Got stuck in Europe. Here is the update.
My Situation on Visa, Air Ticket and Risk:
My Schengen Visa:
-valid from April 12 to April 21, 2010, issued by Italian consulate from Canton;
My air ticket:
- My original ticket is to fly from Pisa to Paris on April 18, and from Paris to Canton;
- Because of volcanic ashes, Paris airports are closed.
- Ticketing from Pisa Airport can only reschedule my flight to May 2 (from Pisa to Paris, Paris to Canton), they can either arrange me to go from KLM to HK or BJ or SH, and they can not arrange me to go any earlier. They asked me to contact Air France in Italy to try to reschedule to an earlier date since Pisa Airport is not having a wide network to do that. The lady from the ticketing rejected to provide me a prove that the soonest she can reschedule my flight to Canton is May 2.
Risk:
1. Staying Italy with an invalid visa for TWO weeks (April 22 to May 2);
2. Getting rejected on my future visa application from Italian consulate later.
Things that I am doing (April 19)
1. Calling Air France in Italy ( 0555 73889): it is never through. I kept calling for hours.No hope!
2. Calling Italian Consulate from Canton: an Italian lady called Giorgia answered and she said now the consulate is aware of the volcanic ashes and the policemen won't do anything to me and will let me know, and they won't put me into black list because of this. I told her that my extra stay here is almost 2 weeks, not 2 days. She said it should be ok as long as I can prove that I didn't have another way to leave before May 2, 2010, but they won't give me an extension of this visa. I need to explain to the custom or policemen of what happened. However, she is not sure if it is ok for France and she suggested me to call French Consulate from Canton and ask for suggestion. She gave a name or a telephone...(020_28292000, Mr Lin). (This lady was with good attitude when she talked to me ). And the same time, they suggest me to email Italianinfocan.italycn@vfshelpline.com to let them know my situation;
3.Calling French Consulate from Canton: Mr Lin picked up the phone and he doesn't care what I said and he wanted to know WHO exactly gave this number for me to call. Ok i told him it was the lady from the Italian consulate. He said it doesn't concern French Consulate, and he has nothing to share with me. He suggested me to call the custom from France to ask. Call ended.
4.Calling China consulate in Milan (+ 39 20 5694106): of course I explained my situation again...a Chinese lady...should be the consulate...asked me to call the China consulate in Firenze. And she said since this office is small, so it is not on website. So I called (0555 71387), a Chinese lady picked up the phone, she heard my situation and asked an Italian lady to answer me...then this lady said I have to leave ASAP before the visa expires (as if I want to stay til May 2), she understands the situation, but according to what she knows (" I don't know this exactly, but I am telling you as a friend..." she said), if you stay extra 8 days before the visa expires, it should be ok, but if it is over 8 days, then it is very possible you can't come back to Italy in the next 5 years. Her suggestion is to go to the police station and see how it goes, but she is not sure if this is helpful.
5. Calling China consulate in Paris : the line is always busy.
Next Steps:
1. Keep calling Air France in Italy, since they have NO office in Italy, only ONE telephone hot line, so I can't do anything but calling;
2. Go to the police station.
With having done above, risks remained. I am NOT concerned Italy or France will stop me from leaving Europe. I am concerned that my future visa application to come to France or Italy will be rejected. I think my anxiety is from what I have been experiencing dealing with French Consulate and Italian Consulate in Guangzhou, which non Chinese people can't ever imagine. No common sense will be applied here. Staff from these consulates (no matter Chinese staff or Foreign ones) are very impolite (ok for not being polite, they don't own me). Probably Italian consulate improved a bit. However, the way they don't respect our time and our effort to apply the visa, the way they make us feeling like I have to beg them to give me a visa to come to Europe is very unacceptable. I do feel bad because some Chinese people's ilegal stay in any other foreign countries, and this leaves impression to these developed countries that we Chinese people all want to escape and leave our country with an invalid visa. Once you have a bad record in terms of visa rejection, it is very hard to come back. Anyway, this volcani ashes is not preditable, no one or no organization developed a regulation to help people like me, which is OK. However, I have to get a paper work, no matter from where, to kind of prove that I stay here without a visa, whatever it takes.
Wish me luck!
Phoebe
My Schengen Visa:
-valid from April 12 to April 21, 2010, issued by Italian consulate from Canton;
My air ticket:
- My original ticket is to fly from Pisa to Paris on April 18, and from Paris to Canton;
- Because of volcanic ashes, Paris airports are closed.
- Ticketing from Pisa Airport can only reschedule my flight to May 2 (from Pisa to Paris, Paris to Canton), they can either arrange me to go from KLM to HK or BJ or SH, and they can not arrange me to go any earlier. They asked me to contact Air France in Italy to try to reschedule to an earlier date since Pisa Airport is not having a wide network to do that. The lady from the ticketing rejected to provide me a prove that the soonest she can reschedule my flight to Canton is May 2.
Risk:
1. Staying Italy with an invalid visa for TWO weeks (April 22 to May 2);
2. Getting rejected on my future visa application from Italian consulate later.
Things that I am doing (April 19)
1. Calling Air France in Italy ( 0555 73889): it is never through. I kept calling for hours.No hope!
2. Calling Italian Consulate from Canton: an Italian lady called Giorgia answered and she said now the consulate is aware of the volcanic ashes and the policemen won't do anything to me and will let me know, and they won't put me into black list because of this. I told her that my extra stay here is almost 2 weeks, not 2 days. She said it should be ok as long as I can prove that I didn't have another way to leave before May 2, 2010, but they won't give me an extension of this visa. I need to explain to the custom or policemen of what happened. However, she is not sure if it is ok for France and she suggested me to call French Consulate from Canton and ask for suggestion. She gave a name or a telephone...(020_28292000, Mr Lin). (This lady was with good attitude when she talked to me ). And the same time, they suggest me to email Italianinfocan.italycn@vfshelpline.com to let them know my situation;
3.Calling French Consulate from Canton: Mr Lin picked up the phone and he doesn't care what I said and he wanted to know WHO exactly gave this number for me to call. Ok i told him it was the lady from the Italian consulate. He said it doesn't concern French Consulate, and he has nothing to share with me. He suggested me to call the custom from France to ask. Call ended.
4.Calling China consulate in Milan (+ 39 20 5694106): of course I explained my situation again...a Chinese lady...should be the consulate...asked me to call the China consulate in Firenze. And she said since this office is small, so it is not on website. So I called (0555 71387), a Chinese lady picked up the phone, she heard my situation and asked an Italian lady to answer me...then this lady said I have to leave ASAP before the visa expires (as if I want to stay til May 2), she understands the situation, but according to what she knows (" I don't know this exactly, but I am telling you as a friend..." she said), if you stay extra 8 days before the visa expires, it should be ok, but if it is over 8 days, then it is very possible you can't come back to Italy in the next 5 years. Her suggestion is to go to the police station and see how it goes, but she is not sure if this is helpful.
5. Calling China consulate in Paris : the line is always busy.
Next Steps:
1. Keep calling Air France in Italy, since they have NO office in Italy, only ONE telephone hot line, so I can't do anything but calling;
2. Go to the police station.
With having done above, risks remained. I am NOT concerned Italy or France will stop me from leaving Europe. I am concerned that my future visa application to come to France or Italy will be rejected. I think my anxiety is from what I have been experiencing dealing with French Consulate and Italian Consulate in Guangzhou, which non Chinese people can't ever imagine. No common sense will be applied here. Staff from these consulates (no matter Chinese staff or Foreign ones) are very impolite (ok for not being polite, they don't own me). Probably Italian consulate improved a bit. However, the way they don't respect our time and our effort to apply the visa, the way they make us feeling like I have to beg them to give me a visa to come to Europe is very unacceptable. I do feel bad because some Chinese people's ilegal stay in any other foreign countries, and this leaves impression to these developed countries that we Chinese people all want to escape and leave our country with an invalid visa. Once you have a bad record in terms of visa rejection, it is very hard to come back. Anyway, this volcani ashes is not preditable, no one or no organization developed a regulation to help people like me, which is OK. However, I have to get a paper work, no matter from where, to kind of prove that I stay here without a visa, whatever it takes.
Wish me luck!
Phoebe
