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February 7, 2010 - Update
Hamjambo,
I returned last night from a great trip to the western
provinces to visit some of our graduates. I'll write more about that
later. First let me update the work permit situation.
Last
Wednesday I was trying to get to Nyayo House in Nairobi, where
immigrations is located, to meet a new missionary, Chris Moore. Traffic
was the worst I'd ever seen getting in to town. It took me nearly two
hours from Jonathan's school, normally a 20 minute drive with no jams.
Chris's work permit had already been approved, but he was being held
up because the person he was told to see told him he had to have a
letter of approval that immigrations had sent. The letter was supposedly
sent to my box since I'm the current chairman of our mission. I have not
yet received that letter. She had a copy on her computer but insisted he
produce the original hard copy.
At the same time Jim Horne, a
missionary in Mombasa, arrived to work on his work permit, which has
been held up for 18 months. Jim used to be under our BBF umbrella, but
his mission finally got its own registration so he's been trying to get
a new work permit under their auspices, but it's been held up all these
months.
About the same time, George, the third level immigration
officer that Jerry Daniels knows, showed up and offered to help. He went
in to the woman who was giving Chris a hard time and told her to print a
copy of his letter so he could proceed. First problem solved. (We've
never needed that letter before.)
The next problem for Chris was
they wanted him to pay a 100,000 shillings bond ($1300) to be in the
country. We don't have to pay that because our mission has an agreement
with the government called the General Security Covenant, but that was
not shown on his application so they wanted him to pay.
I finally
arrived and as we sat strategizing about what to do Jim Horne had an
idea. He already has been dealing with the Chief Immigrations Officer,
Mrs. Nyangoro, the number one person, since his mission got its
registration, so he took us in and introduced us. Since I was there to
work on my work permit, I had my copy in hand showing the GSC
designation on it. We showed it to Mrs. Nyangoro and she called someone
in and had them fix Chris's application, so he was all set, and when he
paid his fee he was done.
Jim also talked with her about his
situation. His work permit had finally been approved, but he had to pay
the bond since his mission doesn't have the GSC. That normally takes a
week to clear the bank so immigrations could issue his permit, but she
called in someone else and told them to wave the waiting period and as
soon as he paid he was done so he could go home to Mombasa and not have
to come back.
So then she asked about my problem and I explained
to her that my work permit has been held up for 23 months, that I
reapplied in September and it still isn't finished. She asked me who I
had been dealing with. They were actually in an office right next door,
so she called in Netta and asked her first what was going on.
When Netta came in the door and saw me her eyes got large and she
literally started shaking. She looked like she was scared to death. When
Nyangoro questioned her she said that Nyago was handling it now, so the
Chief sent her to get Nyago. When he came in he also greeted me and
tried to act like we were old buddies. Nyangoro asked him what was the
hold up and he told her my file was all right, but that there were
"internal problems." She told Nyago to fix the internal problems so I
could get my work permit and he left.
Then Nyangoro told me to
come back today and she would extend our visas which expired yesterday.
Traffic wasn't quite as bad today, but it still took me an hour and a
half to get to immigrations from Jonathan's school. I got in to see her
quickly and she extended our visas for two months and told me to come
back in two weeks to check on my permit. She said that the file was lost
due to a mistaken number and they would find it.
The problem is,
that's not true. My work permit number is 828049. That was the number on
the original receipt from April 2008. When I reapplied last September,
the person that filled it out put a little tick on the "o" so it looked
sort of like a six. That one got lost, but when I came to check on it
and corrected the six to a zero it was found. When I was there in
December and saw Nyago, he had my file and showed it to me saying that
the hold up was a signature from his boss. So my file is not lost.
Neither does that explain the 18 months previous that the file was held
up.
The attorney we retained to look into it checked with her
contact who said the file was found and would be voted on in the
committee on Wednesday, January 27. After that she was unable to get in
to see her contact. The reason was my file was not before the committee
to be voted on. It was still on Nyago's desk. That also explains why
Netta was so scared when she saw me. I think they are all part of a
conspiracy holding up my work permit looking for a bribe.
Hopefully now we're on the road to getting this corrected, but we still
need you to pray about it. This is so messed up.
Lance Patterson |
