I have my visa!!!! Starting today I am a permanent resident of Kenya. That is as long as William and I are married and he is alive. So I told him "No dying allowed!" And what is really really nice is that I only have to pay $3.50 a year for unlimited entry/re-entry through Kenyan customs/immigration. Considering it used to be $50 for a 90 day temporary visitor's visa this is really excellent news.
The frustrating news is that I'm going to need a work permit after all. I had three different officials tell me before that once I had residency I would not need to get a work permit. But today we were in the office of one of the bigwigs in immigration. And she says that I absolutely need to have a work permit. However she says that it will be half the cost of the "normal" missionary. Which means that it is either going to be $850 or $1,700 per year.
I also went to the nursing council today to start the process of getting my Kenyan nursing license. I have to get loads of original documents and supporting statements from the USA. So I'll need to start that process as soon as possible.
However, another positive thing was that the bigwig said that she will send our file down to the passport department. Since we already have a file open it just might speed up the process for getting William's passport. Tomorrow we are hoping to take advantage of my new resident status. We are going to see African animals at the Nairobi Game Reserve. Our new friend Anna is coming along with us. We'll try to get some pictures.
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