« In Kota Kinabalu Again, and I’m almost an Illegal Immigrant >< | Home | 2 Days late… »
Back from KK trip
By Leighton | March 21, 2009
Well, I am home sweet home again here in Miri. In KK I was able to get an extension to my Visa. It was actually somewhat of a nightmare. Sharon’s Dad took me to the immigration office in KK. I waited in line and then we were told that we needed to go to this place across town to get a signature and stamp, so we drove across town and waited in line there, and filled out some forms, then we took Sharon to her Doctor’s appointment and then drove back to the Immigration office, where I submitted the papers and waited in line some more. Lines lines lines. Anyways, when it was my turn, the officer said I needed to go pay RM 100 before I could get the extension, so I had to – you guessed it – wait in another line. After I paid, I brought back my papers and everything to the officer. He put them in his basket and told me to go wait. So I went and sat down. The officer literally sat at his desk doing nothing for like 20 minutes, (all the while trying to avoid my gaze of impatience which was directed at him), then finally he took it and signed it and then called me back up. He said that I need to leave Malaysia since my passport is now full, and that he would give me 30 days to stay here. I thought, well that’s fine since I only need to be here til the start of April anyways, so I took it and we left. Once I got in the car, I was reading the papers in my passport and realized it said I could stay in SABAH ONLY for 30 days. This basically sucks since I am currently living in Sarawak, and I need to go to West Malaysia as well before I go back to the US. So we had to go back and speak with another (nicer) officer, who told us to wait while she took care of it. While we were waiting, I said a silent prayer to myself (the first time I’d prayed about my Visa) and asked Heavenly Father to let it work out in a way so that I wouldn’t have to pay any money and I’d get the Visa for the places I needed to go. I was thinking ‘pay any extra money’ but I said ‘pay any money’ in the prayer. Anyways, when the officer got back she handed me my RM 100 and said that no payment was necessary, that the system the other officer used was old and out of date. Then she said they would give me a new extension and that it would be free! Really cool, I feel like my prayer was answered. Anyways, after waiting (another 30 minutes) I was able to get my shiny new Visa sticker they put in my Passport (in the back since there was no more space left on the pages). This one was nice since it let me stay till May 2009 and was valid for SABAH and WEST MALAYSIA. The only problem was that SARAWAK was still not listed. I asked the officer and she said that it wouldn’t be a problem, since when I flew back to SARAWAK they could just stamp me another tourist visa. Anyways, that ended that fiasco.
Sharon also had a bit of a fiasco with the doctor, but I’m sure she will tell us how that went on her blog.
The rest of the time in KK we spent going to get Sharon’s hair done, seeing her friends, going to Tanjung Aru Beach Resort, and lazing around at home (well, I tried to work when I could). It was a nice mini-vacation before things get hectic again. We are planning to go for our Visa Interview in KL this week, so if you guys could pray for us that we will get the Visa, it would be a big help.
I know it’s been a long time since I’ve posted any pictures, so if you guys want to see some pics, go check out Sharon’s blog, I believe she will be posting some.
Topics: Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
March 22nd, 2009 at 4:00 am
Crazy trip this time huh? Thanks for going places with me and staying in Malaysia this whole time. I love you!!