Being an American in Syria can be hard, but not the way you’re thinking (part 4)
I wrote before about how my PayPal account was frozen due to my trying to login to it from forbidden country — that is, an American-sanctioned country. Additionally, because of the same sanctions, I was not able to transfer savings from my UK bank account to my new Syrian bank account. This is just a quick follow-up to say that both problems have been resolved!
To un-freeze my PayPal account I simply had to call PayPal from a phone located in a non-sanctioned country and tell them to un-freeze my account. I have no idea why it mattered where I was physically when I made the phone call. It makes no sense logically. But there you go. It’s done. And I transferred my entire PayPal credit back to my bank account.
Regarding Barclays, it took a lot more phone calls and emails before they permitted the international transfer. I had to answer questions about the nature of the payment, whether or not these payments would be regular, etc. But I finally got the money and have been living like normal so far in 2011.
