Waiting in Wellington

Because of the February 22nd earthquake, I was granted an extension of studies from the university and my sponsor. With this extension, my family and I are required to extend our stay in NZ and submit a visa extension for another 7 months. The application for Alden and Alva is quite straightforward but for me and hubby, the process is quite tedious.

We have to provide a medical report from an authorized NZ medical examiner, support letter from my sponsors, a new financial affidavit, my study progress report, hubby’s job offer letter, a statutory declaration for spousal support and last but not least, a certificate of good conduct from the Malaysian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

When did I find out we have to provide a certificate of good conduct? Two weeks ago, when I made a call to NZ Immigration. The ones we submitted 3 years ago were considered obsolete so a new police certificate was needed for our visa extension. Now if we were in Malaysia, we can easily get this document in a month. But because we’re overseas, the process could take up to 3 months. That’s what the staff at the Malaysian Consulate told me.

Let’s not get into the “kenapa la kau tidak check awal-awal?” bit okay? I am quite exhausted at the moment. Anyway, the only possible way we could speed up the process is by doing a declaration at the Malaysian High Commissioner office in Wellington. My response to this was “WHAT???Wellington? We NEED TO FLY ALL THE WAY TO WELLINGTON??!!”

If you recall, a year ago, I had a similar problem with Vava’s travel document. So you can imagine my panic when the consular mentioned the word W-E-L-L-I-N-G-T-O-N. I couldn’t believe I was going through the same crap all over again.

That happened 10 days ago.
At the moment of speaking or in this case, writing, hubby and I are in Wellington city in pursuit of this certificate of good conduct. We have already submitted the declaration forms etc but it takes 5 hours for them to get the cert done. Why does it take 5 damn hours to get the cert done? Beats me. I guess it has something to do with getting a certain VIP’s signature on paper.

Anyway, my stay in Wellington has been okay so far. The weather is surprisingly warm but I haven’t been able to loosen up as much. All I think about is our visa application and this certificate we need so badly. Few nights ago, I dreamt that hubby and I missed our flight to Wellington because we got the dates all wrong. Apparently, in this dream, it was all my fault. The moment I woke up, I checked my hand phone to see what day it was. It was Monday. Phew!

Last night, I had another nightmare. It was our appointment day with the consular and we were supposed to meet her at 9.30 am. Things went horribly wrong when the hotel receptionist gave us a wake up call at noon! I was devastated. Thank God it was just a dream.

This visa thing is really driving me nuts. Until I get it done, I don’t think I’ll stop having nightmares. Another 40 minutes before hubby and I can finally get the stupid cert from the high commisioner office. When that happens I think I can relax a little.

Hubby doesn't seem to mind the chaos. At the moment, while I am pouring all my frustrations in this entry, he is enjoying a nap at the hotel's lounge. Nap yang berbunyi ah. Hehehe. I really envy him. I am tempted to wake him up by pinching his nose, but nah, I don't think I'll be cheeky today.

I have 35 more minutes to kill before the cert is done. How time flies when you're blogging! I think I'll end this entry and start packing my stuff now. Wish me luck with the certs! :)