May 10th, 2024.
I’m at the Immigration Department in Vientiane. It’s in a new building 20 minutes by bicycle from the capital’s center. Why am I here? My flight leaves one day after my visa expires. I have to either extend it now, or pay a fine at departure, and risk trouble and stress.
I step inside the building, there’s no guidance of where to go. There are X-ray machines, but not in use. Walking around in the lobby, I spot an elevator with labels for each floor. Floor number 3, “Tourist Police Control”. That sounds like the place.
On the third floor, the lady at the reception desk speaks English. “Are you extending for work?”, she asks. “Tourism”. One moment. She asks her colleges. Floor number one.
Out the elevator on floor one, a red sign reads “Visa Extension Unit”. At the counter, a serious looking lady takes my passport. 40,000 KIP for the form plus 20,000 KIP per day extended. I smile at her, but I can’t crack her seriousness. Inside the counter, as well as outside, walls are completely white. Does a place shape a person or the other way around?
I fill the form and walk to the payment counter across the room. “How many days do you extend?” Just one. She shows me the calculator, it’s a bigger number than I expected. I look confused, and she can tell. “One month?”, she asks. No, one day. “Come back at 3:30 pm”.
