The Work Visa

I finally have my precious work visa, the means to stay and work in Rwanda. It has taken two months, numerous emails and faxes with the United States, four bus trips from Butare to Kigali, and four visits to the Rwandan Immigration office but on Monday, I got the visa.

The law is that one is to apply for a work visa within 15 days of arriving in the country. The application includes letters of appointment, terms and prove of employment, copies of transcripts, diplomas and certification of credentials, like ordination, a photo of the applicant and a police clearance from the country of nationality. Two days after I arrived, I went to the Immigration office with one of the staff of the Presbyterian Church (EPR) with whom I am working and got all the information of all that was needed. We began to assemble it. I had the transcripts and certificates with me but I didn’t have the police clearance. I got assistance from Pittsburgh Presbytery with that. It was faxed to PIASS when it was completed. EPR and PIASS gathered the letters of work certification. The HR director took all of this to Immigration to submit on the 15^th day of my arrival. He was told that everything had to be notarized to authenticate it. So we began the process of authenticating all the documents. Some were easier than others to do. I had official transcripts, so they needed to be taken to a notary, copied in his presence and the copies notarized. The same was true for all the letters and certificates. The problem became the police clearance. We learned that if I took it to the American Embassy in Kigali that could be done. So off I went to Kigali. But the Embassy has only certain times for such business and one must have an appointment for it. I didn’t. But the staff was helpful in getting me an appointment for early the next morning. The problem for me was that I was in Kigali then. That meant returning to Butare and making another trip to Kigali the next day. The appointment was for 8:30 a.m., so that I could get to Immigration with all the paper work before 11 a.m. I was grateful to the Embassy staff for their assistance. I just had to return to Butare and then leave again at 6 a.m. the next day to make all the connections, which I did.

At the Embassy, my anxiety was raised when the staff member working with me said that she had never seen a report like the one I had and it might not be accepted. If it were not, I could work through the Embassy to get a different kind of clearance report, but that would take more time (and more money, of course). She encouraged me to try with the one I had, but not to be  hopeful. So I paid for the notary services and went off to Immigration with a degree of fear that the process might not be enough. One of the staff from PIASS had accompanied me and he led me through the offices to pay the application fee (and a late fee for missing the 15 day deadline to apply) and then to make the formal application. The officer looked carefully at all the forms, took my passport and the forms and told me that I would be informed of the result of the application within a few days. I left not knowing if it were satisfactory or not. I could only wait to hear. Five days later I got a text message on my phone informing me that the permit had been granted and that I needed to come to Kigali to collect my passport between 1:30 and 3:30 the next day. That meant yet another carefully timed trip to Kigali. I also had to arrange the trip around my teaching schedule,

The Visa

On Monday of this week, I boarded a bus for Kigali at noon. By this time, I was familiar with the travel arrangements. Two hours later, I arrived at the Kigali bus depot and was met by the same helpful taxi driver who had escorted me to the Embassy and to Immigration before. He took me directly to the Immigration office, about a 10 minute drive from the bus depot. At the Visa desk, the officer told me to take a seat at the desk, no waiting. I signed a form and he handed me my passport, with the visa attached. The whole process took less than 5 minutes. Then it was back to the bus depot and back to Butare, 4 ½ hours of travel for a 5 minute transaction. But I had my work visa and it is good for 2 years before it has to be renewed. Praise God.