My Life as an Illegal Alien

Life lesson #1: No matter how meticulously one plans out their life they must always prepare themselves for disaster.

Case and point: Before I came to Turkey I mapped out everything very carefully. My plane ticket was provided for me by the lovely people at the State Department, I had housing for the summer, I had signed a contract and had a job and free housing and/or a housing stipend waiting for me in Istanbul. However, surprise surprise when I got to Turkey things were not quite as simple as I thought they would be. My contact at the school had mysteriously gone missing and only resurfaced about 3 weeks before I was supposed to start work to tell me that she was no longer working with my school and she was sorry for the inconvenience...oh and I should probably contact the school because she was not sure whether or not they had secured my spot. That first speed bump was actually very quickly resolved after I went to the headquarters, demanded a job and then signed a new contract. At that time I made it very clear that I had arrived in Turkey in June on a tourist visa and would need them to get me a residence permit before September (when my visa expired). They casually assured me that I need not worry, they deal with these things all the time and it would not be a problem.

Naively I waited. My beloved little Hazel decided to stay in Istanbul and take a job at another school so we started to make our little Istanbul fantasy a reality and feather our lovenest. I emailed the school a few times before classes started and tried to arrange a time to go and get my permit but they kept telling me not to worry falan falan (and so on). Classes started, they were a total mess but they slowly slowly got better. I kept emailing and calling the school but no one seemed concerned about my quickly expiring visa except me. Turns out the reason no one was concerned was not because my situation did not merit concern but rather because the person who usually handles these matters had left the school and the remaining employees had absolutely no idea what they were doing.

So let´s skip the tedious details and flash forward to today. My visa expired a month ago. Turkish immigration regulations say that I must leave the country and I am not permitted to return for 3 months. However I went to the police station (a monstrous fortress of bureaucratic hell) and filed for a declaration for a visa, which basically says that I have acknowledge that I need to file for a new permit, I may legally stay in Turkey until November 3rd after which I must leave the country for one month before I can return. Yes, it is an improvement from 3 months but still one month is a long bloody time. I have been told that if I go and file for a new trouist visa in a country other than Turkey then there is a chance that they will be able to grant me that visa faster than one month and I would be able to come back. However no one really seems to know exactly what I should do. I have had a lot of people tell me that it really depends on the mood of the people I speak with. For example, there is a chance that the border guard could just let me back in if he felt like it but there is also a chance that he could be a complete (insert fervent bad word here) and make me stay the month.

Luckily I actually have a friend who lives in Sofia, Bulgaria and has very very generously offered to let me stay with her while I sort this mess out. My plan as of right now is to finish out the week, take a bus to Bulgaria on Sunday or Monday and the second I cross that border go to the Turkish Embassy in Sofia and submit my visa application.

However another big headache to add to my already body numbing Turkish migrane is, what will my school do without for one month or even 2 weeks? I have been assured that when I return I will have a job with the umbrella company that runs my school, possibly working at one of the other campuses but I dont want to have to start all over again. I really like the people I work with and I have really started to build a relationship with my students. Every Thursday and Friday after school I run this program called VIP Fun Club (I didnt pick the name) and we do little projects, read plays or sing songs as extra English practice. Only 16 students can come each week and they have to come and ask me permission to be in the club or be choosen by their teacher, hence the VIP, its very exclusive. Anyway its been going really well and we actually have a lot of fun together. Its a nice chance to get to know the kids and I feel like each week we are actually accomplishing things because the students who come all want to be there and are all very eager to participate. I have another student who rides the afternoon bus with me who speaks almost perfect English because she used to live in America and has become my little buddy. Sometimes I sit with her and her class during lunch (teachers do that here, its not just me being super cool). I met her Mom the other day and they have invited me over for breakfast or lunch one weekend. This whole process is most frustrating because I want to be able to continue to build relationships with my students and really become a part of the community here but I cant do that if I am uprooted and placed in a different school.

Its all pretty much out of my hands so I all I can really do is wait and see what happens. I wrote the headquarters yet another angry email yesterday basically demanding that I be compensated for my time in Bulgaria because this whole issue is their fault and NOT mine. I have not heard anything back from them and honestly I dont really expect to. I have a feeling that I will have to make the hour and a half bus ride to the office and yell at someone in person, most likely in broken Turkish. They are already paying for my round-trip bus tickets but I am really going to push as hard as I can to be paid all of my salary...keep your fingers crossed.