The Visa

I have just spent two mind-numbing days trying to renew my visa.
This is a once yearly happening and every year it seems that the procedure has been changed yet again.
This year I find that the office hours have shrunk. What, to the best of my recollection, used to be 8 to 3, has now been changed to 9 to 1, so when schleps like me finally get to present their collected documentation, showing that this person is who he claims to be, to the person behind the counter after waiting in line for 4 hours, and getting the go-ahead to go to a bank and pay the fee for this trip ( and by the way, there are no banks close by ) it is too late to come back, and one is asked to re-appear the next day, with receipt of payment to bank plus two copies of same.
And then you repeat the whole waiting again, sitting, frantically clasping your little, now damp piece of paper with the number of your turn, watching the minutes and hours pass by, waiting for the magic moment when your number follows the annoying ping of the number display.
And then you get to sign a piece of paper that tells you to return in 15 days for your visa, only when I sat down and read the paper it stated that this piece of paper in no way meant that the application had been approved, only that I had to show up at this date to find out .
Blimey, this is getting difficult.