Intránsito!

Not all mission life is roses and sunshine. However, it is the Lord’s work so things do tend to work out. Yeah!!

But, the fact is I took 6 missionaries to the Post Office for their Visa appointment on the 4th of July. Typically, 4 weeks after this appointment, the missionaries would receive their 1 year Visa, which looks like this-

Well, 8 weeks, 9 weeks and 10 weeks went by. The government website where I check the status of the Visa always indicated that the cards were intránsito – in transit – to the post office.

But 10 weeks is a long time to be on the back of a truck…. so I emailed our lawyer. She checked on another government website and found this:

Our lawyer told me not to worry, to be patient, and all the visas would soon be available for pickup at the post office. So, I waited….

On the 15 of September, the day that Costa Ricans celebrate their Independence Day holiday and all government offices are close, I got a phone call from the Post Office. Apparently, some very old records were found at the Post Office, and the worker asked me to send the missionaries to the Post Office to pick up their Visas!!

At first, I was so relieved!! We were actually going to get the Visas, and the $300 we paid for each one of them wasn’t all money down the drain!! So,…that was good.

And then, out of curiosity, I went to the government website that had showed the Visas intránsito for 10 weeks. As suspected, it had changed. It now read that all the Visas were ready for pick up and had been ready since July 14!

It’s not the language barrier that gets you in Immigration, but it is something!