Immigration woes

Well, even though I had settled matters concerning the stomach, all was not yet rosy. You see, I was given only a one month stay in the state by the officer manning the immigration counter at the airport.

So once the bell signalling the end of school for Friday went off, I joined those teachers from Kuching and headed straight for the Serian bus station to catch the 12.30 pm express bus to Kuching and from there to get onto the Chin Ling Long bus No.18 to Simpang Tiga where the immigration office is located. There was no time for lunch except for a red bean bun which I ate during the one hour plus journey.

Reached the immigration office after two and surprise, surprise, a few others who were posted to the state the same time as me were already there with the same problem including my friend with whom I squatted with at the government rest house and who was posted to St. Augustine, Betong. As it was the usual scenario in those days, we were kept waiting for some time before someone finally approached the counter.

After considering our predicament, the officer told us that we just have to apply for an extension every month. Naturally, we argued as it was most illogical and it was not as if we applied to be posted here; we were after all posted by the education ministry. I even insisted that there must be an exception for federal officers posted to the state which prompted the officer to refer to a book and after flipping through the pages we were told that teachers were not in the list and he even showed us the page in the book related to the education service. I pointed out that educators were on the list but according to the officer, educators do not include teachers. This really makes one wonders what do teachers actually do if not to educate! As no solution seemed to be forth coming, we requested to see the superior officer but as usual, superior officers are hardly ever available when you need to see them. So we had to make arrangement to return the following week.

The second time round at the immigration office was no plain sailing either. One of the guys was allowed to go in to see the officer in charge and he was told to get a letter from the education office. So he went up (luckily the education office was in the same building) to look for our posting officer who then called up the immigration officer and this was followed up with a letter which was handed over to the immigration officer. After waiting for sometime, a decision was made and we were told we would be given a one year pass. Ha, bet you thought everything was finally settled which was what our posting officer thought too.

He was really surprised to see us again the following week (we were not able to get hold of him after being told that we would be given a one year pass as he was already attending to some other matters elsewhere). This time round we insisted that our posting officer go down to deal with the immigration officer as it seemed we were getting no where. Our posting officer didn’t really have a choice because if the problem with the immigration was not settled, it meant packing up and home sweet home for us. After having a closed door discussion, he came out to inform us that the problem has been settled and we finally had our passport endorsed for an indefinite stay. Just imagine having to rush to the immigration office for three consecutive Friday! But, this was not my one and only brush with the immigration department.

The next time I was there was when my passport expired and being very innocent, I did not renew my passport before the expiry date. You know, teachers are forever busy so, I waited until the school holidays before I went to the department to make a renewal and that was when I was told that I had been staying in the state illegally and that I could be jailed for the offence. I didn’t know then about the state constitution and the 20 point-agreement made when the state together with Sabah agreed to join Malaya to form Malaysia. Luckily for me, I was let off with just a caution and told to make sure to get my passport renew before expiry date in future.

My hope is, in the not so distant future, I can stay here indefinitely without having to go through any hassle about passport requirement, etc. After all I am Malaysian and I have spent all of my productive years serving in the state educating sons of Sarawak!