Dossier is on its way!!!

I just got fantastic news from my agency -- our dossier has been released from the consulate in DC and is on its way to Kazakhstan! Now it still has to be approved by two more ministries before we get our "LOI" (Letter of Invitation) to travel, but at least we finally have some progress.

This time around, it took way longer to assemble our dossier, then it took four months from the time we submitted our dossier till the time it was released from the consulate. When we did this in 2003, we were travelling four months after submitting our dossier. I'm still holding out hope that we can do the first leg of our travel this summer. Everyone keep fingers and toes crossed, rub that rabbit's foot, send up prayers, send out positive energy, whatever you think will work!

Dossier finally at the consulate!

My dossier has finally, at loooong last, been submitted to the consulate! Everyone please send up a prayer that the consulate workers will think this is the best dossier they've ever seen and process it with lightning speed (think Ralph's daydream of his teacher's reaction [in A Christmas Story], upon reading his "theme" about what he wants for Christmas).

Worried anew ...

Now that my dossier is at the consulate or almost there, I'm hearing rumblings that they are rejecting dossiers. Here's what someone wrote:

Our dossier was rejected last week as well. My agency said all of the dossiers they tried to submit, as well as all of those of 5 other agencies she had spoken with, were rejected. Obviously, as you mentioned, it is a much bigger issue than actual wordings, etc. in these dossiers. Hopefully they can get things straightened out in these meetings, but I worry by the time it's all straightened out, we may have to re-do a lot of our dossiers either due to new requirements or our documents now being outdated since so much time has passed. Hang in there everyone!

English lessons

Borya and friend (Zaira) engaged in their English lessons through the church.

Feeling "posimistic"

Yesterday I got back all my documents I had sent for apostille, and sent them right out to join the others in my dossier, which will now be ready to go to the consulate. Since, from what I understand, the suspension has now been lifted, it looks more likely that my dossier will be processed and sent on its way overseas. In the same mail delivery, I also got a bundle of letters from Borya, with photos! Of course, I'll have to ask our Russian-speaking friend to translate them for us before I will know what Borya wrote to me, but it was so nice to see his handwriting, and the pictures of him.

On the downside, I still haven't received the one letter I'm waiting for from the Dept of Public Welfare, but I have been promised I will receive it soon. Once I get that, and get it notarized/apostilled, that will be the last of the documents. Things are finally beginning to look up!