This morning I arrived early at the DRC Embassy. A much more impressive building and district than the one in London. In Paris you can see the Eiffel tower from the front entrance, in London it is Kings Cross station! I walked into an already busy waiting room. It was not clear what everyone was doing as they appeared to be Congolese and presumably did not need visas? Anyway after a while I was able to go up the dark back stairs of the building and meet an elegant chap who spoke good English. He took my passport and the supporting documents (letter from bank, message from the Paris police about my stolen passport, yellow fever certificate and invitation letter) and said come back at 4pm when it "should" be ready.
Off to Air France where I booked myself on the Saturday morning flight hoping that the visa would come through. Calmed myself down with a nice lunch and a bottle of house red and then back to the Embassy. More waiting around with the same group of people. We were all looking confused, but the Embassy people seems to be well organised. Eventually I was shown back upstairs and waited in a very elegant reception room with a photo of DRC's ruler; Major-General Joseph Kabila. At 4.50pm the nice chap came back with my passport with the visa.
This brought a very big smile on my face! No complaints at all about the Embassy in Paris. Pretty slick indeed ... Thank You!
Adam
I like it when a plan comes together - 28 December 2007
