Complications

Things often seem more complicated here in the 'Dova, but this new little wrinkle might be more than annoying.  We were told before we came here that we didn't need visas, even though we would be staying longer than 90 days, because the Fulbright program takes care of paperwork through the U.S. Embassy here for us.  After we arrived we had to get special pictures taken (it took us 4 separate trips to the little photo vendor to get them done right) which could then be filed with our forms to get us "registration cards" in lieu of visas.

We thought this was all filed and completed -- until this last week.  Now, we've been informed, the government here has changed their policy so that any foreigners in the country for longer than 90 days but less than a year have to go through a new form and new process.  The workers at the Embassy are starting this process over for us, but if it's not finished before our 90 day in-country mark, we will have to leave the country and re-enter!

Pete sprung this new little tidbit on me over the weekend while we had company over for dinner, so I couldn't complete my total Freak-Out dance right then and there (smart of him).  I thought he might be joking, but it turns out he, and the government, is not.  I do not relish the idea of packing everyone up to go on a trip, just to cross a border to a new country, then turn around and come back!  Travel here is no piece of cake.  No matter which direction we head, voluntarily or involuntarily, there will be extra complications (such as no public restrooms anywhere, very poor roads, a slow and unreliable train system, guards looking for bribes at some borders, etc.).

I figure there must be only a handful of us foreigners in the country who arrived right at the time of this policy/form change and are staying longer than 90 days but not a full year.  Lucky us!  And in my more optimistic moments, I think that maybe the U.S. embassy should just help us out by buying the family plane tickets to Greece or someplace nice and warm, as long as we have to leave the country.  But, even if they did, air travel with kids is just full of more... complications.

So in my super-optimistic moments I'm just hoping the new paperwork goes through unusually quickly -- without the usual complications.