Illegal Alien

The road to gaining temporary residency has not been smooth. Our first trip to the Home Affairs Office, ended up with us being mistaken for refugees. We finally went back again this morning, armed with a large wad of paperwork, only to be told that my tourist visa had expired and that we were in 'hot water'. We thought this was quite funny until we realised that they weren't joking.

Apparently I didn't get a new 3 month visa when I arrived in May as the temporary visa from our visit in March was still valid - until it ran out June...

This presented us with a bit of a pickle. I am now too pregnant to fly back to the UK, and apparently, a 'quick' visa trip to Swaziland (10 hour drive there and back) wasn't going to be sufficient. Oops! Some serious grovelling, a lot of forms and an elaborate letter explaining the circumstances surrounding our late application and we were ready to submit ourselves to the mercy of the South African immigration service. We were given instructions to return at 12.30pm.

Back home, we decided to keep a low profile while we considered the options:

1) Deportation back to the UK (is business class an option for deportees?)
2) A R1000 fine and a big nasty red stamp in my passport (may affect future visa applications)
3) Nice man overlooks slight visa irregularity and we can all breathe a sigh of relief.

Looking on the bright side, are deportees allowed to exit the country with an empty suitcase and return with an Ikea cupboard and set of John Lewis blinds? On the other hand, would I become persona non grata in South Africa leaving a gap in the kitchen and forever solving the 'SA v UK' debate?

I passed the morning, attempting to elicit sympathy from family & friends by email. Not surprisingly reaction was mixed, however, I can confirm that I am not flying back into Glasgow Airport and am therefore unlikely to be suspected of carrying a weapon of mass destruction round my middle.

At 12.30pm exactly, we were back at the Home Affairs Office counter number 7, awaiting the verdict. Hooray for Rajiv - within a couple of minutes we had a fully stamped passport containing a visa allowing me to stay until June 2008.