New Visas: Ministry Monday

Image courtesy of pakorn at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

One of the less glamorous sides of long-term, cross-cultural work is immigration.  Last year we were finally able to go from tourist visas to year long temporary visas, temporary resident visas.  You can read about it here.  With temporary resident visas we do not have to leave the country to renew, but renew we must.  And the time for renewal has come.  Sam has spent much of the last two weeks buried under copies and copies of birth certificates, letters of invitation, passports and various other paperwork he had diligently been gathering for our renewal packet.  Due to changes in the process, some of our documents had to be translated this year.  Thankful, a missionary friend knew someone very good that could do it for us quickly.  In addition we have been working on getting Gracen a Mexican birth certificate and registered as a Mexican citizen.  This requires several trips to various offices and two witnesses to go with us for the final step, but it is now all completed.  Because Gracen is a Mexican citizen, we qualify for permanent resident visas, which means no more yearly renewal and more liberty for us.  We will now begin work on his U.S. documents at the American consulate.    

Image courtesy of scottchan at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Thankfully, only two trips to the immigration office were required this year!  Well, actually, they have accepted our packet.  We will still have to go in and get our cards and get finger printed and such, but getting our packet accepted is a big step.  Pray with us that the rest of the process is completed easily.  

Our little "anchor baby".  :)