Dear All,
To the glory of God we plucked our ugwu leaves today! ;D.To all still expecting one update or the other,the Lord would surprise you this week.
So in the way of seniors let me give you my jist and hope that someone would pick up one info or the other and learn from it.
Firstly I had to renew my passport as it had validity date less than 6months and there was a change of name involved.I therefore discussed with our immigration officer neighbor only to be told that this is only carried out in Abuja. :-X :-[.
So my boo and I had to go down to abj with all our original documents and we started the process of getting a new Passport.Because of the short time involved in getting this(just a week) we had to ensure we get a good officer who would help us in processing it fast.SO we finally settled for one IBo guy who appeared agile and we submitted our documents to him on Sunday immediately we landed abj.ON MOnday morning we rushed down to passport office close to abj airport where we met with the guy captured and then followed in in taking our file to different Oga's who asked us some questions before signing and passing on to the next officer.By 4pm my file finally ended up with the ACG who was the last person that was to sign.Due to the big Oga post, she had a lot of visitors grouping and out which further delayed her from signing and giving approval for change of name.We waited like 1hr just waiting for the file to be passed to her table and when we couldnt wait further my self and another lady that came from LAgos went into her office and explained the situation that we came from Lagos and we had a flight to catch back by 5.30pm.SHe listened and asked that we present our original documents(marriage certificates,newspaper publication, pictures, sworn affidavit, letter of conscientious etc).The other lady presented hers first and she said her certificates was too new that how can a marriage certificates from 2009 look so new?the lady tried explaining but she further questioned her on the integrity of her change of name after a while she told me to present my document and she just signed without asking me anything(no be God).as she signed me I just carried my file waka comot go meet the guy that is helping me.
The next stage after this approval was for a company called IRIS to effect the change in the system.The snag here is that the company comes only twice in the week and no one knows the exact day or time that they would come.SO the waiting game began, MOnday no IRIS, Tuesday no IRIS, then Wednesday Iris finally showed at about 3pm,luckily they worked on my file and effected the change.THe immigration guy then called that we pick up my passport on THursday.Thursday MOrning I finally picked my new Passport and I was full of thanks.........came back to Lag on Friday night amidst various rescheduling of aero's flight(flight of 5pm took off by 9.30pm from abj) caution if you have an important assignment don't bank on aero ohhhhhhhhhh.
So now to the Accra jist, we took off from Lag on Sunday 5.45pm landed Accra like 45min after(note Accra time is 1hr behind Nija time so you might need to reset your watch).Went through their immigration, showed our yellow card which we had since 2010'submitted the immigration card given and we left the airport.STopped a cab within the airport who wanted to collect 25cedi ;D.imagin the guy thinking that we be mugu we just hissed and left.Walked outside the airport and boarded another cab to Assemblies of God guest house for 8cedi.
Upon reaching the guest house we were told that all the rooms were booked and this was after we called severally from Lagos to book ahead and they gave us assurance that we would get a room for 50cedis. We were so angry about the lack of professionalism here.They offered to take us to Salvation Army another guest house close by but my people this place NA NO 1 I saw.......it's a no go area.They had an hostel like looking room and another room they called self contain.Men I wan tear race comot oh cause the room wows.No Ac, the mattress looked like it was infected with bugs the toilet NA die.My boo and I just shook our heads begin laugh say which akin place be this NA hin we tell them say thank you make them hold their room.
This was already like 7.30pm oh and it's like there is shorter day longer night here so it was really dark.Na so begin ask for hotel up and down Osu area oh.we went to another hotel that looked alright knucks or so(not sure of the spelling but its a university guest house).we asked to see their rooms and it was ok at least Ac, Internet facility, bed and breakfast etc but na 120cedis but we we were ready to pay for the single room only for us to get back to the reception to pay when the manager said we couldn't take single cause that would mean two occupants and that we have to take double which was 140cedi's per nite NA so we begin calculate oh but we said ok make we take am NA so the receptionist come talk again say its not available that the one that was available was in bad condition.Imagin after wasting all our time and effort oh.WE were so angry that we stormed out of the place cursing wondering which akin luck we carry come so we started looking for other hotels oh we saw another which was agin not up to standard before we finally saw the one we stayed in called Alexander plaza hotel but this one they expensive oh NA 100dolls per nite but at least we negotiated 120cedi's.It has all the needed facilities Ac, fridge,wireless Internet, bread and breakfast etc.
So this morning we woke up, went for our breakfast(make we use the money wet we pay for now ;D), walked out and took a cab.Imagin the cab man that we took did not/pretended not to know the way cause we used like 15minutes to locate the cic Accra.MEanwhile we later got to know that it was just 5minutes walk from the hotel we lodged Imagin the guy taking 5cedi's for a distance of 5minutes and driving us for 15minutes to convince us the place was far as NA night we take locate the hotel...
Anyway we arrived Cic on time stood by the gate waited some few minutes we were called one after the other for screening, we dropped our phones,iPad, camera's , flash ,laptop etc and this was locked in a cupboard and we were given the key.We then passes through the screening machine, thereafter we were directed to collect a tag, went in dropped our passports,letter sent by email and then we were asked if we had other forms which we did and we dropped this off with the cic lady at a counter.Thereafter we were told to return the tag and then wait at a shed within the compound which had convenience and water dispenser if you are thirsty.
we waited from like 8.45 till about 12noon before we were told to come back like 2.30/3pm.So my boo and I along with some other guys went to look for a place to eat Nija food NA so someone directed us to a place called Buka.The place is actually nice but I wasn't to wowed with their food the place is set up like a bamboo kind of restaurant with African effect.MY boo couldn't even eat cause he is more picky but the other guys enjoyed their poudo with egusi sha.Its a little bit expensive though so you might have to skip this and ask for the popular Jollof rice place mentioned here.
Once we finished we walked back to CIC and waited again till we(my boo and I) were called in.At first we thought na to pick visa oh only for us to be ushered into a room by a white lady who asked if the certification courses I did was on site or correspondence I told her say no be on site oh say NA correspondence via British council NA I'm she talk say fine say fine say make we wait ten minutes.NOt Long after they called others in to join us. Then the started calling us one after the other to pick up our passport stamped with ugwu leave..........NA so we take pluck the precious ugwu leave oh.Glory be to God.
I hope say I try with this long epistle cause I no too good for typing like that......but I talk say we must use our money finish for this hotel before we check out hence my write up now.....
To all the landed snrs I no see this una goods to follow and co list oh.Abi where una dey take write out all the things you they carry go?
Anyone recently applied online for an open work permit from Nigeria?
