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Terror in the Terminal: When You Overstay Your Visa and Immigration Thinks Your Story is “Fake News.” Or, Saved by Snickers.
My host in Indonesia and I had walked up to the bank for me to get my money changed. I needed extra, so I went downstairs to the ATM. Neither of the pins on my credit cards worked, and I know my pins.
Well, shit.
Both are platinum Visa cards, so of course I called Chase on Skype. Found out what had happened. In the first-rate, all-out emotional mess that was last year, I got a brand new travel card and totally forgot to set a pin number. The other was a replacement with a brand new pin which of course, I didn’t know. I couldn’t change the pin. All I could do was wait until I got back to America, order new pins and update both cards. No big deal. Meanwhile, take money out against the credit card. Which I did.
Given that the bank had a limit on how much you can take out at any time, I had about $300 or so to spend. It went fast- especially to the local medical community. I had gotten pretty sick. Even in Indonesia, where a dollar goes a very long way, my money supply dwindled quickly,
The following weeks were, as I have written elsewhere, problematic. I was so sick I could barely leave the house, and as a result, when I stayed over my visa by three days, I knew…