Taking the SAT in China (and Visas)

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You can't.

That's the short answer. Because of rampant cheating on the SAT throughout China, students who want to take the test must take it in another nation. Fortunately for us, there are two other nations immediately nearby: Taiwan and Hong Kong. Unfortunately, getting into a testing center is a whole different ballgame.

As part of her curriculum for this year, Emily has been studying to take the SAT. Although the specifics of her schooling next year are still uncertain, we wanted to make sure she took the test just in case she needed it, and the best date to take it was December 1, since the next administration is in March.

The process, however, was complicated by the fact that as of January 9, Emily will no longer be on my resident visa and needs her own, which must be applied for in Hong Kong. So, it just made sense that we would combine the two trips into one longer trip with Emily and Sandy staying  few extra days in Hong Kong. But, since this is a new process for us (we really haven't traveled in China) that meant I had to do some research to ensure that my reasoning was correct. It was, but unfortunately the extra time I took doing the research was time we didn't have.

Now, I was an SAT test center coordinator for about 10 years, so I thought I had a decent handle on things. In Asia, it's  different beast. A day before the registration was due, we sat down to get Emily registered, selecting Hong Kong as the country. All the sites came up full. ALL of them. I couldn't believe it. Okay, I thought, the visa will be another trip. We'll just get to the SAT. We checked Taiwan. They were all full too. Panic began to set in. We switched to Thailand and found a few sites with openings. So, I did a little research on their proximity to the airport and hotels. I chose the best (and really only ) site that would work for us, but by then it was also full. Then Singapore: same thing. Now, I was feeling desperate. I switched to the Philippines and started the research again, but again, by the time I had chosen the site, it was full.

We took a break for dinner very disheartened and discouraged. We discussed what this might mean, if we were being directed to scrap December and for the March date. On a whim, I went switched back to Hong Kong, and there was a seat that had opened up. Emily quickly reserved it and began the registration process. In half an hour, the registration was complete and we were back to the original plan, still a bit ruffled but very grateful.

In this season of Thanksgiving, this was a good reminder that there is One who guides and directs our paths. That, though, was just the initial step in the process -- to get a working plan. Now the difficult work of arranging the travel and accommodation plans and preparing the paperwork begins. When you think of us, please remember this situation.

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