Today was a big day. We went with our teammates (Rodney and Teresa) to try and finish our application for our honduran residency. We had heard horror stories about long lines, not accepting your copies of the paperwork, and various other problems. We tried a new way to get to the immigration office and drove right to it. Pulled in the parking lot and it was full (parking can be quite an adventure in San Pedro Sula) - but someone pulled out of a spot right when we pulled in. This is going so well.
Went into the building and wound our way through the hallways to get to what we thought was the correct office. There was only a short line (we were expecting a very long line and had brought lots of snacks) so we thought maybe we are in the wrong place. Rodney went up to the side of the counter and asked if we were in the right place. The guy said yes and asked for our paperwork and begin working on our applications. This is really going well, we don't even need to wait in the short line. The guy even speaks a little English. This is really, really going well.
We have a folder full of info and documents that our lawyer told us we would need. We are ready. We even have extra copies and extra pictures just in case they are needed. The second document the guy asks for we don't have. It wasn't even on the list of items our lawyer said we would need. Oh no! This is not going well now.
The guy then proceeds to begin filling four copies of a form. Hum, there are four of us and he is filling out four of the same form. Maybe we haven't totally crashed yet. He hands us the forms, tells us to go pay the amount at the bank, and then come back. Wait, did he say come back. That means we are still moving forward.
We go to the bank, wait in line about 10 minutes, pay our fees (ok, the fees were about four times what our lawyer told us they would be - but having lived here for a year we have learned to always take more money than you expect to pay), and returned to the guy helping us.
He took more of our forms along with our pictures, they fingerprinted us, gave us our packet of information, and told us we just needed to bring the form from the General Baptist saying we are employed by them and we could finish the process. What? We've only been here about 45 minutes and we are this close to being done. This can't be.
We left, ate lunch on the way back to Faith Home, when we returned to Faith Home we generated the necessary form for each of us, and headed back to San Pedro Sula. Pulled in the parking lot to the immigration office and once again the lot was full - but as soon as we pulled in someone was pulling out. We parked, went inside, gave the guy the forms we brought, he printed off the form we needed, stamped it, and handed it to us. This was just too easy.
In 60 days or less we can come back and pick up our official residency card, but as of now we are official residents of Honduras. YEA! This process started January 2, 2008 in Chicago when we passed all of our original documents through a little hole in a window along with over $500 in cash only with a promise from the guy that he would mail our documents to us. No receipt - just a promise. He did send the documents and now, after twelve months and paying about $4500 we are legal residents of Honduras for five years. No more worrying about either having to leave the country or having our lawyer drive to the capital and pay money to renew our visa every 90 days. This is a big headache taken care of. We all four were celebrating on the way back to Faith Home.
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