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How we spent our summer vacation getting visas. Last Updated 1/8/2008 |
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For the time being, our visas come through our humanitarian foundation. In the future we hope to get our visas through the church. Either way, the process for getting a visa will be almost the same. Sometimes we have an easy time of it. This is a story about one of the times we didn't have an easy time of it.
It all started in the winter of 2005. We got the word through emails that several ex-pats were told that visa's would no longer be renewable within Kazakhstan. The "new" procedure required everyone to leave Kazakhstan and travel to a city that has a Kazakhstan foreign embassy. One family (Mark) went to Turkey but they were told that only the husband could get an extendable visa. The wife and children were only given tourist visas, which are only good for 1 month at a time. You have to apply for a new one every month. Over the next few months email horror stories abounded. Husbands got visas but not their wives. Wives got 3 month visas but the children (or sometimes some of the children) got 1 or 2 months.
In April of 2005 when we applied for our visa, our friend Mark had only then obtained extendable visas for himself and his family after much time, effort (including two more trips out of the country), and money had been spent in the attempt. Our lawyer (Dildabek) assured us that our process should go smoothly as it had for years. We gathered all of the many documents and notarized copies and photos and aids tests as usual only to find out 1 week before our visas would expire that we had been turned down and that it would do no good to keep trying! That was Friday afternoon at 5pm.
At 5:01pm we called our friend Mark and found out that over the winter only 1 man (a travel agent named Dema) had been able to obtain visas without paying bribes. Dema told us that we would need to bring him all of our documents and notarized copies and photos and aids tests immediately and leave for the nearby (5 hours by car) capital of Kyrgystan (Bishkek) on Tuesday morning. |
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Above: The peaceful parks of Bishkek in early June. |
They had just had a revolution in Kyrgystan and we weren't sure how stable the country was. But we arranged for a driver to take us to Bishkek early Tuesday morning (after obtaining the visa we needed for Kyrgystan on Monday). We spent eight (I must say) relaxing days in Bishkek playing monopoly and catching up on our reading in between tense visits to the Kazakhstan foreign embassy. In the end we got our visas. (One week after we left there was a second uprising in Bishkek.)
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All of us got the same kind of visa: an extendable 1 month business visa. That's right 1 month. That is part of the new process: 1) leave the country 2) submit many documents and notarized copies and photos and aids tests to the ministry of FOREIGN affairs in Kazakhstan. 3) receive a 1 month extendable business visa from the ministry of FOREIGN affairs in the country of your choice. 4) return to Kazakhstan. 5) apply for an extension of your 1 month extendable business visa (you can extend it up to 11 months) from the ministry of INTERNAL affairs in Kazakhstan. 6) receive your extended visa.
In our case, the Kazakhstan foreign embassy in Bishkek had made a mistake. They had given us all tourist visas. Dema to the rescue. After several phone calls and meetings he received an apology from the Kazakhstan foreign embassy in Bishkek and a promise to issue the 1 month extendable business visa from the ministry of FOREIGN affairs.
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This they did. In the end we all had 5 more visas in our passports (2 for Kyrgystan because we had to get a second one while we were there, and 3 for Kazakhstan). The last of those visas was what we were after, but it was only mid-July. Our summer vacation wasn't over yet. It turns out that Dema had misplaced the original of our Foundations' Charter. To complicate matters, he wasn't sure that he had not given it back to us. The Original Charter has many stamps that were obtained over many months from many government departments. It is not an easy thing to replace. So we started searching. I searched my house. Dema searched his office. We found nothing. 2 months passed. Dema assured me that he would keep looking. 3 months passed. Dema assured me that he would take all of the furniture out of His office and every file out of his filing cabinets. 4 months had passed. I had already started researching the process for replacing the charter. Dema called. He had finally found the missing charter! That was late November. In a few months we will be starting the process all over again. |
Above: We celebrated Noah's 13th Birthday in Bishkek with a store bought cake. Yuk! | |
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For now, we will continue to operate the NGO and transfer all of the humanitarian work over to the church when it reaches the point at which it can be registered. I am also going to try to get visas through a good Russian friend of mine named Renat. He married the daughter of our 2nd best friend from Petropavlovsk (after Yulia). We have been working with him successfully for about a year, loaning him money to import cars and to start a business cleaning carpets. Since these visas will not be through a foreign-controlled NGO (thus off the radar) they may be "easier" (a relative term) to obtain. We will see. Getting the visa's through Renat would enable us to close the fund and save about $1000/year because we will no longer need an accountant. We will also save the travel agent's fee ($800) for getting the visas. |
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Preparing to close the NGO has meant transferring ownership of our truck, car, and apartment from the fund to an individual. Misha and I worked on that from April until August. We were able to transfer the truck and car into his name and get all of the necessary documents and registrations. 2 out of 3 ain't bad!
Although it took about 3 months of actual work it will save us about 2 months a year. That's how long it takes to get the "city-sticker" and go through yearly inspection process if your vehicles are commercial (eg. owned by a business or a Non-Government Organization.) In 2005 20 documents were required from more than 20 government offices. When I complained the official told me: "Next year even more documents will be required." There won't be a next year for us now that the vehicles are no longer in the Foundations' name. Praise God for that!
The Heinz Family |
20 Documents Required for Yearly City-Sticker | |
