Eleanor and I now have our Irish passports. So do many of our friends, some of whom who suddenly found Irishness after Brexit. I have always meant to apply for an Irish passport, but never quite got round to it, until I returned to Northern Ireland. It was one of the first things I did in January. Once I had mine, and then Martin’s signature on Eleanor’s passport application, we were able to apply for hers. Mine took 9 weeks to come and Eleanor’s just under 5 weeks. Martin will have to wait. Having two passports has been very handy in recent weeks, not least when it came to acquiring my USA visa.

The single most asked question of our family for the past two months has been when are we returning to China. My stock response has been when we have the visas.

As of 21st July 2023, our visas have been issued. We can now get on with booking our flights at the beginning of August.

Getting them on Friday was a relief beyond measure. I had hoped that we could get the visas sorted in Belfast, because amazingly there is a visa service offered at the Chinese Welfare Association.

Probably deep down, I knew that it was too good to be true to get a working visa for China 30 minutes down the road from my parents. I arrived for my appointment promptly, was able to keep my phone and kindle unlike my experience for the USA (see Part 1). The “queue” was a number system and we all sat round a board table, there was no security and it was just surreal. I was 6th in the queue, and at 10am promptly the first 5 people went in. A family. At 11am I went in to a room with one man. It was a one man show and his computer. I gave him my documents, but he couldn’t find one in particular and as a result “computer says no” just like the Little Britain comedy sketch in 2004. Only I wasn’t laughing.

The officer at the visa office spoke to my HR contact on WeChat but still the answer was no. The suggestion was that I come back the next day to try again, this time with an invitation letter. Overnight, my school sent me an invitation letter from them… I turned back up to the Chinese Welfare Association room on the Thursday, to find another lady there who had also been sent away the previous day and told to come back. I went in, but computer still said no. An emphatic no. No to Belfast, no to Edinburgh but a yes if I went to London – but I would need to check that they would actually take the paperwork I had before booking flights and appointments.

It was beyond frustrating. What I have captured in a few short paragraphs was hours of waiting in the boardroom, surrounded by British Born Chinese trying to go to China to see family. I saw them write their own invitation letters before going back in, but for me, I was never going to get the much needed invitation letter. The invitation letter the Belfast and the Edinburgh office wanted to see was the letter from the Education Bureau in Shenzhen. This was never going to materialise because I had something that trumped the invitation letter – I had a work permit. A work permit that had been transferred from my old school to new school in December, a work permit that if I hadn’t have had one… Belfast would have said yes… (a new concept to some people living in Northern Ireland…) 

Now I had been warned in unspecific terms that it might be problematic applying in Belfast, but the agent that was in London hadn’t really been clear as to why. I had also been told that I needed to apply first, get the visa, then apply for Eleanor, but he visa man in Belfast told me that we could apply together, her for an S1 and me for a Z visa. I ascertained that London would accept my work permit paperwork and then applied for Eleanor and booked us appointments for the same day. I also decided that maybe I couldn’t apply for the visa on my own, so paid for an agent recommended by school.

After a LOT of to-ing and fro-ing which was frustrating and ruining the relaxing atmosphere of the last 7 months, it was agreed that Martin would “invite” Eleanor, and therefore she would apply independently of me. I have culled several trees worth of paper in printing/photocopying various pages from both our passports old/new and Irish/British and Martin’s. On the last missive from the agent, I realised that when I had photocopied the passport signature/photo pages of all 5 passports that I had aligned the passport up with the corner of the photocopier – and this was wrong. I needed to put the passport in the middle of the photocopier so as to make sure ALL FOUR CORNERS showed.

11 pieces of paper for me, and 17 for Eleanor we went to the visa office on 12 Old Jewry in the middle of the City of London.

Monday 17th we flew to London, Tuesday 18th we had our visa appointment. We needed to be there 10 minutes before 10am. We arrived earlier than that and joined the queue for counter 22 for a number (53) and for our photos to be checked and attached to our application. We were also told at this counter that we didn’t need our Irish passports so I put these away, though the photocopies remained with the “evidence”. We were called pretty quickly after that, but there was no sign of the agent.

Counter 14 called us. We sat down opposite the lady. She began checking my paperwork. I held my breath… she handed us back the photocopies of the Irish passport – I asked her if she was sure as I had been told to bring it – she said no need, I questioned no further.

And then having checked all the evidence, the dreaded question – where was my invitation letter? I don’t have one, I calmly explained. I have a work permit card, and that is coloured blue and found in bundle of paper given and the contents of the QR code have also been printed. It was ALMOST computer says no. She asked her colleague, they both dug out someone else’s application from that morning and showed me the invitation letter – where was it? I don’t have one, I was told the office would accept the work permit. I was furiously typing on my phone to the agent to find out where she was. Eleanor calmly touched my arm, telling me it was ok. The lady behind the screen looked confused, she got up, and disappeared for a while. She came back, then took my fingerprints. I breathed.

Then it was Eleanor’s turn. Then the agent turned up. A torrent of Chinese ensued between agent and lady safely behind the screen, effectively explaining that the ton of paperwork Eleanor was providing was because her father’s residence permit was being renewed beyond 31 July. Eleanor was asked in Chinese for her to put fingers and then thumbs on the fingerprint scanner – we were nearly there…. or so I thought.

As an aside I had told the agent that our Irish passports hadn’t been needed – she then told the lady behind the screen that as dual nationals she needed to have all our passports. So that resulted in another consultation with her colleague – and yes the photocopies and both passports were handed over. Theoretically Eleanor might have needed a passport to travel between London and Belfast so she was able to keep her Irish one, but only after she wrote a paragraph on the photocopy about why she needed it and what the flight details were. In reality, Eleanor didn’t need her passport on her first solo flight London City to Belfast City on Wednesday 19 July with British Airways.

We were nearly there… or were we… the supervisor came over. Where was my invitation letter? ARGHHHHH. “I have a work permit, it has been transferred from old to new school”. AHA – so the work permit didn’t have old school details on it – no. It is my new school that I was going to. Those appeared to be the magic words. Ok – “you can collect passports on Monday”.

The look of shock was written all over my face… 3 working days was FRIDAY. “Ok – pay downstairs, collect on Friday”. Phew.

£182 x 2 was paid and we left the office. A massive sigh of relief.

I remember when I last applied for a work visa in 2015, there had been a very tight turnaround as I was flying to Australia the day after the visa was issued. I also remember feeling a constant knot in my stomach with the thought of what if I don’t get the visa. Those thoughts, second time around – do not leave. And as soon as we were out if the visa office (after 2 hours) we went straight to Superdrug and bought some ibuprofen to quell the banging headache. Can I just say – it sounds like an epic adventure – and it was – but everyone else in the application centre was in and out. It was a quick flowing process – the agent even said that my visa officer was “very kind”.

Friday 21st July 2023. Back to the application centre. Collected my number from the security guard and went downstairs and waited.

After 40 minutes I was called, passports given back. Visas acquired. Mission accomplished. Now we just need to book our flights and return to the Middle Kingdom.