Residency process (with update at the end)

I realised that I should probably clarify the process of getting residency here, so anyone who isn't as familiar with it as we are won't be confused. Foreigners who want to live in Ukraine have to gather a bunch of documents, depending on their reason for being here. Then they apply in another country for a D visa and come into Ukraine on that. It gives 90 days to apply for residency. Applying here means gathering another stack of papers, buying more insurance, and so on. We turn all that in, then wait about another two weeks to get the lovely "posvidka" (residency card). Once we have that, we have a month to register at an address, which is always complicated since we rent. Then we breathe a big sigh of relief. And we start over again a little less than a year later. If we can get the timing right, then at least we don't have to leave the country and do new visas; we can usually just renew here now. But all the other steps have to be repeated every year.

So the whole process is

• Collect documents
• D visa
• Collect documents
• Posvidka (residence card)
• Registration
• Sigh of relief

Jaan and Will got Jaan's D visa in Turkey and came back on August 1. Since then we've been collecting the next set of paperwork and trying to turn it in. We're still working on that; I'd really like to have it done before school starts on September 1.

Thanks for all your prayers!

UPDATE: It's all turned in.  Jaan got photographed and fingerprinted this morning, but they found a mistake in his passport translation, so Will and Bogdan went to the notary, then Will and I went back to the notary, and then we went back to turn in the fixed translation, and that's that for now.