Our DRC visas! A battle we thought we would fight forever!

Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Our DRC visas!  A battle we thought we would fight forever! 

Just to remind you about the history of Blake and I, in 2008 we took our first trip to Africa, specifically to DR Congo.  Through that trip, DRC stole our hearts, and will forever be very dear to us.  Although that trip was only 1 month, it meant more to us than just a short-term missions trip.  For us, this trip changed the course of our lives.  It took almost 2 years to get our lives into a position where we could move to Africa on a more permanent basis, but instead of moving to Congo we moved first to Rwanda.  While living in Rwanda we began making many trips to Congo, this beginning our long battle of visas for DRC.

*It would be important to insert here that we like Congo.  We have learned the game of Congo, and we can appreciate it.  Is it stressful?  Sure.  Should it be so difficult to live in a country?  No.  But even still, we know that anything can happen in Congo.  Life in Congo is truly a daily adventure…with that being said, we still really like Congo.*

When we first began entering into Congo from Rwanda, we had the option to get our visas at the boarder the day we wanted to enter.  The visas were quick, easy and cheap, and we could enter into Congo multiple times in 1 week.  Eventually the process became…complicated.  We had to receive our visas at either our home country (USA) or our country of residence (at the time…Rwanda).  The price went up to $250 for a multiple entry visa for 3 months…however, there were always additional…uhem, “fees”.  The visa ended up costing us around $350 every 3 months.  We did not always need a visa for 3 months, and we did not always have plans to be back in Congo within 3 months, so it quickly became costly to enter into Congo.

With our work taking us into Congo regularly, we ended up with multiple pages being used up in our passports and multiple stamps entering and exiting between Rwanda and Congo.  As the political problems between the 2 countries increased, our ability to feely move easily between the 2 countries decreased.  We were questioned about our work, if we were spies for Rwanda and why we had so many entry/exit stamps?  After being delayed at the boarders multiple times, our work finally allowed us to actually move to Lubumbashi, DRC.

After living in DRC for 6 months you are allowed to apply for a resident visa.  Although we had entered and exited so many times for 1 year and 3 months, we still had to fight the battle of 2 more temporary visas before applying for a more permanent resident visa.  This became our next battle.  We had friends trying to find the correct price, working on our behalf through the process, and we were eventually told that it would cost us more than $1500/person to receive a resident visa.  This price was more than the actual posted price, but through many conversations this was the final quoted price.  In order to get our resident visas, we would have had to send our passports to Kinshasa for processing, however, DRC was also preparing for their elections.  We did not want to release hold of our physical passports in case anything went wrong in the election process and need to make a quick evacuation out of the country.  We opted for getting a final extension on our temporary visas, knowing it would last us until we left in December.  But also knowing that since we did not apply for our residence visa, we would have to start the full process over again, in the event we returned to Congo.

After our time in the states, we learned we would be moving to South Sudan and we would not be returning to DRC.  We did not expect to make the move back to DRC so quickly, but once we learned about the possibility we asked our same friend, who was working on the process of our resident visa the year before, to begin helping us find a way to enter back into DRC.  Keep in mind we can only get our visa in our home country (USA) or our host country (now South Sudan).  Unfortunately, South Sudan does not have a Congolese embassy, so that left our other option to return to the states to seek our visa.  Our pastor worked with his contact in the government, a man who helped the Church of the Nazarene in Congo in the past.  After scanning every page in our passport and days of meetings, our pastor found that if we paid $1200 that would get us invited back into DRC entering through Kinshasa, without the required visa.  This payment was supposed to get us a 3-month visa at the airport.  Instead, it got us only a letter of invitation, letting us enter into Kinshasa.  Since we were coming from South Sudan, we only had a copy of the letter, not the original document.  We were waiting in the immigration office at the airport for more than 4 hours, waiting for an original copy of the letter to be received, only understanding threats of being deported.  After more than 4 hours, and an additional $120 we left the airport with only a 7-day visa.

We arrived the next day at the office of immigration; meeting with someone who we thought had the ability to extend our visa.  He told us that we now owe an additional $700 (the same $350/person) to get a 3-month visa.  He said that after we get our first 3-month visa we could once again begin the process of applying for residency!  We told him we would be flying on Saturday (this was a Thursday), so we needed to receive our passports back by Friday.  Once again he said no problem.  Leaving the office we were told to call him at 9am the next morning.

The following day (Friday), Blake called to remind him we would be coming at noon to get our passports with our visas.  He said he was sorry but didn’t think he could make it work.  Blake reminded him that we were flying to Gemena the next day.  He said he would call us back.  That same morning, we received a call from a missionary living Gemena, asking if we would be willing to meet with her contact in Kinshasa to bring money to her.  After meeting her contact, Blake began to share our story about the problems we have had receiving our visas.  He was very upset, knowing we had already spent more money than we should have been required to pay, and called his friend at the immigration office, which happened to be the number 2 guy for all of Congo.   After setting up a meeting with him; Blake, our new friend, and our old friend all went together to the office to discuss the situation.  They shared the full story from the beginning. 

This immigration officer started to become very frustrated calling multiple people into his office.  Beginning first with the man that took our passports and visas the day before.  Come to find out, this man had no authority to actually give us our visas, so the reason he couldn’t get the visas ready by Friday was because it would have to pass through the hands of multiple people before landing to the right person.  The chief of the office was yelling at him, telling him that he is an embarrassment for the office and needs to stick with the work he is supposed to do.  The next person he called to his office was the man from the airport that threatened to deport us.  As the meeting progressed, they began to piece together every person we worked with, how much money we paid, how much it should have cost us, who was in the wrong and what the government would do about it!

They government physically had copies of the email correspondence between Blake and our pastor, telling Blake how much he had paid, who he gave the money too, and what that was supposed to get us.  It turned out that our “friend” in the government, who was supposedly on our side, is the one that took money from us that we didn’t need to pay.  Blake, the pastors and the man at immigration drove to his office, and through another set of conversations, the man at immigration said that if he didn’t return the money back to us he would take him to the courts.  We received BACK $500 that we were not required to pay. 

As the meetings were coming to a close, Blake was told that the director was going to give him a residency visa (3 years) and was asked to say something.  He said that he was very happy to have met him, thanked him for all of his help, and said my wife will be very happy that we can stay in Congo for 3 years.  The man said 3 years…I am giving you a 5-YEAR permanent residency visa and you will not have to pay anything extra for this visa!  Blake was also given a copy of the written book that shows all of the fees and taxes for any visa in Congo moving forward.  After continued conversation, Blake was able to show how difficult it is for a foreign person to arrive in Congo and stay long term when they are told a different fee every time.  Now, whether this man was just trying to say what Blake wanted to hear, or if he really is interested in trying to solve the problem we may never know.  But before Blake left, this immigration officer called in the security team to make notes on every event that took place regarding our “process” of receiving our visa.  And there you have it, our full story!

Blake and I currently have our temporary 3-month visa, waiting to apply for our free 5-year visa until we know when and where we will be lead next.  Who knows…maybe that is right here, in this crazy-where-anything-can-happen-but-you’ll-never-know-until-you-try country!