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Have Passport, Will Not Travel

Preface: I am currently working from my old office.

Because I have no real US address anymore, I asked the British visa processing center to return my passport and visa to my relatives address. For the last week and a half, I've been answering the questions "Why are you still here?", "Didn't you leave?", and "How's the UK?" every time I turn a corner at the office. I've been fantasizing about my big UK apartment and the convenience of paying my rent with pounds paid to me directly instead of transferred from the US. So, you can imagine my excitement when I spoke to my aunt yesterday and she told me she had a package for me of unknown origins.

Providentially, I already had plans to meet the relatives for dinner. (You can't get good hot wings in the UK, so I'm eating as many as I can before I go.) I ripped open my UPS package and dug out my passport from beneath a stack of returned original bank statements and pay stubs. There it was! UK Entry Clearance!

At the restaurant, I showed my passport and visa around the table. We began to discuss departure dates and a little bell went off in my head. The visa has a "valid from" field. Valid from 20/04/09. Dang, I need to extend my reservation at the hotel because I can't fly until Sunday.

And oh... There's also a "valid to" field. Valid to 01/05/09.

What?!!! That doesn't even get me close to the 2012 London Olympics!

A Google search turns up no useful links about who to contact if you are successfully issued a visa with useless dates. The British Embassy in New York simply refers visa questions to a contracted agency. Here are their rates:

Worldbridge also provides information through an e-mail and telephone enquiry service, the number is 1-900-656-5000 and costs $3.00 per minute, or 1-212-796-5773 for a $12.00 flat fee. All the information provided is supplied and approved by the UK Border Agency.
Looks like I need to extend my reservation indefinitely and maybe start a hot wing campaign. We could all get together and go to NY and stand outside the British embassy eating hot wings and trying to shake hands with all the legitimate visitors. Bet they'd reissue my visa in no time! Who's with me?

If you'd like to see what all the fuss is about, go here. Just picture me instead of this guy. American instead of Canadian. And a 10 day time span instead of 2 years.

Eat a wing for me,
~~~LeAn
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