The Visa Paperwork Mill

We were advised to give ourselves enough time to get our residency visas and carnets (national ID card) before our 6-month tourist visa expired in July. The carnet is kind of like a green card; we'll be legal to work in Peru as missionaries, or what the government calls "religiosos no-catolicos". But the process is a bit convoluted involving several phases. First we flew to Lima May 6-8 to visit the office of Interpol so they could get fingerprints and check our criminal background. We had to visit 3 different banks with cash payments to different agencies. We were thankful when Interpol quickly processed our papers in 2 days, BUT when we took our completed papers to the immigrations office in downtown Lima we were informed we would have to leave Peru and go to Arica, Chile to get our visa stamped "residency visa" before we could proceed any further. Evidently, the laws were recently changed back to the old system. So we returned to Arequipa and made plans to go to Chile, a 6-hour bus ride to Tacna plus a 1 hour taxicab across the border.

This was a complicated bureaucratic process and

we couldn't have done it without the help of Maribel

who works in the diocesan office in Lima.

You need the help of a native speaker to negotiate the paperwork.

Sandy and Maribel near the US embassy.

She was a saint in helping us through the maze.

While we waited for Interpol to process our papers, we had lunch with two other new SAMS missionary couples who will be working in Lima. Pictured above are: Ian Montgomery, Shaw, Lydia, and Julie Mudge, Gloria, and Polly Montgomery. Ian will be working with clergy development and Shaw will be teaching in the seminary in Lima. It was great to meet them for the first time. We hope our bureaucratic wanderings will simplify their journeys in the months ahead.

While in Lima, we had a chance to visit the Inca Market
which has a huge collection of handcrafted goods.

On May 24, we took off by bus for the Chilean border.

The flag of Chile near Arica.
While in Arica, we met David Hucker who is a SAMS missionary
and church planter from Australia and Great Britain.



The countryside of southern Peru is mountainous desert
with some green in the valleys.

It reminded us a lot of parts of Arizona,
a lot of desert with irrigation from mountain runoffs.

Sunset near La Joya on our way home.
We again go to Lima June 20-22 to finalize our paperwork for our carnet.Bureaucratic procedures are seldom simple in South America.