It took forever to get 2 copies of everything (well, almost everything
) via the printer that's begging to be replaced. Somehow, my lovely wife's copy of our marriage certificate was missing.
Time was running out, so we decided to wing it with only mine. The Didi driver decided to hide about 150 meters away from where he was carefully directed to wait for us. Thought my wife was going to beat him, but she decided that getting to our destination was more important than making the driver regret disappointing her.
Finally got down to the Bureau of Foreigner Containment a little after 4.
The usual guy who gets stuck with my paperwork (and knows about greencards) was out this week. Instead, got a new guy. He spoke English fairly well and had one other thing in common with me. It was the first green card application for both of us, so he got to join me in seeking out and exploring strange new paperwork.
While hunting through the originals of everything to compare to the copies, the other marriage certificate dropped out out one of the other document booklets. One small crisis averted.
Finally got original compared to copies and everything in the right order. He promised to call if anything was missing. We made it all the way to the bus stop in front of the building before the phone rang. For some reason, even though they already had a copy of my last entry stamp in my res permit application from 2 weeks before, they needed a new one, plus copies of all of my res permits (ALL issued from the same desk that took the application. Oh, and they needed all of this in duplicate and the office was closing in less than 10 minutes.
We ran to a copy shop across the street. Made 2 copies of Z-visa from 2010, every res permit since then (up to the one issued last week), and my last entry stamp. Ran back across the street, and made it in just before they locked the doors.
I'm sure there's another call or two for copies or other things in my near future, but for the moment, it's mission accomplished. I've got a receipt for submitting my Chinese green card application on my 5th wedding anniversary.
And in furry news, Stripy Emperor finally kept a meal down today and is looking better. Will get to see him tomorrow morning before heading off to HK and then the US for a few days. My lovely wife promises to visit him every day while I'm gone.