretend to be stupid, deaf or dumb and just try to stand in the line somewhere. This lady enforcer will just yell at them to get lost. Haha.

The doors opened and we were allowed to go in 5 by 5 people. Showed the counter my forms and I was given a number. We went to find a seat and got comfortable .. thinking that its gonna be a very long day. A couple of hours later, our number was called. We went to the counter, submitted our forms and were told, "ok, that's it"

I was like ... Huh? That's it what?

That's it you can go back.

Go back? What about the visa?

The officer looked at me. You just submitted a form. Its now pending approval.

Errr .... I thought its all in one day?

She looked at me ... No. You have to wait.

Erm ... how long?

Between 2 - 3 weeks. Or more.

Ok .... so you all will call me?

No. You have to come back here to follow up.

I didn't dare ask anymore questions. She looked annoyed already. Sighs ... wifey and I went home wondering what's gonna happen next.