The first experience was the worst experience.

When I was in America, I worked a job that had me staying up until about 4 am. When I filled out the e-visa it was about 4 in the morning. I paid with a card that wanted to send a text to my phone. My phone was dead, and I thought it broke at first. Then I remembered there was a scheduled update. I had to do it over again as 5 am approached.

I had 3 flights going in. New Orleans to NYC’s JFK to Taipei, Taiwan to HCM. That middle flight was over 15 hours on China Airlines.

When I arrived at the airport I got in line for the visa/passport check, and when it was my turn, I got brought to the side. There was a problem with my visa form. When I filled it out, I only put my first and last name. I talked to a man in green while wondering about his English competency. I thought it was military, and now I think it’s the police. The visa form has one box for your family name, and then a second box for everything else. I wasn’t careful when I filled it out, and generally your middle name is only for when you’re in trouble with your mom.

After sitting there uneasy about the situation, the man in green led me over to someone he called a travel agent. He said he could fix my visa problem for $125. Four days prior was my birthday, and my mom gave me a check for $300 that I turned into cash to bring with me. I didn’t think about haggling, and I didn’t feel like I was in a good position for that.

After that things took so long that my suitcase was brought to the lost and found luggage area. I had trouble finding it. I tried to get my gf to help, but they don’t let people in the airport too easily. Sometime after this I realized it was too much to pay for a visa correction.

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