Visa Renewal?

Before I came to Afghanistan I was only able to get a one month visa and was assured by the Afghan embassy in the US that getting a renewal here would be no problem, and that there were no restrictions. The time to renew has come so I went on an all morning visa-renewing expedition Saturday, and almost accomplished one thing! Dealing with the government agencies here is a joy. My first visit was to an agency that oversees tourism and had a really great discussion with the head of the agency about the programs they are developing to promote tourism and the hospitality industry. The office no longer handles tourist visas, but she told me what I needed to do… First you need to go to a certain agency and see Mr. A, pay him X dollars, get him to sign your document, then take it to another agency, see Mr. B, pay them X dollars, but don’t give them any more. They will ask for more, but don’t give it to them. Get him to sign your document. Once your docs are signed, they’ll give you a form to fill out, and you’ll need to write a letter stating why you are here and how long you will stay. Take it along with the other docs, proof of payment to Mr A and Mr B and photos to the passport office, who will then (fingers X-ed) give you the visa extension in a couple of days.

So I went and saw Mr A, but his office informed me that a new law was passed during the last month since I arrived. It is no longer possible to get more than a one month extension on a tourist visa. What am I going to do? My return ticket isn’t for 6 weeks. After a long discussion, he decided he could make an exception (of course!), but he would need to write me a letter, which I should then take to agency B, who would have to approve, then return with the approval to agency A for the signature to take back to B for the counter signature, and so on.

Meanwhile, Mr A is telling my interpreter in Dari that after I receive this visa renewal the govt will NEVER issue me another tourist visa again… because after two months in Afghanistan I should have seen everything there is to see in the country so I should never need to come back! This, after spending the morning hearing about how Afghanistan wants to promote tourism. I can see the slogan for their new tourism marketing campaign: Go once, because you can never come back.