We're preparing to go on home assignment this spring. In the midst of
setting up meetings already and contacting people (to let them know
we'll be in the US), we have other things that need to be attended to
before we leave.
One
of those things is making certain all our passports are up to date. We
just recently sent off for my husband's and son's British passports.
I've learned that it is
incredibly difficult challenging to
get a passport photo of a very active 10 month-old boy. After several
days, we finally got one. If he wasn't wiggling or looking away, there
were shadows. Or he had a look on his face like he was filling in his
nappy. At last we finally got a good photo because I got the brilliant
idea to use the flash on my camera!
This
of course got me thinking on all the passport and visa stories that I'm
certain many of you have. It's good to remember them and
give God the glory for providing in each of those situations. Here are some of our passport stories.
- My husband obtained his visa for India the day before he was supposed to leave.
- Just 2 or 3 months after I moved to England with my husband, I was granted permanent residence, something that takes most people 5-6 years to get. My husband now has British citizenship!
- Because of our visa status when our son was born, he has dual citizenship. We don't have to worry about a visa for him!
- I was issued the wrong visa and got it corrected hours before leaving for the UK.
What are some of your passport stories? We're missionaries... I know we have them! Please share in the comments!
Mine are mostly visa stories, not passports. It seems like almost every time, we've only gotten our visas the day before, or even closer, no matter how we plan ahead.
ReplyDeleteThe story I like best is about one time when Will traveled to Moscow to reapply for visas. Somehow he didn't have a photo with him for our baby. He had them for the rest of us, but not for her. There was no way for him to make it back and forth again in time, and this was a while ago, so we couldn't come up with a digital solution like we would now. The man he was working with had him turn out his pockets and everything, searching for the photo. Nothing. But then the man noticed a photo in Will's wallet... our son when he was a baby. And they used that on her visa! We didn't feel like we were being dishonest, because Will told them several times that it wasn't the right child. They said that it doesn't matter: "They're both yours, right? Okay, fine." They photoshopped it, turned it black and white and used it. So that year our daughter's visa had her big brother's photo on it.
Oh, that's funny Phyllis! :) Thank God they let you do that.
Deleteoh my word!! That is great!!
DeleteTo enter Costa Rica, you get your tourist visa (for 90 days) when you enter the country...but right now we are in the process of getting what we would call visas in English. Only here they are called temporary residency. Anyway, it's been a long process and it's not over yet. And then there was the whole we have to go to Panama so we can drive legally nonsense! http://nlkamper.blogspot.com/2013/01/getting-our-drivers-license-part-ii.html
ReplyDeleteInteresting. Here they did away with long-term visas a little over a year ago. Now we get a 90-day visa, then use those 90 days to get temporary residency. TR lasts for a year, but it can be renewed for a second year without leaving the country.
DeleteI read about your adventures to get your visas, Liz! That's crazy.
DeleteWe got my son's first passport picture taken on the way home from the hospital just after he was born! They had to lay him on tag-board to make a white background and it was quite a trick to get a picture of a newborn with eyes open!
ReplyDeleteYes, and it's hard to get a baby to look straight at a camera, too! Thankfully they allow children under a certain age to have their eyes closed in passport photos in the UK... :)
DeleteWe are preparing to move as a family to a country overseas that only my husband has ever been to, so we are just beginning our fun stories. I have to say that taking passport pictures for my four little ones was not only challenging and time-consuming (I had to get them just perfect because I was so afraid of them getting rejected due to the picture not being right), it was HILARIOUS!!! Especially with my 18-month-old. I kept the whole series and we played the photos through a slideshow...comedy! I have a feeling this is just the beginning of MANY opportunities to laugh heartily at ourselves as we adjust to overseas missionary life!!! :)
ReplyDeleteThat is too funny! I'm certain I could do that with all the multitudes of photos I had to take of our son before I got a good one :)
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