The week had finally come for Tricia and I to get our visas to become legal residents in Ireland for the year. Little did we know, we were in store for a true test of patience and perseverance in order to get the visa. Each day only 30 people in Cork are awarded their visa and it comes on a first come first serve basis. We had heard horror stories of people showing up without all of their documents or too late in the day and getting rejected so we made sure to get to the office at 6:30, two and a half hours before it opened. We only had three other people in front of us. You’d think from there we’d get seen almost immediately, get our visas and be on our way. Unfortunately, that was not the case at all. At 8:45 we were all told to go wait outside. We did as we were told (or thought we did) and logically waited in the foyer which was much warmer and dryer than waiting all the way outside. At 8:59, ONE MINUTE before the office opened, we were told to go to the very back of the line since we didn’t wait all the way outside. At this point around fifty people had showed up in line behind us so when I went to ask the guy how he could do something so cruel he threatened to have me kicked out. The guy wasn’t having it so I took my place in the back of the line. There, I met back up with Tricia, who after two previous unsuccessful attempts to get her visa was determined to not let the mind games get to her. From there all we could do was laugh at the ridiculousness of what happened and hope we’d be seen. Eventually we did get seen despite the chaos of people trying to cut in line and the same guy from earlier threatening to kick people out of the office for standing in his way.
At the end of the day we both got our Visas and actually had a good time meeting other people and learning about where they were from and their past experiences trying to get their visas. We also withstood the true test of patience and know if we can get through that, we can get through anything Ireland throws at us!
