Passport Renewal--Check

Our passports don't expire until January, 2017.  However, due to the fact that many countries won't accept a passport within six months of expiration and that we will be starting our permanent residency process in May, it seemed wise to go ahead and renew them early.

We had new pictures taken on Monday--why is it that the photos are always SO bad!  Our appointments at the US Embassy were yesterday morning.  Given the traffic, even though we left an hour early, we just barely arrived on time.  Once there, I remembered that the appointment allows them to control the number of people who enter, but it's not a guaranteed time.

Entry to the embassy requires passing through a metal detector, having all of your possessions screened (like at the airport) and "checking" all electronic devices in the secure lobby.  There were about 30 people sitting in the waiting area after we passed through security.  At the first window, they confirm your citizenship, take payment for the service you are requesting (passport renewals are $110) and give you a number for the next step.    I'm not sure how long we waited before we were called back to the window to submit our renewal form and hand over our passport pictures.  After that came the long wait (almost 2 hours.)  Stephen passed the time playing cards with Margarita, a 10-year old girl who was waiting with her mom.  

About 11:00 p.m., they called us back to the window and told us that everything was approved and our new passports would be ready to pick up on March 9.  In the meantime, they returned our old passports in case we had to travel before the new ones come in.  All in all, more efficient than mailing them in so it was worth the time investment.

The New Phonebooks Are Here!

Well, not the phone books exactly, but if you watch Steve Martin's character in the clip above then you can understand how we feel/act when we have our new residency cards in hand.

Once we made it to immigration, today's process was s-m-o-o-t-h!  Just a quick look to verify that the new copy of our document was correct!  They weren't at all busy, so we moved through the "appointment" phase to the pay phase to the picture/thumbprint phase to the walk-out-the--door-with-our-cards-in-hand phase in about an hour.  Excellent!

These cards are good until mid-August (while they more closely review all of our documents.)  We are supposed to call mid-July to see if our paperwork has finished the final review process and if they have printed our permanent (1-year) card for 2014-15.  

All-in-all the smoothest process yet!  This time and one more under this annual renewal process and then at the end of our fifth year, the process changes to a two-year renewal with very little documentation required.  

Thanks for praying with us--prayers answered!

Residency Process . . . . De Nuevo (Again)

One of the results of time flying is that almost a year has passed since we renewed our residency.  Staying ahead of the process is essential . . . . I requested our support letter from Abundant Life at the beginning of April so it could be sent to the team in North Carolina that came to Nicaragua for the Holy Week mission trip.  I knew if I waited for the trip in May, it would really run us short on time.  The letter was translated last week, so it's ready to go.  We're supposed to pick up the documents from Vida Nueva tomorrow and then make a stop at the attorney's office to have them notarized.  I've made the passport copies already and only have to make a copy of the translated support letter and whatever we get tomorrow before we head to Immigration on Thursday morning with, hopefully, everything we need.

In reality, our residency cards don't expire until June 29; normally, Immigration will not let you begin the renewal process until you are within 30 days of expiration, but . . . . we're going early and are praying that they will let us get things rolling.  Between now and the end of June, we have two campaigns in El Salvador, will spend two weeks in the states to celebrate our 40th anniversary and have a campaign in Guatemala.  We're concerned that if we don't get our paperwork in before we leave the country, that we might not be able to have our temporary cards before we go to Guatemala on June 22.  

Please pray that we find someone in the immigration office who will be sensitive to our situation and allow us to begin the renewal process early.  Pray that all of our paperwork is complete and correct and that they do not "find" anything they want us to change.