Why immigration is NOT our friend...

So...Things have been a little tumultuous since Friday at about 2am when my phone woke up from it's nightly, regularly scheduled nap and alerted my that I had received SIX messages in the preceding hour. That's right, 6!

So here's the little backstory. Taylor was originally scheduled to return to the United States on May 31st. His employer over there had secured all the paperwork and he had a ticket on United Airlines. His Visa expired on that day. So, a few months ago, two of Taylor's friends decided to take some long-overdue vacation time and go visit him in Indonesia for 2 weeks. And since Taylor didn't want to spend those two weeks working, they decided to do it the last week he was teaching and then extend his time in Indonesia for a week so that they could travel. So, in April I worked some magic on the ticket agent with United (and also pretended I was a truly unfortunate female whose parents had named her Jeffrey Taylor but who went by Taylor) and managed to change his flight by 8 days for $25 (you read that right, a $25 change fee for an international flight! Not bad!).

THEN, Taylor realized he also had to have his Visa extended so that he could stay 7 more days. He worked with his employer (a pseudo govt. agency that runs the Fulbright called AMINEF) to have his visa extended and received word from them that it went through, but that he would be responsible for his own exit permit (whatever that means).

So, fast forward back to Friday night. It's Saturday afternoon in Indonesia and Taylor and his friends were just about to board a flight to Singapore so that they could all catch their flights back to the NYC area. And Taylor. Gets. Detained. For real. Like, no-bribing-your-way-out-of-it, you're-not-going-anywhere-Mister, tough-luck-you-don't-have-the-ridiculous-paperwork-we-require STUCK in Indonesia! Apparently that "exit permit" was absolutely essential in order to terminate whatever special long-term working permit Taylor had. As if leaving the country is not enough of a termination!!!!! So, just 18 hours before his scheduled flight back to the US, Taylor finds out that he will not be going to Singapore or anywhere else for that matter until he has this exit permit. Which, conveniently, can only be obtained by going to Jakarta and waiting until the office opens on Monday.

So, all 6 of my messages on my phone pertain to this matter, most importantly the issue that Taylor is now definitely going to miss his flight out of Singapore on Sunday morning. So at 2am on Friday I get on the phone with United Airlines hoping to work another Miracle. Again, I pretend I am the sadly-named Jeffrey "Taylor" Smith, who is a girl, and I had to tell him the whole sob story about how I was stuck in Indonesia after spending 10 months there. Again, I sweet-talk the ticket agent, even employing a little Indonesian (he revealed that he was Indonesian part way through the exchange):

Agent: oh, you've been in Indonesia for 10 months, [anda bisa bicara Indonesia ] Can you spean Indonesian?
Me: [Hanya sedikit] Only a little
Agent: [Bagus!] Good!
Me: [Saya masih belajar] I'm still learning
Agent: Well I have arranged your flight now.
Me: [Terimah Kasih Banya, Pak!] Thank you very much, sir!

So, thank GOD I was able to change Taylor's flight to Tuesday morning out of Singapore for no fee (we had already paid it so apparently now changes are FREE!). God Bless United Airlines, that's all I have to say.

This meant that Taylor had 1 day to get to immigration, get the right exit permit, and book a flight to Singapore.

Whew...

To further complicate matters, apparently Indonesia will allow you to load your bags on a plane before confirming that you are legally required to board the flight. So, his bags were already on the plane when he was detained and apparently could not be removed. Luckily, he had checked one of them in his friend's name because when his friends arrived in Singapore, they were almost arrested for trying to take the bag that was in Taylor's name. They managed to get one bag back and it is safely at Taylor's house now, but the OTHER one was returned to Bali (presumably because no one told them that they sent Taylor to JAKARTA), where it sits to this minute because, well because with all the time changes I'm not sure which way is up but essentially there wasn't a flight out to Singapore in time for Taylor to get it in time to go to his United Airlines flight back to the U.S. It's all very confusing but the bottom line is that we will probably never see his other bag as long as we both shall live.

Ok, sooooo....Taylor flies to Jakarta and gets a hotel and waits for Monday morning to roll around when he can go to immigration. All the while we're googling "Exit Permit Indonesia Processing Time" to try to figure out if he will be able to sort it all out on Monday or if I will have to once AGAIN work the magic on United (and try to dupe another ticket agent into believing I am my fiance). The internet says it takes 2-3 days but we are undeterred.

Ok, so now we're up to last night, Monday morning in Jakarta. Taylor heads to immigration at the buttcrack of dawn. They tell him that he is missing a letter from his employer (seriously, SERIOUSLY!?) stating that he should terminate his work permit. The fact that a government would require a letter like this is just beyond me. So he gets in a cab, goes and gets the letter (thankfully, this doesn't take long), and heads back to the immigration office where the desk workers proceed to tell him it will take 2 hours to put a stamp in his passport. Poor Taylor. So while they are contemplating rubber stamps and ink pads and doing whatever voodoo you have to do to leave Indonesia, Taylor goes and checks out of his hotel and buys a flight to Singapore for a few hours later.

And now, he sits in Singapore, sans suitcase but with computer, waiting impatiently for a flight in 9 hours to come home :)