25 January 2008

Paperwork Update

The reason we had to leave for a little while to go to Germany was in order to get our registration renewed in Russia.  We have visas that are good through mid-July, but our registration in the city of St. Petersburg was only for 6 months.  For those of you who have followed our family blog, might remember that a new law concerning visas in Russia was passed last fall.  The law, in a nutshell, is that people with business visas (which is what we currently have) can only be in the country for 90 days at a time.  After 90 days a person with a business visa must leave for at least 90 days before returning to Russia.  Along with that visa change came a registration change.  Rather than issuing 6 month visas, the Russian government is only issuing 3 month registrations. So when we returned to St. P, we were hoping that somehow we would be able to get 6 month registration again, but we did get only 3 month registration.  Our visas are still good, though, praise the Lord!  

We also think that we have a viable option for coming back in August (yes, we get to be in the States for about 6 weeks this summer!).  Thomas has contacted a language center that can facilitate our visas and registration.  We would be under student visas, which also get 1-year registration.

So, clear as mud, right?  Thank you for those of you who have been praying for us about these very confusing things.  We are thankful that God is continuing to make things clear for us in these strange situations!

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