I went in to claim my permanent residency this week, and boy was it anticlimactic. I am feeling sort of too lazy to give a play-by-play (maybe I will later), but one of the more frustrating parts was when I was signing up to come in and collect my actual permit, and then the inspector handed me a packet of documents to be filled out for me to get registered (within a week). Say WHAT? If I'd known, I could have gotten a head-start. WHERE IS THE PRACTICALITY?
I guess I just thought I could keep my registration from my temporary residency. Of course I do realize I was registered for 3 years and the 3 years are coming to a close. But redoing it all just seems so symbolic and pointless that I have trouble working it out logically in my mind.
To put it in perspective a bit, I guess it's sort of like being required to have a permanent mailing address. It's called your place of residence, but it's sort of implied that you probably don't actually live there. Now, imagine you moved and didn't inform somebody or other of your new address, and then you got in big trouble. Or imagine you didn't have time to do it right then and put it off for a month or two. Not going to cut it here in Russia-foreigners have to be registered within 7 days. But since the address doesn't necessarily have to be a building you ever set foot in...I don't know, it just seems silly.
So I've been stressing somewhat about the usual combo of filling out incredibly annoying forms with too little space for the amount of text, and standing in lines miles long where fights are known to break out. I don't have to do it myself, though. Andrei usually helps, while Nina is with David and Vladimir does some research into the problem.
I'm plugging away at those forms (read: whining about them without really making any progress), and clinging to a sense of calm from the Lord's goodness. The last time I did this was SO anxiety-producing and detrimental to my physical and emotional and mental health. I even have trouble going back and reading about it, 3 years later.
In lieu of attending a church picnic, we stayed home today to unwind a bit. David slept until almost 10 a.m. and that was quite a gift.
I can't wait to have this next step over with. There are so many other things I want to focus on. I'm even starting to think about Christmas!
I guess I just thought I could keep my registration from my temporary residency. Of course I do realize I was registered for 3 years and the 3 years are coming to a close. But redoing it all just seems so symbolic and pointless that I have trouble working it out logically in my mind.
To put it in perspective a bit, I guess it's sort of like being required to have a permanent mailing address. It's called your place of residence, but it's sort of implied that you probably don't actually live there. Now, imagine you moved and didn't inform somebody or other of your new address, and then you got in big trouble. Or imagine you didn't have time to do it right then and put it off for a month or two. Not going to cut it here in Russia-foreigners have to be registered within 7 days. But since the address doesn't necessarily have to be a building you ever set foot in...I don't know, it just seems silly.
So I've been stressing somewhat about the usual combo of filling out incredibly annoying forms with too little space for the amount of text, and standing in lines miles long where fights are known to break out. I don't have to do it myself, though. Andrei usually helps, while Nina is with David and Vladimir does some research into the problem.
I'm plugging away at those forms (read: whining about them without really making any progress), and clinging to a sense of calm from the Lord's goodness. The last time I did this was SO anxiety-producing and detrimental to my physical and emotional and mental health. I even have trouble going back and reading about it, 3 years later.
In lieu of attending a church picnic, we stayed home today to unwind a bit. David slept until almost 10 a.m. and that was quite a gift.
I can't wait to have this next step over with. There are so many other things I want to focus on. I'm even starting to think about Christmas!
Oh, gosh... I'm wondering what is ON those forms? Now, for adoption they didn't actually ask questions, much - I mean, there was nothing to fill out per se (what there was seemed easy and reasonable), but the amount of OTHER forms you had to get was ridiculous...and all that aspostilling. Sheesh!
ReplyDeleteSo, what information are you actually giving them?
It's just writing my name and address and passport number over and over again but in a really specific format. By hand. Although I guess I could type it up but I usually have something to fill in later.
ReplyDelete