Here is an
example of the kind of bureaucracy we sometimes have to deal with. Much of it I understand. There is no reason why the government should
not do a background check on us, have translations of our passports or know
where we live. They are just trying to
protect their country and economy. But,
as an American, I instinctively value “efficiency” and when I don’t get
efficiency – I sometimes complain.
Friday, June 21, 2013. We had our actually Temporary Residence
Permits in hand. We got those on
Thursday. The woman at the OVIR was very
nice and rushed the process so we could have a chance to leave for L’vov on
Saturday. We just needed to get a stamp
from the immigration office.
(Background: No one has every
explained the entire process and I cannot find any kind of law or written
document that describes how to apply for and receive temporary residency permits. Our
approach is to start the process and do what we are told by the various offices.) The immigration office that we needed to go
to was not open on Thursday, so we needed to wait until Friday. We wanted to be first in line so we arrived
at the office at 8:00am (they opened at 9:00).
We were third in line – no problem.
Here is our bus route.
We waited an
hour. While waiting we recieved a call from the OVIR. They needed one more document from the seminary. I called the seminary and they said the document could be ready in the afternoon. The door opened, we walked up a flight of stairs into a hallway of eight
doors. We needed office number one. After waiting a few more minutes, we went in
and she was very nice. We explained
where we were in the process. She looked
at our documents and then said that this is not the last step but close. She made a copy of our permits, wrote our
information in her registry book and then had us write a “statement” requesting
that the stamps be put in our permits.
We wrote the statements, she put a note, a stamp and a signature on them
and sent us to office number 7. We
thanked her and went to office number seven.
There we waited in a line for about a half hour. The woman in this office, at first didn’t
understand why we were sent to her. We
also didn’t fully understand. She took
our document and went back to office number one. When she returned, we explained again that
all we needed were the stamps. She said
she understood, but that wasn’t her job.
However, we did need more documents from her. She took our statements, made another note on
them and said that we need to take these to the boss. She said that if we waited in line we would be
there all day so she would help us. She
said, “Follow me and say nothing.” We
followed her passed a line of people into the bosses office. He was in a large room, at a desk helping
another women. He also had a TV on
across the room with a Mexican soap opera playing. We waited.
She showed the boss our statements and he said, “Where are the
signatures and the dates?” We quickly
signed and dated them. Then he made
another note on them and signed them. We
left the room and the woman said that her part was done. Now we need to take our statements to another
immigration office in the north part of the city. There we can get our stamp. We thanked her and left. We were cautiously optimistic – it was only
10:00am. We got on a bus and went north. Here is our route.
It took us a
little while, but we found the office.
There were four doors in the hall and none of them were labeled. We asked around and found the lady we were
looking for. I explained that we needed
the stamp in our permits. She took one
look at the documents in our hands and said that copies meant nothing to
her. She needed a card from another
office (called the passportist). I
explained that the pasportist doesn’t work on Fridays and she said that we need
to go there when they work. We were
getting nowhere, so we decided to see if the passportist was in her
office. This time we walked.
We got there
to find out that the office was not only closed – Monday, of course, is a
holiday. The soonest we can see the
passportist is maybe Tuesday afternoon.
Well this was a difficult pill to swallow. We hit a dead end. The rest of the day was spent getting another document from the seminary, exchanging our
Saturday train tickets (except Joseph’s), purchasing new tickets (by faith) for
Wednesday and taking our new document to the OVIR. This required a long trip downtown. I made it back to our region
just in time to take part in our last English Café.
Our initial
reaction was sadness and disappointment.
However, after some time we came to our senses and knew that this was no
surprise to God and it is really a very small setback in the grand narrative of
the Kingdom of God. We said goodbye to
Joseph on Saturday and now we hope that Tuesday we can get our stamps and be
off to join him and the team on Wednesday.
