Passport Renewals In Northern Ireland
Living and ministering here in Northern Ireland is never dull. Today, we took care of some routine paperwork. We renewed passports for Darci and Teri. Before September, we have to get our permanent residency visas moved to our new passports. But before we can get those visas moved, we had to get their passports renewed. Both will expire in the next few months.
For Darci, we had to drive up to Belfast (160 mile round trip) to the American Consulate General. There were quite a few documents required for her passport renewal. For Teri, we normally would just mail in her renewal form, but, because we were up there, we just handed it in. The Consulate is quite efficient with these renewals, so we hope to get the passports back in a few weeks.
This is the fifth time we have been up to the Consulate since we moved here, because we have had to go whenever each of our children was born and their passports need renewed every five years until after they are 16. It can be quite stressful at times, but I just wanted to give you a bit of insight into what missionaries around the world have to deal with. Thankfully, the US embassy is quite straightforward to deal with. I know that in other countries, the visa situation can be much more complicated and challenging.
Just got this comment from a missionary in France:
“That’s a good insight. It’s expensive, and a bit stressful. I’ve had to do the visa/residency 3 times in less than a year because there is the initial one, then my stuff was stolen so I had to get a new passport and residency, then the annual renewal. In France the residency is renewed annually until, somehow (and nobody seems to no how or when) they decide to let you go 3 years and, then maybe 10 years. It seems like I’m doing paper work every month. In fact, I’ve had to do something with almost every month for nearly a year in regard this this – and that’s just for me. My daughter and wife are another story. :)Then the drivers license – the bank account….LOL”
This give insight into the time, stress, and cost of these kind of things for missionaries.