From Beirut to Damascus, Part 2: Syria says “Nope, you can go back to Beirut now”
I need another coffee and some water. And a manaeesh.
I wrote yesterday about the uncertainty Jennifer and I were to face at the Syrian border with Lebanon, because both of our multi-entry visas were expired and we intended to buy new ones at the border. We had been given every assurance from the Immigration Office in Damascus that our situation would not be problematic, that we could simply purchase new single-entry visas at the border and continue on our way from Beirut to Damascus. Not so, it turns out.
In what can only be described as typical experience, not one Syrian official knows what he’s talking about. Or rather, he’s quite sure of what he’s talking about, but ask any other Syrian official the same question and you’ll receive an equally sure, yet totally different answer. Here’s what happened…
At the Syrian border, the muwazzaf (employee or clerk) refused to sell me a visa. After we explained to him what had been previously explained to us, he walked my passport over to his mudeer (manager), who also refused to sell me the visa but suggested to ask the ra’ees al-hudud (president of the border) for a third opinion. We explained the situation to this third man, the highest ranking official at the border, but he also refused. I implored him to call the mudeer of the Immigration Office, which he did — or at least, he picked up his phone, dialed some numbers, talked to somebody — before refusing me again, relaying the Immigration mudeer’s message that nobody in his office would have told us what we claim to have been told. In actual fact, Americans in my situation can only buy entry visas at the Syrian Embassy in Beirut.
So that was that. We got back into the car and had our taxi driver take us directly back to Beirut. Found a hotel in Hamra near the Syrian Embassy and this morning we both applied for new entry visas. The process can take anywhere from 10 to 25 days.
Wish us luck.
