immigration

scott got stuck at the "border" two weekends ago. because he and i both miscalculated his 90 day stay (or entirely forgot to count it all together) he was kept from leaving the country from the santiago national airport. definitely scared when he called me at home, i spoke with the international police officer who was dealing with him. now, i've heard of immigration/visa blunders from others living as foreigners in chile. these people (not americans) didn't stress nearly as much as scott and i did in those minutes. coming from working near immigration issues in domestic violence, i know how high the stakes are...

so i'm apologizing, trying to assure the officer that it was not with mal intent that scott screwed up. trying to be as formal, polite, and apologetic as i could i talked while a very nice officer on the other end tried to reassure that things would be ok if he reported to an office for foreigners on monday. i thought initially, how can this be true? don't countries find a way to kick you out, especially if you mess up?

so when he returned we figured out exactly how long his stay had been. 91 days!!! that is, if you count the day he entered the country as one whole day, not half of a day leading to the next. so, we lost the 80 dollar LAN flight to Mendoza and were looking at paying a fine as well. fortunately, he was not fined. i couldn't believe how happy i was to find out they ONLY GIVE YOU A SLAP ON THE WRIST for doing this once. he will have to leave the country again, and within 10 days but he can reenter the same day.

scott probably should be writing this... but he described the fear he felt at that minute he was "caught" as kind of paralyzing. here he was, in a foreign country, speaking in a foreign language to a person who was now leading him into a separate room and he knew he was in "trouble" whatever that means. he had remarked something about how it gave him some perspective about what immigrants-illegal or otherwise- must feel like...