View source for If you were only sponsored for one month, how is it that you were able to extend your visa all the time?

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{{terms|"If you were only sponsored for one month, how is it that you were able to extend your visa all the time"}}
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[[Category:Questions asked to Srila Prabhupada]]
[[Category:Questions asked to SP... 1976]]
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<div id="Conversations_and_Morning_Walks" class="section" sec_index="5" parent="compilation" text="Conversations and Morning Walks"><h2>Conversations and Morning Walks</h2>
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<div id="1976_Conversations_and_Morning_Walks" class="sub_section" sec_index="9" parent="Conversations_and_Morning_Walks" text="1976 Conversations and Morning Walks"><h3>1976 Conversations and Morning Walks</h3>
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<div id="RoomConversationJune81976LosAngeles_0" class="quote" parent="1976_Conversations_and_Morning_Walks" book="Con" index="119" link="Room Conversation -- June 8, 1976, Los Angeles" link_text="Room Conversation -- June 8, 1976, Los Angeles">
<div class="heading">I was extending. The immigration officer came in Boston in my boat. He inquired about this. So he asked me, "Sir, Swamiji, how long you want to stay?" So I thought that I have no shelter, I have no money, but I have got the return ticket. So I did not know how long I... (laughs) He asked me, "How long you want to stay?" So I thought, "In these circumstances, I can stay at most two months, because I have no means where to stay, how to eat, and where shall I go? So I may struggle for two months."
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<span class="link">[[Vanisource:Room Conversation -- June 8, 1976, Los Angeles|Room Conversation -- June 8, 1976, Los Angeles]]: </span><div class="text"><p style="display: inline;">Prabhupāda: P-form sanctioned by the state government, yes, state government. So it was applied for. It was... No sanction was coming. Then I went to the State Bank of India, the officer Mr. Bhattacari. So he told me: "Swamiji, you are sponsored by private man. So we cannot accept it. If you are invited by some institution, then we could consider, but you are invited by a private man for one month, and, after one month, if you are in difficulty, and there will be so much obstacles and so on." "Well, I have already prepared everything to go." So I said that "You, what you have done?" "No, I have decided not to sanction your P-form." "No, no, don't do this. You better send to your superior. It should not be done like that." So he took my request and he sent the file to Chief Officer of Foreign Exchange, something like that. Anyway, he is the supreme man in the State Bank of India. So I went to see him. So I asked his secretary that "You have got such file? You kindly put to Mr...."—his name was Mr. Rao—"I want to see him." So the secretary agreed, and he put the file and put my slip that I wanted to see him. I was waiting. So Mr. Rao came personally. He said, "Swamiji, I have passed your case. Don't worry." (laughs) In this way.</p>
<p>Hari-śauri: He knew you from before, or...?</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: No. He did not know me. So somebody saw him in Bombay, so he reminded that "I know Swamiji when he went to USA." Somebody was telling me.</p>
<p>Hari-śauri: He remembered.</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Hmm. The name is there, he remembered. After all, he is officer. He knows so many things. So it is a great history. (laughs) There was two days I was attacked in heart on the ship. So hardship.</p>
<p>Trivikrama: Then you had a dream?</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Hmm.</p>
<p>Hari-śauri: What was that, Śrīla Prabhupāda?</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: That is... (laughs) The dream was I must come here.</p>
<p>Hari-śauri: It was some instruction that you got?</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: The dream was that Kṛṣṇa in His many forms was bowing the row. What is called?</p>
<p>Hari-śauri: Rowing the boat.</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Yes.</p>
<p>Trivikrama: Jaya.</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: And when I arrived in Boston I wrote that poetry.</p>
<p>Hari-śauri: If you were only sponsored for one month, how is it that you were able to extend your visa all the time?</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: I was extending. The immigration officer came in Boston in my boat. He inquired about this. So he asked me, "Sir, Swamiji, how long you want to stay?" So I thought that I have no shelter, I have no money, but I have got the return ticket. So I did not know how long I... (laughs) He asked me, "How long you want to stay?" So I thought, "In these circumstances, I can stay at most two months, because I have no means where to stay, how to eat, and where shall I go? So I may struggle for two months." So I told him: "I may stay at most two months." He immediately, two months, sanctioned immediately. I could not think that I shall be able to... (laughs) That one month were there, sponsoring. So I thought "Another one month, that's all," that "This gentleman has sponsored for one month. So that is guaranteed. Then I can stay another one month. That's all." So after that, so I was staying here and there without any fixity. So I was extending the visa. Each time, I was paying ten dollars. Another three months, another three months, like that. And when one year was finished, they refused: "No extension."</p>
<p>Hari-śauri: But by that time you had some kind of...</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Yes.</p>
<p>Hari-śauri: ...organization going?</p>
<p>Prabhupāda: Yes, hmm, at that time I was at Second Avenue. So then Raya Rāma took the help of a lawyer. He took the case, that he'll give me permanent residence. So he was extending only, and each time he was taking hundred and fifty dollars. So in this way, I entered in 1965, September, up to July—no, up to May—and in the May, month of May, there was heart stroke.</p>
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