PART III - The Immigration Officer Collision
This time the officer was a man. I explained to him that I wanted to request a residence visa.
He then starts lecturing me that I can't request the visa in Romania. I have to request it in the Romanian Consulate in Japan.
I try to explain to him that obviously that was the case for Japanese citizens requesting a visa BEFORE coming to Romania. But I am already living in Romania for months. I got married in Romania and I even have an apartment in Romania.
He puts on his communist "Aici eu sunt cel mai tare si mai mare" face and warns me that as a foreign citizen I have no rights quoting Romanian law to him.
I then tell him that his colleague that I talked to last month told me that I can obtain the residence visa right there. He asks me who was it. I told him that I don't know the name but it was a lady. He then tells me that as HE is older than HER, therefore it is HIS word that counts, not hers. I asked him if the immigration laws change according to the age of the person who interprets it and he pretends he didn't hear me but if looks could kill I would be fulminated on spot.
Then I told him that the Romanian Consul in Japan told me that I can request a residence visa at the local immigration office. He then argues that the Consulate is a completely different Ministry. Then I ask him if the immigration laws change according to the Ministry. He then snaps in a very Romanian style: "LOOK! YOU need ME. I don't need YOU!! If you want this visa YOU do whatever I tell you to do!!"
Well, as I can't stand this kind of self-centered, self-conceited assholeness I then ask him: "How much is the bribe that you want? NO, I am NOT asking you if you are expecting a bribe because it is VERY OBVIOUS that you want one. So just tell me how much you want and let's get over with it".
Apparently these kind of self-conceited assholes have trouble facing the truth when it is put like that so he had security escort me out of the premises :-))
I called the Brazilian Consulate and talked to the Consul and explained to him what happened and he explained to me that the Brazilian government can't do anything about it because in immigration cases the country has absolute power and in the special case of Romania, the immigration officers are famous for abusing of it. “If the Romanian immigration officer doesn't like the color of your shirt he can refuse to give you the visa and he has no obligation to explain the reasons to you or to his superiors so they have fun abusing of this power.”
Those were the words of the Brazilian Consul.
He also suggested me to go to Hungary to get the visa because Brazil and Hungary had just recently signed a diplomatic agreement that allows Brazilian citizens to enter Hungary without requesting a visa at the consulate and vice-versa.
My wife tried to pull some strings. Her boss has some very high connections among Ploiesti politicians and he called the immigration officer to ask him a favor in the name of the mayor of Ploiesti. And his answer was: "If you're talking about that Japanese that was here this morning, tell him that even if he gets the president of Romania call me he won't get his visa here!!!" :-))
My wife then started pulling some more strings and she got one Cristina, the niece of a friend of the cousin of the wife of the parrot of some high politician, who works for the Ministry of Internal Affairs to ask the Romanian Consul in Szeged to give me the visa as a favor to the great-grand-nephew of a friend of the gardener of the cousin of the wife of the minister. Well, it wasn't exactly like this but I don't understand Romanian string pulling system so to me it was all the same.
I thought this was getting more complicated than it was necessary so I decided to call the Romanian Consulate in Budapest to ask for information and I ended up talking to the Consul himself. I explained my situation and he was very sympathetic because he knows what kind of abuse of power goes on in the Romanian system. So he told me to just come over to Budapest the he will give me the visa.
In that same day my wife came from work with her "good news" that the Consul in Szeged said he will see what he can do for me.
I told her that I had just talked to the Consul in Budapest himself and he promised me for sure that he will get me the visa. She then argued that as she pulled A LOT of strings to get me this opportunity to get it in Szeged that I should go with HER plan.
Anyway she pissed me off so much with this argument that she worked a lot for me to get this visa that I won't dare not go to Szeged to get it that I told her that I will do it. But if it goes wrong I will NEVER, EVER forgive her for it.
Yes, this Romanian bullshit was pissing me THAT much.
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