I just got back to Pucallpa from a quick 3-day trip to Lima. The main purpose of the trip was to meet up with someone coming from the U.S. who brought my apostilled letter of presentation with them and then to go to the government agency Interpol to officially start the process to get my residence visa!!!

It is soo exciting that this process has finally started! I did my part and now I just wait for CONEP (The National Council of Evangelicals of Peru) to get everything in order and present the rest of my documents to Immigration before August 10. My tourist visa expires August 10, so that’s the deadline to get this paperwork in to them. They assured me they will get it submitted by July 20th. It is going to take a little longer cause they do this for a lot of people and I didn’t even think about the fact that I would need to get the actual apostille letter and stamp translated as well…..they are going to do that for me, so that is going to delay them submitting my packet just a few days. But its finally happening!!!

And on top of that, I learned something else while in Lima that has put my mind at ease. Previously I had understood that if I didn’t actually receive my residence card before August 10, I would need to either try to leave the country and re-enter to make sure I continued to have a valid tourist visa or just stay past my visa’s expiration date and then have to pay a daily fine for the over-stay up until the day I finally get my residence card. (Sorry, that is a really long sentence….). Fortunately though, I learned that as long as CONEP submits my paperwork to Immigration before August 10, my tourist visa never expires until I receive my residence visa!! That means no need to leave the country or be charged extra! The only catch with that is that if I do actually need to leave the country for whatever reason during that in-between time of my tourist visa being expired and receiving a residence visa, I have to fill out a special form to ask permission to leave. Completely understandable, but I’m just happy and blessed that there is nothing else I need to worry about until I get the notice that I need to go back to Lima to do the last few things and then actually get my residence visa! Woop woop! This could take up to 2 months from the time CONEP goes to Immigration, but that’s ok!

I am soo excited that the process is finally in motion and that God has even calmed my mind about the issue of my tourist visa expiring! Our God is big and into the details!!! Woohoo!!!

Thank You all for your continued prayers in regards to my residence visa! I still don’t actually have it yet so keep on praying! But you can rejoice with me that I have finally been able to get the process officially started!! Praise the Lord!!!

#Peru #provision #missions