Immigration

Today we have come to an end of a long road with immigration Malawi. The road started back in August, when I gathered documents in Canada in regards to the application of the Temporary Employment Permit. By the end of October, we tried to set up an online account with the immigration department, as this was a new thing, and it was said to speed up the process. But all our efforts of a few weeks failed, as the website would not let us set up an account, and no one at immigration could help us. So at the end of November members of our team in Malawi went to immigration to apply. Every day they went and would again be told that they need one more paper and then it would be ok. After a few weeks of going to immigration every other day and giving more documents they finally said; “Ok, you have all the papers that you need, but… the applicant should just come here on a visitor visa and apply in person. That’s much easier.” Our thoughts were, “If the immigration department is telling us to do so, then we will listen.” On January 29 we hopped on the plane to visit Malawi. On January 31st we went to immigration headquarters to apply in person. The first question was “Oh, are you applying for yourself? That’s not according to the law, as you need to apply outside of the country before your arrival.” After explaining that his colleagues had advised us to do so, it was deemed fine. They accepted the application and we were told that it would be between one and two months until we would hear something. We waited for four weeks and went to see if it was approved. It was not yet, but it had gone through the first stages, and it was now in Lilongwe for final approval. So yesterday we went to check again, and yes!!! It was approved! We went to the office to pick it up. First you have to go to a cashier to pay the $1000 USD. The man in front of us at the cashier was paying for 2 permits in small banknotes. By the time we were helped we had waited for more than 45 minutes while the cashier counted the two packs full of cash. By this time however, the other desk had closed for the day, and we had to come back this morning to pick up the visa. This morning everything went very fast, and we now all have a visa in our passport to show that we have a Temporary Employment Permit. We are all very thankful for that.

Now we can start our work in earnest. We are thankful that the permit came in such a timely manner as this is extremely fast compared to normal. Especially after paying so many visits to immigration back in November, we have been amazed that since we came to Malawi, everything went as smooth as can be. God is faithful, also in these things.

We are moving this furniture out of the “cottage” on our property so that we can transition this building into our office.

Our vehicle is parked in front of the storage room that has all the supplies for the different projects.

A look in the storage room after our first trip to the store. We buy in bulk and divvy it up accordingly every month to the different projects.