Getting to India Ain’t Easy
OK, so I’m here now, but it took something like 5 tries to get a departure date.
The first time we pushed back my departure date was because there were all kinds of legal hurdles around whether making my trip could be an extended business trip versus an actual transfer to MS India. Because transferring meant I would have to officially leave my job, cash out my vacation, set up a new direct deposit, maybe a new bank account, and do about a hundred more things, really only a business trip made sense. This was all agreed upon with everyone involved within the first week of planning this trip back in July. Fast forward to one week before I leave and I’m still waiting on the official word one way or another, no one has told me whether it’s OK to get a visa (despite lots of emails) and I’ve only heard back on one out of every two or three mails I send.
Don’t get me wrong, the folks I’m working with really are doing their best. It’s a combination of some of the people being higher-ups with the typical too much stuff going on - lots of it undoubtedly more important than me - and others just honestly not knowing what to tell me as legal wranglings and other discussions happen without their knowledge. It’s just the end result was that I was in the dark for a lot of this time and unsure whether the trip would even happen at the time that I originally thought I would go. It also made for a funny situation at work as folks kept asking me if it was on or off and I honestly couldn’t tell them.
Around three days before I was originally supposed to leave I got word that it was a go for being a business trip and that I should get a visa. This was on Wednesday the 27th of August. Working with the visa office, they said they might be able to get my visa processed in time to leave the next weekend (I think I was supposed to leave on Sunday the 7th, but it’s starting to blur together). When the visa wasn’t available by Friday afternoon, we pushed my date back to the following Tuesday, the 9th. OK, no biggie, visas take some time, I wasn’t too worried. Sure, I get weird looks from folks when I show up at work on Monday, but I answer their comments about “aren’t you supposed to be in India?” with jokes about it being part of the experience to have to be flexible.
As the week goes on I have a hard time hearing about both my ticket arrangements and the visa, and when I do hear, it’s bad news: my passport with my visa haven’t been released by the Indian consulate at the end of the day on Monday, which means I won’t have them in time for my flight Tuesday. Time to push back again, this time to Friday to give myself some buffer and because there’s no point in showing up at work Friday afternoon versus Monday.
But then on Tuesday morning, I get word at about 8:30 AM - af full 6 hours before my flight had been scheduled to depart, that my passport with visa has shown up, ready to go in Redmond and I can pick it up at any time. Rescheduling had been a big pain in the butt, but I was OK with it, because there wasn’t anything to be done about it. But now I’m ticked off - the visa office had given me bad information and it cost me a week of work on an already shortened trip (my trip was originally supposed to be 8 weeks and I have a fixed end date and a lot to do). I send angry mails to folks, but there’s nothing to be done since I’m not packed and ready (I thought I had another three days) and even if I was, there’s no guarantee I can scramble and get my ticket back. So, OK, I’m leaving Friday now. I sheepishly head back into work on Tuesday to a lot of “weren’t you supposed to be gone? again?” and I send mail telling everyone we’ve pushed my trip back (again).
So at least I have visa in hand and now a flight booked for Friday. What can possibly go wrong?
Thursday night I get email: my flight was re-booked because they didn’t hear back from me and weren’t sure I had my visa. A number of 1 AM and 2 AM calls can’t get me back on the Friday flight (with a bonus day of rest in order to recover from the travel and get my bearings), so now I’m leaving on Saturday. Worse, I’ll arrive at 1 AM the night before/morning of the first day I’m supposed to go to work. I could take one day to rest up and recover at that point, but now I’m ridiculously anxious to get to work, so that doesn’t sound like a good thing either. I look back through my mail and, sure enough, there’s the mail that says I have my visa, and am ready to go, sent Tuesday morning, my time (and no emails after that asking about my visa status prior to the re-booking). Grr.
I had been planning to take Friday off, since I would be flying in the afternoon, and I was up until 2:30 in the morning waiting to hear back on re-booking to Friday, but Sarah and I are burned out on farewell events - we have had two or three farewell dinners either actually executed or scheduled - so I decide to just go into work. The questions now are “I thought we had gotten rid of you, are you even going?”
Bleah! Looking back, I should have booked my own tickets (the travel office in India was incredibly difficult to reach directly) and put in for my visa immediately when I had a tentative start date (the visas are reasonably flexible, I’ve found out). Not the way to start the trip, and not terribly confidence inspiring. Thankfully, it’s been all uphill since <knock on wood>.