Visa Delays

Our two-month visa delay is more an effect of the ongoing tightening of Russia’s grip over the past few years, and a result of bureaucratic incompetence both in Russia and the US, and to be honest a few of our own mistakes factored in as well.

First was the announcement of new visa regulations (5 or 6 yrs ago), which required foreigners living in Russia for more than 6 months (3 months at a time) to be sponsored by an inviting Russian organization for work or study (just as the US requires). This is when the “generic business visa” type that we were using was abolished, and we started receiving invitations and visa support from Saint Petersburg Christian University (SPCU), where I teach. Now we could receive official work status (albeit with an overtly religious organization) and a one-year, multiple-entry visa, renewable for up to three years. 

At that time we needed to produce an Apostille of our Marriage License to prove that we are legally married, in order for Priscilla and our children to receive visas as “accompanying family members.” An “Apostille” is like an international notarization, that provides an international standard of verification, by which a country can be assured that a document from another country is indeed the proper document. We already had this document on hand, for the purchase of our apartment, because Russian law requires that both spouses sign the title, so that neither of them can leave the other homeless in the case of divorce or estrangement. 

Since then, about two years ago Russia also began requiring (again just like the US) that minors who are “accompanying family members” also produce an Apostille of their birth certificates to demonstrate that they are indeed the legal children of the invited worker, in this case me. As a result of some bureaucratic foul-ups and some missed timing on our part, we were not able to renew our visas before leaving Russian in June. That meant they would expire during our summer furlough and we would have to start the visa process again, now with the new regulation of Apostilles for the children, now only Liam and Olivia (Since Gillian & Karina are in college in the US, they will use tourist visas to go to Russia from now on).

Liam was born in the United States. The Apostille of his birth certificate was easy to get. We went to the Pennsylvania state capitol and received it with walk-in service in 30 minutes. Getting Olivia’s was a different story since she was born in Russia. Since neither of her parents are Russian, Olivia is not considered a Russian citizen by birth, and could not receive Russian citizenship until she is 14, when she would legally apply for a Russian passport. But as an American citizen applying for a visa to Russia on an American passport, she could not use her Russian birth certificate. Rather an Apostille of her US issued “Consular Report of Foreign Birth Abroad” is required, based on which we got her American passport in Russia after her birth. This we had to receive from the US State Department, since it was issued by the US Consulate, which (long story short) we only received 2 months after applying, instead of the promised 2 weeks!

 

We mailed the Apostille off to Russia as soon as we received it on Monday, August 25. It took over a week to arrive, express mail. It will take another four weeks for SPCU to process the invitations, another week to send them to us, two weeks plus to process the visas with the Russian Embassy, plus one more week to make sure we can confidently buy airline tickets ahead. That means we can only plan for an October 27 departure for Russia at the very earliest. 

There's another catch. If I return to Russia at the end of October, there is not enough time for me to complete the additional step of processing the initial visas which the Embassy issues us into the multi-entry visa, I will need in order to leave Russia for my Imago Christi meetings November 10-17. I have already tried to move the meetings up to October, before we get the visas, but it is not workable. So we will most likely have to send Priscilla, Liam and Olivia on ahead to Russia in late Oct. or early Nov., while I stay behind and depart for Russia Nov 18th after the Imago Christi meetings.

So please pray for us for wisdom and added patience as we wait. Primarily this is in the area of arranging Liam and Olivia’s education, during an the extra two months in the US. Liam is enrolled at the International Academy of Saint Petersburg, Russia, and will do his course-work for the first quarter on his own, but it will take a lot of coordination and discipline. Priscilla will be homeschooling Olivia, which has many challenges of its own.

On the other hand we can already see some benefits to this delay. We were able to slow down the end of our hurried summer furlough and we have, and will be able to, see some more supporters, whom we otherwise would not have seen. We were also concerned about leaving Karina in college so abruptly, but this way, we are still “in country” for some of her transition to college and American life. We are even hoping to see her first concerts in Wheaton during Homecoming Weekend in early October. And we are confident that God is both the Master Weaver and Redeemer of all events, so we are sure that this is best, and that He is using this delay for even greater purposes that remain to be seen.