Still none the wiser...

Well, the passport came back safely... minus a Chinese visa.

So, let's look at the facts:

• the Embassy in Hong Kong was to issue me with a new passport;

• it required my old passport (complete with a Chinese visa) in order to do so;

• it would cut the corners from the old passport, rendering it useless, as part of the process;

• it would be returning the new passport to a UK citizen, resident in China (a country where a visa is a legal requirement);

• the passport was issued minus said visa; and

• consequently, I have been an illegal immigrant now for over a month.

Why would anyone, even a civil servant, do something as banally stupid as that?

What possible reason could someone have for thinking that the passport did not require a visa? No, I can't think of one either.

Anyway, the result was a two-hour session at the PSB, involving a lot of questions, a photography session, several signatures (which you have to validate with a red-inked fingerprint across the top) on documents that I couldn't read, the exchange of a rather expensive-looking, unmarked, brown envelope and lots of 'aren't I a foolish foreigner' smiles to the lady at the desk. The result? I still don't have a passport with a visa.

I am scheduled to meet with the boss to sign a new contract at 3:00pm, when I will politely notify him that I am not going to sign anything until he can present me with my passport, complete with visa, and that I am 100% legal again.

The staff do not seem to realise that this is something of importance to a foreign national and wonder why I become frustrated with their lack of action if I ask them to do anything constructive about tracking the progress. At present I cannot book a hotel room, internal flight or do anything which requires proof of identification and confirms my legal status as a resident in China. It is not a situation that I wish to be in any longer and, hopefully, this afternoon's little tête-à-tête will higlight the importance of the issue.

Talking of the meeting, it is 2:30pm and I should head up to the school. I must get around to uploading some photographs soon. Every time that I decide to post an update it seems that it is rather time-limited but I have some interesting shots which, at around 1,000 words apiece, can tell you far more than I ever could in the time that I allow myself for blogging.

P.S. Weather's lovely !!