El Andalous - Visa Issues

Fingers Crossed That I will Still be on my Laptop!

Of the many things that are shut down in Egypt during the pandemic, one is the passport office, where you go to get your visa extended / renewed. In fact, most of the government offices are closed, although they’ve recently re-opened the vehicle licensing centre (I heard on FaceBook that it was mobbed on the first day).

Foreigners have been assured that there will be no fines for not having a valid visa during this period and no fines if you leave by plane. However, the visa is quite an important document over here. Well, it’s an important document anyway, but your internet and phone connection is dependent on you having a current visa. They copy your visa each time you purchase internet, and your internet is automatically stopped once the date of your visa has expired.

Unfortunately, the internet companies don’t seem to have been as lenient as the government. Some people are reporting that they are only able to get internet for one month at a time, so you have to keep on traveling into town to renew it. It also means that you pay considerably more for your internet, because you can’t get the cheaper (when worked out per gigabyte, since you pay per number of gigabytes you want) six month package, or even a three month package come to that.

My visa expires on Tuesday 5th May. I went into Senzo on Sunday(3rd May) to see if they could change my visa expiry date on their system (ie, lie about my visa expiry given that I can’t get it renewed). If they could do this, I wouldn’t need to be stuck without internet until I can next get to the Mall. My actual package is valid until August (but I’ll probably have used all my allowance up before then).

Unfortunately, the guy on the desk informed me that they can only change my visa expiry date on their system after the visa has actually expired. Thus, I have to wait first for them to cut my internet. This is very annoying. I rather suspect that the guy was new and didn’t know how to make the required change. I’ve seen them change it before when they put the wrong date in the system. So, now I have to get the bus back on Tuesday and see if I can get a different guy. Otherwise, I’ll have to see if I can get a lift into Senzo on Wednesday, once my internet has been completely cut off. Such a lot of effort and stress!

I wouldn’t even have had this issue if the Visa office had given me a year’s visa as I originally requested, but hey ho, I have to go with the flow.

It’s exactly the same for your phone, so I’ll have to try to remember to ask about my phone on Tuesday as well. These days, the internet is more necessary than ever, so it seems daft that it should have all become so much more difficult (it was always a hassle to start with, but now it’s got worse!), when the government has been fairly clear and organized (and fair) about it.

Fingers crossed that I have internet and can write my blog next week!