But back to Tuesday. When we arrived in Abu Dhabi on August 30th, we received a 30 day visitor visa which we have to keep valid until E can sponsor us for our residency visa. And since E has yet to even received his residency visa, as of Wednesday we would be in the country illegally.
We spoke to several people about our options for extending our visas:
1. Go to the immigration office and pay 500 dirhams each
or
2. Cross the border into Oman and re-enter the UAE on another 30 day visitor visa.
I wasn't thrilled with the first--that's a lot of money! E wasn't thrilled with the second. Understandably, he was not overly happy about sending his wife and child to another country without being able to accompany us (E's employer has been holding onto all of the employees' passports while they take care of the residency visas for them...and that headache is a whole other story).
Anyway, we started talking to other people in the same situation last Saturday. What were they going to do? Had they heard of any problems with the border crossing? Had they heard the immigration office was a hassle?
Once again, as has been the case with everything since we arrived, the rumor mill was in full force...
...I would not be able to cross the border with a child without permission from the father...
...I would have no problem crossing the border as a woman...
...the border crossing would take all day because you have to drive 80 kilometers into Oman...
...the border crossing would be simple and easy and take less than 2 hours...
...I would have to spend the night in Oman...
...the immigration office was worthless because they would make you pay the money and then tell you to do the border crossing anyway...
...the immigration office was easy, all I had to do was fill our a form and pay some money...
Confused yet? We certainly were. We didn't know what to think or what to do and much to my dismay no decision was made by Tuesday. So now, on top of dealing with this, we would have to pay a fine for staying in the country after our visa had expired. Argh! I was completely frustrated.
Finally, E asked his co-worker who already has his residency visa and a car to take us across the border on Wednesday. And after all that, it was super easy and simple. Nothing to worry about!
Five of us piled into Andy's car on Wednesday afternoon. He drove us towards the border and our first stop was exiting the UAE. We went into a building, filled out a form, paid 25 dirhams each, and received our exit stamp. First step accomplished!
Second, we had to drive about 10 kilometers into Oman to their border crossing. We went into a building, filled out another form, paid 60 dirhams each, received an entry AND an exit stamp into and out of Oman. They then handed us a piece of paper, which we would have to hand to the officer as we were exiting Oman. So we got back in the car, drove to the gate, handed the piece of paper, and headed back towards the UAE.
As we neared the UAE border we saw a sign that said "No Wine" and "No Guns." Check and check. We stopped once again, received new 30 visitor visa stamps and were on our merry way.
Well, this boring post is almost over. Hopefully I'll have more exciting news to share soon. But for now it's back to waiting around for things to happen and hanging out by the pool with lots of sunscreen (see below).
Isn't he the cutest? He likes to apply the sunscreen himself and runs away if I try to do it (as captured above).
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