Pre-Accrediting Visit from EEAA
Well after a year and a half the European Evangelical Accrediting Association (EEAA) has sent a team of three people from different theological schools to come and evaluate us at the Evangelical Academy (EVAK).
I have been the project manager for this and have put many hours into this as we are seeking to have three programs accredited.
Christy says I need to tell what this all means in a way that people’s eyes don’t glaze over when I try to explain what this actually is. Basically the accrediting association evaluates us to see if 1) we have clear goals and processes to achieve these goals and 2) if we are reaching these goals we have set.
In order to do this efficiently we have prepared about 300 pages of documentation on requested material and sent it to them last October and now three people are visiting for 2 1/2 days. In these days they are here they basically do interviews with everyone that is involved in the Academy. We have had meetings with faculty, office staff, the leadership team, board of trustees, church leaders in groups and then they have talked individually with some of us to see how things really work.
As I type the three that are visiting us are writing the report and will give us a presentation tomorrow morning at 10. I haven’t done a big project like this in years and it reminds me of a big school project only this means much more!
Just in their questions I have already identified some areas that I think we need to improve and in others I feel we have done a really. Now I guess I need to wait and see what they say tomorrow.
Visa Update
I wanted to do a better job of informing those who are keeping up with our visa saga before I get another call from my sister! 
Again for those readers who like the bottom line up front: We applied for a “first time” visa this morning and as far as we can tell we most likely made it into four of the 60 open slots.
For those who want some more details continue to read.
My day, Eric, started at 4:45am. The Visa office opens at 8 and we wanted to be there early because to make sure we were at the front of the line.
The first thing I did was look out the window to see if there was a lot of snow on the road to see if getting downtown would be difficult. I saw no snow and was relieved. Then I quick checked the thermometer knowing that we had a little over 2 hours of waiting in line outside before the doors opened. It was -2 Celcius which is 28 Degrees Fahrenheit and knew it could be much worse.
We had some Austrian friends agree to watch the girls while we went to apply. Fortunately, they are early risers and didn’t mind the early hours. We dropped off the girls and arrived in line around 5:55am.
When we got there there were about 10 others ahead of us in line. One had spend the night, another arrived at 2am another at 4am! Our stomachs tightened and our stress level rose when we saw others cutting in front and were informed by the person in front of us that some people were being represented by a lawyer and the the lawyers had multiple cases. The cases could “cut in” to be by the lawyer. We were wondering just how many people would be in front of us. When 8 o’clock arrived and went in we were 19 in line and made us feel much better knowing that even if the 19 in front of us had families we would be within the 60 available spots for a private visa that we need. We also knew that not everyone in line was applying for the same type of visa as we were.
Once we waited about a half an hour our number was called. After explaining to them our situation, the visa official agreed it was easiest to start over from scratch and reapply for the correct visa status. We had thought this would be the case and I had already prepared all of our documents with this in mind, so we turned them in and by 10:15 we were on our way.
They said that since our visas are in process, we do not need to leave the country even though our visa expires tomorrow. They provided us with a paper that says we are in process of obtaining our visa and we would only need to show this in case there is any question. We were so relived not having to think or plan a short trip out of the country this week.
We’ll just wait for a letter and we’ll see if we have to jump through more hoops for getting our visas again. We even had friendly visa officials, which is amazing since this is probably their craziest day of the year. One official I spoke with today says they will process about 1,000 applications today!
Okay probably more information that you had wanted but there it is. Thanks to those who have been praying for us. We did get close enough to the front of the line that I think we don’t have to worry about not being in the running for the 60 open spaces. Please continue to pray they will process our applications quickly and that we will be granted our visas.
Visa Update.
It has been a few days and I have been negligent to update on this very important matter. This was brought to my attention when my sister called for the scoop on Monday’s meeting.
For those who like the bottom line up front here it is. On Monday January 4th 2010 Christy and I will be applying for our (first time) visa. This means we are starting all over and need to receive a different type of visa for which there are only 60 places each year.
For those who are interested in the visit and a few clarifications continue reading.
Our good friends, the Perrys, had Kati and Elena sleep over so Christy and I could go to the visa office alone to talk with the government worker which was a big help.
Fortunately, we were one of the first ones in that day and the official was in a good mood, he actually smiled a few times. He informed us that there was nothing to do but reapply for a first time visa on January 4th.
Our current visa runs out on January 5th and told him we don’t want to be left out in the cold with no visa. He said that the best thing to do was talk with the first time visa office on Monday the 4th. We reiterated that we want to do the right things and are already settled here with an apartment, work and Kati in school and wanted to find a good solution to this predicament. He smiled and said there is always a solution.
So the adventure continues on Monday morning. Christy and I will be standing in line long before the visa office opens to, hopefully, ensure an early place in line for the few visa places for our particualr visa status we need.
Communication is always tricky in that the communicator thinks they are communicating clearly until someone gives feedback on what they understand. My sister asked a very good question about what does this mean for us…what if we don’t have all the documents by Monday….will we be kicked out of the country……
No we will not be kicked out of the country but it does put some added stress to our lives and jumping through hoops to provide all the necessary documentation, time in gathering the documents, waiting for appointments etc… It has been our experience that since there are only 60 spots each year we need to apply on the very first day the visa office is open so our application is one of the first to be processed in order to “secure” a position before the spots get filled up. On previous years we have had people apply on the 15th of January and all the spots have already been filled. This would mean that we would have tourist visas that would last only 3 months and would need to leave the EU in order to “renew” our status.
So we will keep you in the loop as things progress. Your continued prayers are appreciated, that we would be in the 60 that would receive visas this years, that they would process our applications quickly and that we (and the Austrian government) would find a good solution for our status in the country after Jan. 5th. Pray that they would provide something that we would not be on a tourist visa but a special visa that would cover us until we receive our perminant visa.
Visa Fiasco
I am glad things are going so well with the accreditation visit in January because it looks like I am having visa problems (no not the credit card).
Christy and I need to go in on Dec. 29th to talk it over but right now it looks as if we have lost our visa status and need to reapply on January 4th 2010.
Apparently some law changed in 2007 and the worker who processed our application said I had the wrong form (which I guess I did) and processed it with the correct form but checked the wrong choice for which type of visa we were to receive. Ignorantly we have been under this title since then.
This year I find the correct form and asked for a renewal but with the correct status. This is where it goes south. They have informed me that it is not a renewal but a reapplication. I will go in on the 29th with Christy and see if we can find a good solution to this. Our visa expires on January 5th 2010 and we don’t want to be without a visa. That would just cause a lot of problems.
If we have to reapply we will be waiting outside the Government office before 6am so we are one of the first to apply for the new year. There are only 60 spots open each year under the type of visa that we need! I had better start ordering all the paperwork from the states just in case it comes to that. Apostilleized Birth certificate, Police Record to show we have not committed any crimes, bank records, medical insurance……and the list goes on. It is thinks like this, and our former land lord, that make living overseas stressful.
If you remember to pray that this would be resolved so we can have a visa we would appreciate it!
