My expired Pakistani passport, issued in Paris, in 1978! 🙂

Well, it looks like I am going to Pakistan after all! Breathing! The process to get a visa has been tortuous, and until an hour ago, I wasn’t sure they were going to give me one. I sent my American passport by mail to the Pakistan Consulate in New York City, in itself scary, along with all the forms from their website and a cashier’s check for the fee. I did this a while ago. Then my sister, who is in NYC, went to get her visa from the consulate a few days ago,  I asked her to pick up my passport and O/N it to me. They said I hadn’t sent a copy of my expired Pakistani passport with my application so my application was incomplete and they were holding on to it. Hm! Never before was I asked to provide an old Pakistani passport…  and even now, it says that, where on their website? Exactly nowhere. For the longest time, I didn’t even know where my old (from 1978) expired passport was. I randomly found it while unpacking boxes when I moved to Louisville. It makes no sense to ask someone for their expired passport, I sent them a valid US passport and I needed a visa on that to go to Pakistan. But who’s going to argue with them? Not me, I needed a visa. So I got their email address, 2 of them, and emailed them scans of my expired Pakistani passport. I called to make sure, had to call about 10 times before anyone picked up, they told me they hadn’t gotten any emails from me. Ok. I emailed them a few more times, attaching the files in different ways, hoping they would get my email. This morning I got a phone call from them saying they never got any emails. Ok, so what do I do? Fax? Yes, I faxed them the documents, had to go to a UPS store because our fax machine’s cord was nowhere to be found (yes we have a fax machine, can you say anachronism, haha)… Fax went through after trying 3 times. Whew. They gave me the receipt and nothing, I tell you nothing was visible/legible on what they faxed. Starting to panic now, looks like my trip is off… Sent my sister emails and texts of my Pakistani passport to take to the consulate. My aunt knows the Consul General, so I sent her scans of my expired Pakistani passport, asked her to help.

Just got an email from my aunt and a phone call from my sister. My visa has been granted and my sister will O/N my passport to me in about an hour. I should get it tomorrow, fingers crossed.

Gawd! Does everything have to be this difficult?

Oh and my ticket, haha… that’s another story… for another time…

Wish me Bon Voyage! And I’m breathing…