It's always something.

We were all set to leave on Monday.

We have been working on getting our permanent residency, the main benefit being that we would not have to leave the country every THREE MONTHS, for heaven's sake.

We found a fellow who is somewhat involved in the Jewish community, although not Jewish himself. He works in getting permanent residency for people. So this Ivan Ivanov advised us to open a fund. As president and members of this fund, we should be entitled to non-quota visas.

To that end, for the past couple of months, Yisroel, our secretary, and Ivan Ivanov have been working tirelessly organizing documents. We needed 12 separate documents from America. Each one had to be the original, notarized, signed by the country clerk, apostilled, translated, and then the translation had to be notarized. We need a ridiculous amount of information about us and the other people in our fund. And we need all sorts of medical records.

So we spent the past while gathering this information and putting it together. On Wednesday morning, we went to the doctor for all sorts of exams. On Wednesday afternoon, our secretary called the office to find out when to bring in the application, only to find out that their quota is filled, and they are not accepting applications until the end of the year.

We should be entitled to a non-quota status, so Ivan Ivanov is petitioning his friend to accept the application.

But we each need to submit our applications personally. And I am supposed to leave with the kids on Monday.

So today Yisroel went to request an extension for me to remain in the country for another 10 days. He spent hours flopping from office to office, and. . . we're not sure yet. They MAY grant the extension.

And then on Monday we will find out if they will accept our applications.

Will keep you posted.

And a good Shabbos to you too!