Visa Adventures!

Oh man, I am so dumb! Haha! Let me tell you what I did today. Well I needed to get my Visa for Taiwan, as you see in my list its written in RED so it's very important, haha! Well the TECRO website sucks I have to say. Nowhere on the site does it give you their phone number or address. So I have to search around google to find other sites that referenced them in order to find that info. So then I called to confirm it was correct.

Next I needed to get all the requirements together. $100 fee, 2 passport style photos, a bank statement with over $4000 in it, an itenerary printed from the airline showing you purchased tickets to arrive and depart, and the Visa Application. On the application there is a section for a reference in Taiwan. I wasn't sure if I needed that so I didn't fill it out, but I brought a paper along that had a friend's info on it. On that paper I had also written the directions to the TECRO Office. I might as well say it here, their office is at 4201 Wisconsin Avenue, NW, Washington DC 20016, and the phone number is 202-895-1800. Maybe someone else doing a google search will find this information helpful.

So I took the Metro into DC and stopped at the Teneley Town AU stop. On the google map it appeared that the Metro stop was south of Albermarle Street. Therefore to continue south to the TECRO Office I should not cross Albermarle and instead follow Wisconsin Ave down towards Van Ness. Well actually I came out on the North side, so when I avoided crossing Albermarle I was going North. I noticed the numbers were going up and i wasnt hitting any of the cross streets, but I couldn't figure out how I could be going north if I didnt cross Albermarle. Well I walked all the way back to the previous Metro stop before I figured it out. I jumped back on rode back to Teneley Town and went the correct way. When I arrived the front doors were closed. There were no signs to explain why. So I called the TECRO Office using the number I had written on that piece of paper. They said, oh theres a side door facing Van Ness- so I went around. I showed them my form and they said I needed to add the reference person's info on the sheet. So I put my things down on the table. I had all the forms there except one thing. That piece of paper I had JUST been holding was suddenly missing, and it had the only info I needed on it. I searched like mad to no avail. Finally I gave up and thought to myself, how can I get a replacement reference. Lucky for me I have other Taiwanese friends here in the US. I called one of them and they were able to give me all the info I needed, including their ROC ID number which was lucky. So I turned in all the pieces of the puzzle and the lady gave me my receipt. I went to pick up all my items and as I picked up my clipboard, there underneath was that paper I had been looking for. AIYO!!! Apparently that was the only place I didn't think to look.

Oh and I forgot to mention I don't have a printer at my house so I had to go to my dad's office first in order to print my Itinerary. So in the end it actually didn't take that long, and I had everything I needed, they said it would be ready next Thursday, due to the fact the office is closed for a few days because of the Holidays. If I had paid extra I think I could have had it done today.

So all in all, if you aren't a retard like me you can easily go and get a Visa to Taiwan. I hope this is useful to someone, but most likely it will just others laugh at my expense, haha!