Visa Vexation

With my trip to Italy for a conference rapidly approaching, naturally my thoughts turn to making sure all the paper work i have is in order, so that i can get back into the country hassle free on my return. In doing all this, it brought to mind, once again, all the accompanying annoyances of being a non-American living in America on visa can be. Apart from all the initial woes that i have bitched about at length in previous posts, there is also the occasional xenophobia from some of the less enlightened locals, and at MUSC, there is the joy of dealing with the International Office. Now, given that there is a lot of paperwork that must go with dealing with internationals, i can understand that the job must be pretty laborious at times, yet i have never met people who REALLY don't seem to like the people who they are serving and helping. It's like getting blood from a stone at times.

THe other day, i called them up further to an email i had sent to them two weeks prior (one which, incidentally, had only just managed to make its way from one office to the other, all of a few metres a way). My reason was that i had to get my visa form signed to show that i am in good standing at MUSC and can re-enter the country. Now, my visa was an initial 3 years and was later extended to 5 years - or at least the paperwork was. When i asked about sending my passport off to get the visa in there amended appropriately i was told that it wasn't there job and that i would have to sort that myself. OF course, i could get around that by not leaving the country after the visa in my passport expires (June 2008). This was, again, reiterated when i went to get my form signed. When i pointed out that i would like to have it sorted anyway, i was given the kind of reply of 'why do you WANT to leave the country anyway?' and some kind of disbelief of the fact that i do actually like travelling in places outside the US. For me to get the visa sorted, i have to leave the country, go to a US embassy and then have an interview etc all over again. Until recently, it seemed possible that i might be able to do this in Canada or Mexico. Now it appears i may have to go back to England to sort it out. Anyway, my overriding impression of all this is that given the amount of crap and hassle that I, as an international, have had to put up with (and bear in mind this is just a first level visa), is it any wonder that people try and enter the country illegally instead of going through the so-called 'normal' channels?