Success!

We arrived a little ahead of time for our 9:00 a.m. appointment at immigration this morning.  We were checked in very quickly, but had to wait for about 20 minutes before they called our number.  The good news--all of our paperwork was approved. 

Once our bill was prepared and paid, Lucy, our immigration specialist, begin gathering the information for our cards.  We were both digitallly fingerprinted and photographed.  In addition, the paperwork required multiple signatures and two old-fashioned thumb prints (with ink.)  

Best news is that we walked out of the office with our provisional (3-month) residency cards. They told us to call after three months to see if our permanent (2-year) cards are available.  All in all this was the fastest and easiest immigration process we've ever had.

Thanks for praying for us--it couldn't have gone better!

Saleeby Family in El Salvador

Last Wednesday we picked up Joseph, Christy and girls at their hotel and they had lunch with us at our apartment.  Stephen taught them his card tricks while Christy and I prepared quesadillas.

In the afternoon, we met the team at the church so we could go to the orphanage with them.  Even though it was extremely hot and the trip was long, the girls were real troopers.  Since it is a government orphanage, only Guillermo had his camera; everyone else left their phones/cameras on the bus.  

The evening ended at Pollos Real, where Christy and the girls ate pupusas for the first time!  As usual, they were a hit!

Everything takes longer here

As I have mentioned before, everything takes longer here in El Salvador.  There's no such thing as a quick trip to anywhere.  Today was a perfect example.

The last two times we flew into the airport here and went through the immigration line, the agents have pointed out that our 3-month temporary residency cards were about to expire (8/19/14.)  Going to the immigration office to pick up our new cards was tricky this summer.  They tell you that you can start checking to see if the new cards are available within a month of their expiration.  Unfortunately, we were in the states from July 18-31 and then were only home one day (August 1 and the offices were closed for vacation) before leaving for Costa Rica.  

So, we decided that today was the day to see if they were ready.  If they weren't ready, we would still have a week for them to get them ready before our other ones expired.  We left after the morning rush hour and were sure to take our passports and other documentation; we drove directly to the location and . . . . . it had moved.  The building was repainted and the parking lot was empty--no sign on the door telling us where the new office was.  

Where it used to be: 

It took more than an hour and various phone calls to pin down the new location.  Turned out that it was within walking distance of the former location, but, of course, we didn't know that at the time.  

Where it was today:

By now, it was noon--thankfully, they stay open during lunch, albeit there are fewer employees available to help.  Even though there was only one person ahead of us, it still took over an hour.  My guess is that they printed up our cards and paperwork while we were waiting.

Good news is that we walked out of the office about 1:15 p.m. with our 9-month "permanent" cards that are good until June 26, 2015.    

RESIDENCY YEAR 3

We picked up our 3-month cards in June and they were due to expire on September 12.  Immigration suggests that you start calling/dropping by to see if your permanent cards are ready a month out from your expiration date.  So today we stopped by Immigration to let them know we would be leaving the country on September 11 and, as a result, it was important that we got our permanent cards before we left.  Last year we had 3 different "3-month temporary" cards, so we were just trying to put them on notice.  WOW and WOO HOO . . . . our 2013-14 permanent residency cards were ready and waiting for us this afternoon.  

Residency Cards in the Wallet

Yea!  Picked up our 3-month temporary, but new residency cards this morning.  They are good through September 12, 2013.  When we go back in early September they should have our 9-month permanent cards ready.

Thanks for praying us through this process!

Residency Update 2

We received a call this afternoon from Immigration Services that they found another error in one of our translated documents.  I don't know why they called us--that really isn't  normal to give us a "heads up."  Perhaps it's because so many people have been praying for us during this difficult process.

So, before we go to our appointment in the morning we will make one more trip to the translator's office to pickup the corrected, corrected document.

Please pray that once they have this document in hand, we will be able to pay the renewal fee and have our pictures taken for our new cards.  Next step--they need to print our cards so that we can pick them up no later than next Wednesday, June 19, the day before we leave for the states.

Please also pray for Jeff and Paula who have run into problems with their renewal application process, as well.

Slow, but sure (maybe)

We picked up all of the corrected documents today after school and dropped them off at the immigration office again.  Unfortunately, they don't look at them while you're there.  Last time we went on Wednesday and got an appointment on Friday.  Yesterday, Jeff and Paula dropped off their paperwork and got an appointment on Friday.  Today we go and our appointment isn't until Wednesday--go figure.

Next week there is a team here from Texas and we will be sharing in the schools in the mornings.  We will have to skip next Wednesday so we can go to our appointment.  Praying that all will be well this time--we're leaving the country on June 20 and need to have our temporary cards in hand before we go.

Residency Update

We've been so busy with the end of school that I didn't update what happened at our residency appointment on Tuesday.  Unfortunately, our paperwork was in the "rejected" folder and not the approved folder.  So . . . . . we've spent the last two days trying to get corrections made so we can meet their requirements.  Keep in mind that these were little, little things--one was that the secretary at the church forgot to circle YES or NO. Because she forgot, we had to have the document redone, resigned and renotarized.  The other problem was with two of the translated pages.  So, we're supposed to pick up the revised pages today.  We're going to try to drop them off at immigration today.

Don't know if they will look at the new pages and approve them or if they will want to review the entire package again and have us come back later.

Thanks for praying for us through this arduous process!

Immigration Trip

We headed to the immigration office after my morning meeting with the Hilo, Aguja and Biblia leaders.  We were working on the schedule for the rest of the year.

It was just after noon when we got there--usually lunch time is not the best time, but it was the time we had.  We were close and it just didn't make sense to go all the way home and then go back.  Of course, we were short a couple of copies.  From year to year, you never know what they're going to want copied.  Unfortunately, when you need copies you have to get out of line, get the copies made and then get back in line.  We finally got our "number" about 1:00 p.m. and it was time to settle into the chairs and wait.  We hoped it wouldn't be too long.  They were on #5 and we were #8.  After an hour or so, we realized that there was only one person taking "our" type of number.  Anyway, we were called to the desk about 2:30 and it took him only a matter of 10 minutes to verify that we had all of the correct paperwork.

New this year--you don't wait for them to verify the paperwork.  Instead he gave us an appointment on Tuesday when they are supposed to have confirmed/verified that everything is in order so we can move to the next step in the process.  IF all goes well on Tuesday, we should be able to pay the fees for the next year and have our pictures taken for our temporary cards.  I may, however, be getting a little ahead of myself, so I'll just report back on Tuesday afternoon.

All in all, not a bad day--in and out in just a little over 2 hours.  Thanks for praying for us . . . . next prayer date is this Tuesday afternoon!

Last Day of May

Hard to believe, but here it is, the last day of May.  Not quite half way through 2013, but getting close.

Today we start the process to renew our residency for the next 12 months.  As always, I'm sure this will be an adventure!   We have a trip planned to Kansas City from June 20 to July 4, and, while we are there, our residency cards will expire.  As a result, we really need the process to go smoothly (I say that every year, but this year it's especially true.) So, we are planning to go to Immigration today with "all" (we'll see) of the correct paperwork.  If they accept everything, we'll be asking them to provide us with a temporary card before we leave the country in 20 days.

Please pray that we have everything we need (I know that this seems obvious because there is a list; however, it seems that every immigration official has their own, unwritten "list.")  Please pray that everything will be accepted and that the only thing we have to wait on is the printing of our new temporary cards.