Got my visa!

Yesterday I went to downtown The Hague for my visa. That was an adventure in itself. It took about 3,5 hours excl. the trip to The Hague. I left home at 9:30h and got back at 15:30h.

When I arrived at the Ghana Embassy at around 10:30h the waiting room was crowded. With very nice people by the way. Talking to each other and helping each other.
I pulled a number, 561 and sat down, and 553 had it's turn. Somebody said: the officer who has to sign all visa is not in the building ... Well, then I knew this was gonna take maybe all day :-)
After quite some time (and I talked to several nice people next to me) it was my turn.

"You need Business Visa"

I handed over my application form (quadruple, each with my photo) and the man behind the counter started asking me questions. What I was going to do at FARA. What my profession was.Where I was going to stay.
Then he read the Letter of Invitation, written by Yemi. And then he said: this is business, so you need business visa. You need a letter from your company ánd you need to fill out an extra application form.

Yemi asked me to get tourist visa and that - normally - always works at Ghanaian Embassies, if  you have a letter from FARA. But In The Hague for some reason it obviously didn't. Never mind, I could get the letter very easily...
I said, o boy, so can I let my manager email that letter? (Didn't want to go back to The Hague for a second time). He said yes and handed me a piece of paper with the email address.
So I went outside (you are not allowed to turn on your cell phone in the Embassy) and called my manager. He wrote a letter in no time and emailed it. And I filled in another form.
After that I went back to the waiting room and had to wait until the officer would call me again.
I was kind of worried because the Embassy closes at 13:00 h and I really didn't want to go back next Thursday or Friday ....

Troubles, troubles, troubles...

It took quite some time again, because it was busy and quite a few people didn't have the necessary documents. One lady did not have a copy of her ticket so she asked where she could go to print it, she had an email with the ticket. I advised her to go back to The Hague Central Station and so she did. She managed to print her ticket at the library next to the Central Station. She needed the visa that day because she was traveling the next day!
Other people needed 20 euro cent to make a copy. I needed scissors and glue to cut and glue my photos. I got the scissors, a lady  had a small pocketknife! And got the glue from someone else.
And some didn't have the complete address of the one they were going to visit ... just because sometimes there IS no street name or street number... :-)

And everybody in the waiting room had a story... one was volunteering a tree growing project. Other were visiting their daughter who was living in the North of Ghana and had a Ghanaian partner.
And there was a man who was married to a Ghanaian lady and he said he only went to Ghana twice a year, for 3 months (!)
All stories were kind of special. I think noone who was there was a 'normal' tourist, everybody went either for business or for a (family) visit. It was so nice to sit there and talk ... learned a lot from that.

Nice sticker in my passport!

Finally the officer called me again and that was way after 12:00 h .... He had the letter but he said: oh it is not signed by your manager. I said: oh, that is because he wanted to help you as fast as he could.
That was OK and suddenly he said: you can pay now by pin. So I did that.

Another hour of waiting and then two other ladies were called, the one who forgot to print the ticket and a student anthropology. The latter could pick up her visa next Friday already and the first got it immediately because she had asked for the emergency procedure, which I did too. That procedure normally lasts an hour after your payment.

Finally, I was called. And I got it too. A nice sticker in my passport. Will post a picture later on.
Getting visa is really something. An officer is going to check everything you said. They called Yemi, but he could not pick up his phone at that time. So I think they called FARA in Accra and checked my story.

Now I am good to go. The only thing left is getting a medical passport and a new recipe for malaria medication because I lost the one I got from GGD Oss.... sigh. Oooh, and buy a mosquito net, just in case ....and read something about health in the tropics. And oh... call British Airways because I forgot to mention my gluten free diet ... Well, enough work to do.

But that is all a piece of cake. I am happy and I am so much looking forward to go.