Think about this: a mass of some 300 people, all with appointments at the same time, 90% mainland Chinese, hardly anyone who speaks Spanish & 2 security guards to control the whole bunch. That was my day.
By the time I arrived, someone had made two lines. I got in the shorter one which Luciano found out was not the official line. No big deal. We moved before anyone else did. Then they began to allow people inside. Imagine the reaction of all those in the “unofficial” line. It wasn’t pretty. Two problems came up… 1) most Chinese who were there had NOT been clued in to the concept of waiting in line & 2) overworked security guards lost their temper easily. Luciano & I let a family of 3 ahead of us just because. They had no clue what was going on. Many others tried to break in line wherever they could or just walk in the front door. This pissed off one of the guards who started screaming things like, “All you Chinese look the same to me, but I will remember your face so get to the end of the line! END of the line!” How non-PC. The whole situation was so bizarre that it was comical.
However, the first people to enter were the gestores regardless of where the line began. These are locals that charge anywhere between US$1000-$3500 to “speed up” the residency process. That is an enormous amount of money given the current economic situation. Some of that cash goes to bribe the guards & staff so that their clients get preferential treatment. In my opinion, anyone who uses their services should be deported. Gestores are thieves who take advantage of others & should not exist. How is Argentina ever going to change when old habits are supported? Under the current amnesty law, they are not necessary… but most foreigners don’t know that so they get swindled out of lots of cash.
Anyway, I got #92 & waited with Luciano. We were chatting about all kinds of things when a security guard asked him for his papers. They thought that he was a gestor, but one that hadn’t paid the necessary bribes to be admitted inside. So he talked to the director, & even though he was only there as a friend —a friend who happened to be a lawyer but a friend nonetheless— they made him leave. Unbelievable. Luciano has never charged me a peso for anything, but he was in a suit in the wrong place. Sometimes I wonder why I want to get Argentine citizenship.
En fin, all my paperwork was ok, I had everything they needed & was told to come back sometime in late May or early June for the results. No appointment number, no specific date, nada. They will review the case when they get around to it, & I have to return periodically to check on their progress.
Token photo of the day: the Big Ben-ish Torre de los Ingleses
[A little lo-fi nostalgia… original content from Line of Sight, reposted to commemorate 20 years of blogging. Learn more.]