Are We Illegal Aliens?

We’ve just been told that we are here illegally, and we will need to pay a $300 fine, apiece! What a shock. Yesterday we were dutifully walking the miles necessary to go metro, walk, etc. to get to the Public Security building to apply for our entry/exit visa permits. We were excited at having received back from the university our approved paperwork for  work permission for next year, and were making the next necessary step.

Well, when we got to the head of the line, (after having our picture taken to be digitally sent to the officer and filling our applications with the specific pen that they provide), the officer asked us for the yellow envelop that we were given at the time we received our new US passports about a month ago. We didn’t have them, nor even knew we were to keep them. On checking in the system, she said that we had never registered our new passports with the Chinese government and we had to do that, right now. We were with a helper from the university (thank God) and she got the name and phone number from the agency we needed to visit to register our passports. When she called they said we would owe $300 because it was now a month later and we only had 10 days to do this. What? Everyone kept asking if the US embassy had not told us about this, and NO they did not.

So we spent the rest of yesterday arranging to go pay the fine and emptying our accounts to get the money. (After the $600 we will still owe the $150 for our visas.) No one within our sphere has heard about ever having to register their new passports and are as shocked as we are. Finally, in the evening the university foreign affairs official said that today she would call and see if she could get the fine waived or reduced, because she also had never heard about this. We are now waiting to see what today might hold. It is not even 9 in the morning and don’t know how long it will take to get word back. It would be nice to try to get this done today as a down day, rather than fitting it into the busy teaching and meeting days ahead.

I must admit that this is more discouraging than usual for me. Often, I can just roll with it, but this involves money. It also involves the long metro trip and walking necessary to get to the Public Security building, and for some reason my hip bothered me yesterday right from the morning, even before the stress was added to it. (I have not had hip problems for about 2 months now with the Chinese medicine I have been taking, and the renewed pain is discouraging itself….although it seems OK so far today, PTL.)

Therefore, please pray that we can resolve this quickly (every step takes weeks and we need to be ready to fly out on June 28), and cheaply (our bank account has taken quite a hit over the past month). But we really are well provided for on many levels, and feel less agitated today than the frustrations of yesterday.