Celebrate

The word seemed proper to best describe my feeling right now because I’m officially having my own passport, YAY! After weeks of tears and struggling, blood and persistence, endurance and effort *okay, I’m exaggerating, you should’ve known that*, that blasted small insignificant nothing-too-extraordinaire green book finally arrived at my hand. And it only cost me 275.000 IDR plus transportation cost.

Making your own passport by yourself only took a moment of clarity that this /cannot/ be done unless there’s a marvelous collaboration between you yourself and the office you work for. That means, you have to take an annual leave (or sick leave, anything that suit your ethics) just to ensure that you can join hundreds of other innocent soul waiting in that damn queue. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, the price of not using any helpful-yet-expensive assistant (read: CALO) is the honor of sitting (or standing, whichever preferable) in that hot and damp and there-is-TV-but-no-sound-came-out-of-it room. The immigration office.

Ta-da!

Personally speaking, I went there four times. First time I arrived at 7.30 am in the morning and the office is not even opened yet, but my oh my, there’s bunch of people queuing already, God bless their soul. Shocked, I asked bravely to one of the seemed-nice lady that was holding a yellow map, inquired where one could get the exact map and form. She pointed out the way and I bought the map for 5000 IDR *nice trick, the form is free but the map surely not*

Then, I started to fill the form intensely as I totally forgot (or, well let’s face it, have no idea) about my ma’s and pa’s date of birth. Oh My Goat! Now there’s some critical information that you guys should definitely remember next time you fill in some immigration form. Hence, I stepped back and passed that question. From there, it got even more difficult. The date that my ID got released? Oh no, where should I look for it? That ID card has just been renewed and obviously the expiry date is my next birthday in 2015, but that only meant the release date was supposed to be my birthday this year. Things got complicated (at least in my head =_=) since my birthday is still in another 4 months. Hence, the date will not be valid. What should I do??? What should I do???

Sensing my anxiety, one of the officer came to my rescue, thank God. I said coyly that there’s no such thing as 'Release Date' in my ID card. He stared at me like I was sum kind of ET came from out of nowhere, and simply took out his own ID. So there we were, staring at each other's ID card like some moron, and then he said, “Nih, punya saya ada." I was so embarrassed, huhuhuhuhu, so I showed my dignity by insisting that there is no such thing in my card. In the end, he simply gave up and said, "You made it up yourself lah." Ha! But then he asked something so freakin important that it felt like a cold water being thrown at my face, “Mbak, udah ambil nomor antrian?”

JRENG JRENG!

So I spent like half an hour to complete that blasted form without even thinking that the queue line could actually getting longer. I rushed up to the ticket counter and yes, I got the number 414. Numb-minded, I walked to a chair and right at that moment, the immigration office was officially opened and they yelled “Three-Zero-Zero”. Hmm, at least the starting point was not ONE, for God’s sake. So I waited there patiently, and the next half hour, the line was progressing tremendously to number Three-Zero-Three… SERIOUSLY???? I packed my bag and called a cab to head to my office.

That’s how I ended up going there 4 times. I was sooo not going to wait there while there’s bunch of work-to-do waiting for me in my desk, and yes, I blamed my naïve innocent mind that thought the whole immigration thing won’t take more than two hours if I arrived early. And I was not well-prepared anyway since I still had to wait my mom’s reply, telling me the date of her birth. Chaotic!

The next working day, I got lucky. The ticket number in my hand showed 303 (progress!) and the line was already at 219. Impressive, considering that I arrived a lot later than the first day. 8.30 am. Ha-ha! In the end, I only got to wait exactly three hours till I gave them my papers.

During waiting, I noticed some of the high-end-mum trying to process her family’s passport, some of the they-tawt-they’re-celebrity waiting impatiently in front of each teller (like it would help), and ‘fcourse.. the helpful-assistants were everywhere.

The queue during photo-shoot was even more interesting. Hahahaha, since I glimpsed upon some cutey highschool boys, or college student, or even anak2 bule cowo.. hohohoho, menyenangkan!

To sum up, the thing you need to prepare (based on my own experience AND the announcement while I was waiting in queue):
- Bring copy of your ID Card (KTP), latest certificate from the university (Ijazah Kuliah), certificate of birth (Akte Lahir), certificate of your household (err, KK) and the recommendation letter from your company directed to the complete name of Immigration Office you’re applying to (i.e. Kantor Imigrasi Jakarta Barat, etc), along with the original version. No original paper no deal;
- Ensure that your ID Card and Kartu Keluarga is not expired (seriously, they announced it loudly!);
- Ensure that your ID Card and Kartu Keluarga belong to the same area;
- Ensure that you put your name in the form (=______=);
- In the photo-shoot session, ensure that you bring the money;
- Bring some books to read, MP3 player to listen to (but not too loud since you might missed your number and then you gotta start it again); and
- Arrive before 11 am since the queue ticket will automatically shut-down at that time.

That’s it and good luck.