Tiptoes

The above mentioned citizen is invited to appear, with his passport, in Questura di Bergamo Ufficio Immigrazione on 11/7/2012 at 11:00 for a check of the regularity of his stay in Italy. In case of non-appearance without a justified reason, he will be subject to the administrative sanction of the payment of an amount of money from Euro 154,93 ad Euro 516,45.

I showed up to the Immigration Office a little before 11:00am. There are signs posted everywhere: Wait until your name is called. I wonder if they have my name... There is no open window so I sit and wait. If my head had been clearer I would've asked someone sooner. But I haven't eaten or slept well, so I wait. An hour goes by and my name isn't called. But I overhear a guy whose appointment was at 10:45 and he still hasn't been called... So I wait 15 more minutes. Monica decides to ask. She is informed that we were supposed to go upstairs. We have been waiting for nothing. Great.

So we go upstairs. A woman takes my passport and the "invitation." Monica explains that I have an outbound ticket back to the US. With a shrug of the shoulders and a nod of the head, a man says, "Va bene..." And stamps my invitation to show that I was present at the immigration office.

Now, I have to lay low until my outbound flight back to LA. There is a possibility I could be fined or temporarily banned from Europe once I try to leave Italy again, but I'll deal with that when it comes. Feeling happy to be American today.... And definitely not trying to go to London again any time soon.