I was a bit at a loss for words with what was going on, mainly because it didn’t really make all that much sense to me – but that is a different story. While standing there I was speaking with a friend of mine and we were talking about jobs, well about my job. I was not really at liberty to discuss what was going on there so most of our talk ended up about my friends last job.
He used to be a foreign correspondent who covered the plastics industry. It is not really clear how he always managed to get the “good” assignments, but at least 3 or 4 times a year he would end up in a country where people were literally shooting at each other.
In this instance he ended up at a trade-fair in Iran. Every country has different rules for its visitors. If you are an American flying to Germany or Spain, you can simply flash your passport and come in, but if you are an Uzbekistan citizen visiting Germany you actually need a lot of papers and visa and it bit of luck to get in from the airport.
I am not sure if everyone requires a visa when visiting Iran but American citizens do. David received his visa however there was a small delay at the start of the trade-fair and he could see that his visa would expire two days too early. He did ask about this and was told by the people he was with that this would not be a problem.
Well, of course, when he tried to leave the country the two day difference was discovered and no it was not ok, he was brought to the police station and put into a cell. It turned out that being an American in Iran without proper papers was a problem.
You cannot accidentally get a visa in a foreign country, some countries it actually requires local sponsorship. This was one of those cases and David was invited by a national champion firm which is essentially the government itself (in some countries). Governments are just like bit companies, the left hand doesn’t always know what the right hand is doing and in this case inviting company was furious as this reflected badly on them. It only took an hour for the situation to start to correct itself.
While this issue was being corrected this they instructed that David not be shut up in a cell. Instead David was brought to a bazaar, which is indeed much nicer than a cell, by a police escort until the paperwork was once again in order.