questura debacle

Who knew being legal could be so difficult?

Let me tell you a little bit about our two fun days registering at the police station. First a little background information. We arrived in Italy as tourists, but in order to get a 90 day tourist visa to legally stay in the country, we had to register with the police within eight business days. Sounds simple right? Not so fast. We are one of the first STINT teams in Rome to do this, so we had very little information to do this. Thankfully there is a Campus Crusade for Christ staff couple here that gave us advice along the way. So here goes…
We first rounded up all the documents and such that we needed (copies of passport, passport photos, $19 stamp called marca di bollo, letter of invitation, copy of credit card, copy of insurance card, ect.). The US Embassy told us that we could register at any local police station and that it is a long process so get there early, so we did. The next day we got up at 6:00 AM and headed to the police station which opened at 8:30 AM. We got a number and sat in line waiting our turn. At 10:30 AM it was our turn, so we went in to get our paper work processed only to find out that you cannot register at anypolice station, but rather you had to go register at this police station way out in the “sticks” outside the city.
We were told that the place opens at 3:00 PM so we decided to go ahead and get it over with and headed out. We took the metro to the very last stop way outside the city and then took a bus even further out. After a bit of walking around and searching, a sigh of relieve, “oh good, we found it.” Not too bad eh? Just wait a few more hours in line, oh wait, no line, just a bunch of people herding around the gate like sheep waiting to go out to pasture. People were literally crowding around the gate waiting to get in, so not wanting to be last, we decided to join in the mob of eastern Europeans wanting visas. About an hour and a half later they opened the gates and the stampede began as men, women, young and old began sprinting to the front, kinda like the day after Thanksgiving real early in the morning when every wants to get the early bird specials. We eventually got to the front of the line with all of our papers and stuff. Hurray!! Let the doxology begin! Not so fast my friend. Once again our hopes were let down as we got to the front of the line only to find out that they were only answering questions and not processing paperwork. A huge letdown. So nine hours after we arrived at the first police station we decided to throw in the towel and pick it up again the next day.
Day two of our adventure started off like a bad case of déjà vu, getting up early and heading to the police station, only this time we knew to which police station we needed to go. Hopping on the metro (figuratively, not literally) and taking it to Rebibbia, the very last stop, and then taking a bus even further out of the city, and waiting in line like sheep going out to pasture, and fighting to the front of the line (once again figuratively, not literally) we finally got to where we needed to be at the time we needed to be there. Praise the Lord! We got our numbers and began to wait in line. This time it took about an hour and a half to wait and then another couple of hours for them to process the paper work. So three police stations, a couple of early mornings and 14 hours later we got our 90 day tourist visas. Lets pray that we don’t have to go through that process again, but if we do, at least we know the logistics and it will be a simpler process. We are praying that Campus Crusade for Christ staff members will be able to work out a way for us to get a longer visa without having to go through that same process.

The Lord is good and got us through the process and praise Him for His faithfulness.
Please pray with us that God would continue to provide for all of our needs. I am convinced that He will and He wants to, we just need to ask him.