Ugandan Immigration

Today (Sept 30th) we went to Immigration to go through a few of the processes for Gabriel's Ugandan passport.
This is how our itinerary went, and I WISH my glasses had a camera on them so you could have seen what I saw. Yes, it was pretty amusing!

11:30am         Arrive at Immigration. The special hire that drove us parked, Trophi went into Immigration and met up with a guy who was going to help us to get Gabriel's passport. Trophi fills out Form A and Form B. Roy at Immigration tells him the letter we wrote isn't good enough. I wait, the sun is beating down on the car, and it's roasting hot outside. I'm starting to get hungry and am trying to think of a place where I might go sit out of the car and out of the sun with Gabriel. There are no places. We just hang out, waiting and getting pretty uncomfortable. We are at the back of Immigration, in the parking lot. Next to us is a big green tent full of chairs and people waiting for Interviews for their passports. The line-up occasionally goes out into the sun, and the tent is overflowing with people...at least 150 people all just waiting for an Interview.

12:20pm        Trophi comes back to the car, where I was sitting as Gabriel was sleeping, and we rewrite the letter, sign it and it's good to go. He goes back to the building where our file is (Immigration is a mass of all small offices, broken uneven concrete, dodging drainage channels with no covers and the works). We wait a bit longer.

12:40pm         Trophi comes back to get Gabriel and me, he is told it's time for our Interview for the passport. Since we need Gabriel's passport quickly, we are on fast track...except it's seeming like slow track at this point. No one is in a rush. Time, what is time? We go in, pass through a broken gate, stepping over drainage channels. I keep thinking, what if I trip...Gabriel will go flying and so will I! We get up to some area, where Immigration used to work on passports from. The offices are abandoned. Dilapidated isn't even a good enough description. These government offices look like village offices. Really, it's THAT bad.

12:50pm         Trophi goes off to tell our special hire (that is a story of it's own, since the one we usually have drive us was busy, so we scrambled to get a car to get to Immigration. Finally we found a driver, who drove SO badly, I kept biting my tongue wanting to tell him to slow down and drive like he cares about his passengers. I chose to keep my mouth closed. I just prayed for safety. We reached safely.) Well, that driver left as our usual one came and waited for us to bring us home.
While Trophi was gone out to the taxi to grab the car seat, a guy told me to go back to the green tent and wait from there for an Interview. I was confused and pretty much frustrated at that point and didn't leave, telling him I'd wait for my husband and he could than explain why, to him. There was no where to sit, so we ended up finding an old fungus covered mango tree up against a building and sat on the steps underneath it, that lead to an old office; breathing in sewer smell. It was pretty gross!
We wait. And wait. And wait. And wait.

2:20pm         Trophi decides we've waited long enough and goes to find the guy who has been helping us. Sure enough, we could have been standing in a queue for our interview, but you think they told us? Nope! So, we stand in line, not more than 10 minutes later we are shown into a big room...full of files. Green, yellow, pink & blue. They are stacked EVERYWHERE! Heaps of files with baler-twine fastening them are piled in this room...I can't even guess and possibly how many files where there. I wished right than my glasses had a camera in them. It was pretty funny! I looked and started laughing. How is one to find a file?  Start looking stack by stack? The room was so full of files, strewn everywhere, both in bundles, and individual; that we had very little room to stand. The room should have been at least 10x30ft. Yes, that's a lot of files. Gabriels is yellow, in case his goes missing, which, is highly likely. So, we have our interview. Trophimus is asked where he is from: Tororo. Where in Tororo: Mulanda. Ok cool. Done. Yes, can you imagine we waited the entire day, just for those 2 random questions. Now we can leave... oh wait. Not yet.
I forgot to tell you as we were waiting in the queue, we stood outside under a porch type area, and could look into the 'Accounts' room. I saw the most MASSIVE book, I've ever seen in my life! It was at least 6-8 inches thick. NO kidding. I looked at it and started laughing. Trophimus asked why I was laughing, I showed him the book that a lady was writing in..possibly on only page 1 or 2, and he also started laughing. Welcome to Uganda, where EVERYTHING is manual. Paperwork. No computer files. Even in Immigration.

2:35pm           We are told we only need to be 'seen'. Yes there is a separate guy, who just needs to verify that Gabriel is indeed Gabriel (go figure, huh?!), and than we can go. So, we leave from up, walk down to that area, around old cars that no longer serve a purpose, and underneath a small tent. I almost trip on the uneven concrete and people start apologizing. Such are Ugandans. Considerate and thoughtful for the most part. Well, the man who needed to see Gabriel had gone home, so, were told to come back the next day. Oh boy, I WAS NOT happy. The poor guy hadn't had any naps, was restless, on top of his normal high active self and we were clearly done with waiting and waiting. Only to be told to come back tomorrow. With Gabriel. I was fuming. Seriously. Government workers leaving at random times through the day, and we have to suffer for their carelessness?

Well. We went home.
We came back the next morning, and I was prepared this time, I was ready to sit for a few hours.
I was in for a very pleasant surprise. We were in and out in less than 30 minutes. Praise the Lord. The process was getting to long and cumbersome.
Our next step was waiting for his passport to be ready. It was supposed to take 3-5 days. Well, were just over a week as of today and I'm hoping Trophimus calls me soon, saying he's left Immigration WITH Gabriels' passport. We need it urgently for tomorrow for some other paperwork we are working on.


(UPDATE on the Passport...Troph waited from 11am, till 4pm and than decided to leave. They take the little paper..from everyone waiting in the tent; only about 200 people and than go back to where all the passports are in another place and than look for them....bring them back, call out your name, if your name isn't called, there isnt' a passport for you (or they just couldn't find it), so come back another time, and hopefully they didn't loose your paper or you are stuck.
So, Trophimus will go back another day, wait again and hopefully we get Gabriel's passport than. As for the urgency we needed it for...were trusting that they overlook that one detail!


Welcome to Uganda :) You might have to wait for hours and hours, but really, there are funny times even in the waiting. I wish, Oh I wish I could have shown you photos of that file room and that massive book!

Happy Belated Independence Day (51 yrs) Uganda!