Status of Frank and Lora's Visa Situation
We are making some progress on our visa and residency status (green card). Because of the new visa laws (Oct 2007) in Russia Frank and Lora will not be able to stay in country longer than 90 days at a time and cannot re-enter the country before a
90-day waiting period. Our only option to stay for longer uninterrupted periods is to receive temporary residency status (green card). We started the process back in November and in February we were allowed to make an inquiry for consideration to be included in the quota of applicants.
In March we were granted the opportunity to apply and started gathering all of the paperwork, legal documents, interpretation, medical exams etc. The last day of April we final submitted the application. We have been told that a decision will be forthcoming no sooner than the end of October 2008. We must be in Russia under the normal visa laws in order to receive our green cards if they are issued. So we will be leaving Russia May 26 and hoping to return on a new visa (yet to be issued) after the required 90 days on September 1 so that we can be in Russia for the students when they get back from summer break.
Unless we have the green card by the end of November we would have to leave Russia again for 90 days (expensive and impractical for ministry). These are times that the doctrine of the sovereignty of God is highlighted in our walk with him. But be it not for that we would be in a desperate state of anxiety. Praise God. We trust him for the best.
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