legal entry

In the last forty-eight hours I've learned more about the "getting a visa" process than I think I'd ever known before. There is every kind of visa out there that you can apply for--student visa, working visa, business visa (the same thing?? I don't even know), reforestation visa (because Panama takes its reforestation business seriously), and more! And apparently, if you're from the United States (or from one of these other 25 countries) you don't need any of them if you want to visit as a tourist for ninety days or less (extendable to 180 days).

Of course, the reason I am learning all these things is in response to our lawyer, who has been helping us  (alternative wording: stringing us along) through the visa process, introducing each new fee in the process without a prior warning that the next one will be coming.

Suffice to say everything always costs more than you think it will.

So after awhile we've started to feel like perhaps she doesn't quite have our best interests at heart. Or even that she simply doesn't really know what she's talking about? Or, perhaps the most likely scenario, the bureaucratic regime legitimately doesn't make any sense, and as she leads us through it we are growing suspicious of her over nothing. Lucky for me, the US Embassy just-so-happens to be on the bus route to school! So tomorrow will include a brief visit to the Embassy to find out what's going on, and what the law actually is.

My friend Mary (citing her mother?) reminded me that all this frustrating process of securing the bureaucratic documentation necessary to study in this country legally is just a taste of what those trying to enter the United States must go through. These people will never have the local Consulate or Embassy hanging out down the street, but are left to fight through the bureacracy on their own, hopefully with help from a lawyer. And all the while they deal with the same questions--does this lawyer really have my best interests at heart? Is this next fee, this next stamp, this next laminated piece of paper, really necessary? Or have I put up with enough of this? And will they even notice one way or another?

In Panama we have a terrifying suspicion that the answer to that last question is "no." Especially knowing that, if we were here "as tourists," we would not have to do anything at all to be here legally. That's 500 bucks of incentive to not bother telling la migra we've been studying. For better or for worse, the vast majority has been paid, and what remains for us will be taken care of before long. But first, the voyage into the Embassy walls to sort it out. And hopefully find some answers.