almost there

I barely slept last night thinking of how would things go today at the Immigration Department. We got our papers at the Japanese Consulate with the very friendly Japanese lady wishing us good luck…so many people have been rejected by the Immigration Department for applications that don’t have attestation coming from the Foreign Affairs Department in Japan and UAE Embassy in Tokyo. I told her, I need her wish of good luck as we will give it a shot despite almost zero percent chance.

The Immigration Department is around a few meters walk from the Japanese Consulate but a few meters walk in the desert is equivalent to running in the treadmill for at least 30 minutes, sweat-volume-wise! I was exhausted but I know M is twice as tired having to carry Pristine all the way.

We went past the counter and came face to face with the stern looking UAE local who scrutinized the document released from the Japanese consulate for us. I carried Pristine and tried to look sober. The Immigration official looked at my daughter and looked at the paper again, and said as I held my breath, “You go to the Foreign Affairs Department and have this document attested!”… I said where and he said just over the bridge to Deira…I thought he would say the Foreign Affairs in Japan!! You could just imagine how big the sigh of relief I just let out.

Off we went to the Foreign Affairs Department by taxi. This I discovered today…my daughter is a real charmer! The Foreign Affairs people got our document, stamped things on it while they looked and baby-talked to my kid! She even got a chocolate bar from the usual grumpy guy there (the office PRO who was with us was surprised with the great treatment we received).

Next step is we have to get things typed in Arabic at some typing office. The document to be submitted for final approval is with me after a few minutes. Sadly the Immigration Department closes at 12 noon. I know we are but a few steps away from this tense situation and I have the final papers and everyone says we should be ok.

But honestly, I can’t be so sure until we have that final stamp in hubby and daughter’s passport tomorrow.

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