Upon arriving at the embassy I learned that by their understanding, our visa was still valid and we should be able to enter Ukraine. This is the same information that we heard from the Ukrainian embassy in DC and would later hear from the one in San Francisco. Basically according to the Ukrainian foreign service, we are authorized to enter the country and stay until our visa expires at the end of October.
Here is where the problems lie....
The department who has been telling us all along that we barred from entry is passport control/immigration. Today we learned that they are independent and have no obligation to admit someone even if they have a valid visa. It is completely within their jurisdiction and Tanya talked to the highest person in that department. He told her that he made the call to ban us for the rest of the year and that we had no recourse to argue this decision. Of course that isn't true; there are always people who can compel him to reverse the decision but unfortunately we do not know these people.
Tanya will continue to attempt to persuade him to allow us in until Tuesday when we will have to bite the bullet and get flights back to Colorado where we can start the process of preparing to return in 2009.
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If you can't get back in, what happens to the Hope Center? Who runs it and what will they need to make that happen?
ReplyDeleteWow, yeah, it sounds like it's going to take convincing el captitan to change his mind...or if he was just sticking up for the decision made by someone under him, he's the guy that change things.
ReplyDeleteI say you send him a lot of vodka and then have Tanya call him a few hours after it's delivered. :)
Good grief! What a pain. I have decided that working with governments is really an exercise in futility. Thankfully the Lord is above the government. I will keep praying.
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