It’s been a bit of a rollercoaster.
Monday. The high commission opens for consular affairs at 10am, I’m asked to wait outside. We enter a few minutes past 10, I, a Lebanese man and a German couple. A man comes out to meet us. The Germans are quoted $175 each for the visa paid to the bank + 500,000le each brought to embassy in cash. The Lebanese man is told his visa is $148 + 500k. I’m lucky: $100 + 500k leones, Polish passport. The visa man has a table with all countries and their respective prices.
The Germans are told processing time is 2 weeks and perhaps 7 working days is feasible. The Lebanese man tries to object that he has a flight next Monday and he’s told he could get visa on Friday. I try to attach myself to what the man was told and also am told my visa will be issued on Friday if I submit papers on Tuesday before noon.
We are all given application forms – 6 pages – and the list of requirements: 2 photos, Sierra Leone residence permit, invitation to Nigeria, flight booking, bank statement.
I decide to pull some of my Nigerian strings and call a friend and ask her if she’ll write an invitation letter for me. It’s a fairly easy thing, it has to be typed and accompanied by the inviting person’s passport photocopy. She agrees to do it.
I go to the bank, it’s FBN. They say my 2006 $100 bill is too old and they only accept new ones, i.e. with security stripe. I go back to the guesthouse and get a newer bill. Back to the bank, deposit paid in a few minutes.
I book flights using eSky.pl website, it allows paying by bank transfer and that’s how I get flight confirmation. I log into their American website, eSky.com to be able to print it in English.
I have a bank statement from January, I will use it.
Tuesday. I am in the high commission before 11. The papers are studied by the visa man and they are accepted. He asks me to wait because there will be an interview and the interview is scheduled for Thursday at noon.
Thursday, I’m all dressed up and in high commission at 11:45. With me an American nun. At 12:15 we are told the interview will have to be postponed because the visa officer is out for a meeting, with the ambassador, in State House.
Friday. I am called first for the interview, it lasts 10 minutes. I am told the visa will be issued on Monday. When I ask if it’s at all possible to get it the same day the answer is firm “no”. That even Monday is already fast service as the usual waiting time is two weeks.
When I am ready to leave the building the receptionist bgets a call and he asks me to stay and wait. Maybe 40 mins later I get the passport with visa valid for 3 months.
Coming back to Maman 