Monday, August 30, 2010

extending Armenian visa

My e-visa to Armenia had one obvious disadvantage - 21 days validity. My schedule changed and I had to extend it in immigration department. I was lucky to enjoy assistance of local colleague, otherwise I wouldn’t succeed in extending it for several reasons.
First, immigration department has no customer center, which means walking around the office and looking for appropriate room. Of course all information boards are in Armenian. Second, procedure is unclear (even for many department employees), so we visited several rooms asking for guidance. Third, application form is available in English and Armenian, but has to be filled out in Armenian. And now it’s time for a small quiz: what is the percentage of foreigners extending their visas and writing Armenian? Could it be more than 5%? I don’t think so...
Some time ago department had to understand that service designed for foreigners is obviously out of foreigners’ reach, so they appointed English-speaking clerk to support applicants. Of course not free of charge.

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