My Day at Immigration

I had to visit the immigration office in Wan Chai this morning to register for my ID card. People staying in the country on anything other than a visitor visa, as well as anyone living in Hong Kong over the age of 12, has to have an ID card. The ID card gives you access to the health system, among other things, so it's actually quite a good thing.

I had made my appointment for 9:15 am, but Wan Chai is about a 40 minute bus ride from where I live. I factored in morning rush hour, and was at my bus stop around 8 am. Unfortunately, as I was walking to it, the bus I needed (the 962) was leaving. Of course. So I had to wait for the next one, which took a while. Again, it was rush hour so by the time the bus left the New Territories, where I live, it was filled to capacity and you could feel the bus straining under the weight of so many bodies.

Since there was so much traffic, the 40 minute bus ride took almost an hour and a half. On top of that, the bus I was on didn't actually go through Wan Chai, so I had to get off in Central, at which point I was already 25 minutes past my appointment time, and make a dash for the MTR (subway), take it 2 stops over, and then maneuver on foot through the throngs of morning commuters to Immigration Tower.

When I arrived on the 8th floor for my ID card, I was 40 minutes late. Turns out, it didn't really matter. I had to wait in a line for about 20 minutes just to get a number and the form. Fortunately, despite the zoo of people who were also there for ID cards, the process only took about an hour and a half, and I'd had the foresight to bring a book so it wasn't too bad. I filled in my form, and when they called my number I was directed to Booth 30 where I met with an immigration officer. She looked through all my papers, scanned my right then left thumbprints, and took a photo. She also told me she'd actually been through Dallas before, so we had a brief chatty moment (people here aren't usually that smiley or chatty, so it was a nice relief). I then had to wait to speak to another immigration officer, and waited for my number to be called again. The next officer also scanned my thumbs, looked over my paper, and printed out my temporary ID card.

What a relief! In two weeks I need to return to pick up the real card, and then I'm done with immigration until next year. Hurray! I went into Central for a bit to go to the grocery store there (since so many businesses, and therefore Westerners, are in Central, they have a bigger selection of familiar things in their stores, so when I'm in the area I like to stop by and get Dr. Pepper, or something else fun). Then I was back on the bus, and home, where I took a short but much needed nap.

What a weekend! I'm exhausted!