Visa Applications

Well, it's definitely becoming a lot more real - every morning I hear a countdown of how many days until the opening of the Beijing Olympics courtesy of the Sunrise program on Channel 7.
I'm down to 64 days!
(Though really, it's closer to 60 as I fly out a few days earlier to get my bearings in Beijing ahead of the Games).

This week I decided to get my visa application in. I had been told earlier in the year to not put my paperwork through until about now... the single entry visa for China is only valid for about three months.

Thursday - The line at the Chinese Consulate yesterday in East Perth snaked almost fully through their medium sized lobby, and they only had two officers behind the screens - one for Visa Applications and the other for Collections (despite there being space for a third). I was mostly okay, I usually have something to read, and everyone patiently just creeped forward when a space opened up - the slow track to the front of the queue.
I'll admit, it took me the better part of an hour to get to the front of that line, and then... I was told I needed to have my bank statement as part of the application :(
That detail wasn't on their website unfortunately, but hey... I couldn't do anything about it, so I just thanked the visa officer and headed to work, determined to try again tomorrow.

Friday - If anything, there seemed to be more people this morning (they must start lining up from 7.30am onwards!) - but I kept my fingers crossed the entire time the visa officer was looking through all of my paperwork and thankfully it seemed to be okay.

In addition to a current bank statement, I also had to provide: all the address and reservation details for all of my accomodation while I was in China; my flight bookings (both international and domestic); my tour itinerary and a copy of my permanent residency visa.

Later, after I had completed a few things at work, I got a call from the consulate. The visa officer said that my passport appeared to be expired! Dun-dun-daaaar! (Dramatic florish)

I stayed outwardly calm (though on the inside I was definitely panicking a little) and assured the visa officer politely, but a little insistently that my current passport had been renewed and was valid for travel until 2010. After a pause on her part as I overheard passport pages being flicked through; she found the renewal stamp from the Malaysian Consulate.
Thank (insert deity choice here) !
Bump-de-bump! Yep, that's my heart. Phew!

Y'know I won't be assured that it's all okay until I have my passport back in my hot little hands with a Chinese Visa securely stuck on one of the inside pages. I find out next week if all is cool...

On another front, I've booked in for my inoculations (yeah, they'll be something to look forward to).
Some of them need to be taken about six weeks before I leave and Medibank Private have a 10% discount at the Travel Medical & Vaccination Centre so hopefully it won't be too pricey.

I'm also boringly (but contentiously) having a green tea every morning and an echinacea tea every night to boost my immune system so I keep as well as I can during winter - be nothing worse that nursing a bad cold ahead of this adventure!