That darned visa.

I’ve been postponing the update regarding my visa process because the whole thing was so unbelievable that I thought it would be easiest to just write it all down when it was over. Last year I got my visa in August. It took about a week and was a total gong show. They ended up putting the wrong expiration date on the visa and so it expired four days before they even gave it to me. That meant another day in the visa office for them to fix it. Unfortunately, this year was MUCH worse!
            I was home for the summer and my visa from last year expired about a week before I got back to Ecuador, so I entered on a tourist visa which is good for 90 days. It expired on December 8^th. Not bad. I had plenty of time to go through the visa process again. On November 6^th I showed up at the visa office at 6am to wait in line for about 4 hours to hand in my paper work. When I handed it in they told me that two of the papers were done wrong. One was my resume which was in English. I needed to translate it to Spanish. The other was a chronological list of everything I would be doing until I left Ecuador. The man told me that it had to be divided by month with a detailed description of what I was going to do every month. I was confused. I was handing in the exact same paperwork we used the year before, but this year they were being very picky. When I explained that what I do never changes. I do the same thing every week and I am going to do it until I leave he told me that the paper was fine and sent me to go and translate the resume and return with it later that day. I left the office, translated the paper, paid a $30 application fee, and then gave the paper and the proof of payment to the man who told me the visa would be ready the following week on the 12^th.

I went back the next week. Got in line at 5:30am so that I could be out in time to still go to the kids club. When I finally got in I was told that my visa was not yet ready. In fact, they were WAY behind on the whole process and were still processing October’s visas. I was told that my visa would 100% for sure be ready on the 26^th of November. I explained that my tourist visa expired on the 8^th of December so I needed to be sure I was going to get the visa. She assured me I would get it and she sent me on my way. I was pretty happy. She guaranteed me the visa and it was going to be ready in two weeks.
            The 26^th came and I returned to the visa office early in the morning. By the time I got in I had been waiting almost 5 hours! A different lady helped me this time. She informed me that my visa was not ready. They were still working on visas in the 800’s and my visa was number 983. BUT, she GUARANTEED ME that it would be ready on the 4^th of December! FOR SURE! When I explained to her that I had received guarantees before and that they did not come to fruition, she told me she would keeps a special eye on my visa (lies). I left quite angry now. I was beginning to think that they were playing games with me. Every Ecuadorian I know was telling me that I needed to bribe them or they weren’t going to help me. I refused to do it, and so I had to return on the 4^th,

I got there bright and early, waited for hours, and finally was called up to the front. My visa was ready…or so I thought. Turns out they rejected me. Why? The paper they told me was wrong at the beginning and then told me it was fine…was wrong. They needed me to divide it by month. I explained to the lady that they had told me that all my paperwork was fine and that I was confused as to why the paperwork they themselves had approved was now wrong. Her actual response was, “well for us it was fine, but not for our lawyer.” My thought was, “how could it possibly be fine with you when your job is to make sure that the lawyer approves me?” But I didn’t say anything else. She told me to go and make the document and have it in her hands by 1pm. I went to the office, made the document, and had it back with my visa application by 1pm. She told me to return the next morning and my visa would be ready. I was annoyed, but excited that it was going to be ready in a day.

So I was there again in the morning. I waited forever and got up by 10. This time another man helped me. He said, “weren’t you here yesterday? Why are you back? A paper was wrong, right? There is no way your visa ia ready today. The lady who helped you yesterday was just fired and I have no idea why she told you to come back today.” I was FURIOUS! He went to see where my visa application was. It took him ten minutes to find it. He came back, opened the folder, and dropped it on the desk. “Where’s the paper that you fixed?” I looked through everything and…no paper. The lady who was fired the day before never even put it in my folder and now she was gone. The man told me, “there is nobody even here to sign your papers, so I have no idea why she told you to come back. But this is what I am going to do. I am going to submit your papers to get signed without the missing paper. You go and print it off again and come and give it to me before noon. I think I might be able to have the papers ready today.” I cried a little and explained to him (not in a very polite manner) that everyone in the visa office is a liar. He can promise me a million times that my visa will be ready and I will never believe him.

I left for the office, cried some more, printed off the paper…again! And went back to the visa office. I handed the man the paper and he told me that he couldn’t accept the paper because he didn’t have my folder to put it in. He told me to come back with it at 1 and my visa would be ready. I didn’t get my hopes up, but I killed some time and was back at one. When I got in to see him at 1:30 all he did was shake his head as I approached him. “It’s not ready. There’s nobody here to sign your papers. Come back later today.” I told him there was no way I was going to return later today. He told me it would be ready at 1, and nothing. I wasn’t about to waste my afternoon hoping that magically the visa would be ready. He gave me the option of returning the following week and I chose that option. I then went home and cried for a solid 20 minutes. It was the only way to get rid of all the stress and frustration I felt.
            So this week on Tuesday I was back at the visa office. The same gentleman helped me. And, amazingly, my visa had been approved. I went and paid the remaining $150 for the visa, surrendered my passport, and was told to return (again) on Friday to get my passport back with my visa in it.

I went back today, waited for 2 and a half hours this afternoon, and there it was! My passport with my brand new visa in it. It only took 5 weeks (when it shouldn’t have taken more than a week). I left that office today so incredibly thankful that I wasn’t going to have to go back in there for years. Maybe not ever again!
            So for those who have been asking and praying, you now know what happened, and that I now am officially legal in Ecuador until December 11^th, 2013. Throughout the process I felt frustrated with people. They kept telling me not to worry because God was going to give me the visa the next time for sure. The next time would come and go and instead of having a visa I would have more problems. When people would tell me that God was going to give me the visa the next time I started saying, “but God doesn’t work like that. He doesn’t just give me what I want when I want it.” I have thought a lot about Job the last few months. I know that my problems are not nearly as severe as Job’s, but God didn’t just make life fine and dandy for Job because he believed in God. Job suffered and in the end never turned his back on God. Sometimes I think we forget that. We think life is going to be a walk on the beach with Jesus, but there is no guarantee of that. In fact, when I read the New Testament I see a group of people who were persecuted for their faith, who suffered terribly for the sake of the Gospel, and who still didn’t turn their backs on God.

May God forgive me for being angry with Him for not making my life the care-free life I think it should be. And may I grow from this experience.