Details about Lydia's Visa Process

Dear Friends in Prayer,

Peace be with you.

This is a bit detailed in parts, but it gives you an idea of the visa process phase we are currently in, so you can be praying. I was not originally intending this for general circulation, but if you have prayer partners and friends that you want to share this with or if the missions committee wanted to circulate it, that is fine with me. Lydia would like as many people praying as possible about this.

Your continued prayers are appreciated for this process, and also for the Norton´s antivirus protection program that I am trying to arrange for Julie´s computer (we paid for it, and it should arrive as download by Internet in the next day or so).

In general, we are back on track with incremental progress for Lydia´s visa, but it is not over, until it is over.

1) Yesterday, we went to El Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores del Perú, in Central Lima with Lydia´s birth certificate to get a signature notarized, and we were to return this morning to pick up the document at 8:15 am, en punto.

2) There was additional incremental progress today with Lydia´s visa. At 8:15 am, we picked up the double notarized birth certificate from the Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores del Perú in the District of Cental Lima, and headed over to Migraciones in the Breña District of Lima.

Our brief meeting at Migraciones ended with a need for an official translation of the birth certificate, and we were told that for a translator we should go back to the Ministerio de Relaciones building in Central Lima, where we would find a translator outside.

What we discovered was that there are names of translators posted outside of the Minsterio de Relaciones building, by the entrance, with the different languages that people are officially registered for (English, French, Portuguese, Russian, Chinese, German, Japanese, etc). Considering the size of Lima, there are not a lot of official translators listed, and we jotted down several names for English in the part of the city near where we lived (we live in the primary commercial section of the city so that may be a reason why are a fair number listed for our part of the city). And we were able to locate one official translator in the Miraflores District of Lima, not too far from our language school. Then, we went to the translator´s office, and arranged for a translation to be picked up tomorrow. A very nice gentleman.

Tomorrow, the plan is to pick up the birth certificate and the translation of it, about 8 am, and head back to Migraciones in the Breña section of Lima.

2) Cultural enrichment (the word choice was not intended as a pun), if you would like to read further:
To give you an idea of fees for this part of our adventure: about $30 for the notarization in Hartford (Connecticut), about $7 (S/. 22.90) for the notarization at the Ministerio de Relaciones, and about $16 (S/. 50) for the translation (which seems to be a standard price for translation of such a document). On top of that are taxi fares (which vary for a number of reasons, including relationships).

In case you were not aware, this is the part of the process where no additional fees would be charged by Migraciones, but they do not tell you about these other fees, you just have to assume that there will be an additional fee in an unknown amount, for every step. So, we are helping the economy of Peru.

While there is bureaucracy, at the same time, the bureaucracy is a bit entrepreneurial, with outsourcing for things like translation work. Official translators are not available in the vicinity of Migraciones, by the way.

Recommended personal preparation for all of this: ability to be a self-starter, organization, patience, perseverance, a sense of humor, and a basic understanding for how a typical government works (in the US or Peru). Familiarity with ordination steps and doctoral degree program steps, can be helpful. Being from an entrepreneurial family helps.

And so, the adventure continues.....

Please keep Lydia and her visa process in your prayers. Thank you.

God bless you all,
In Christ,
Shaw