Today In Sports

[Disclaimer. I don't know the facts or who did what or who's going to pay for what. But here is what the everychanging, hence sports match, situation looks like as far as I know at the moment, or how I remember things at the moment. So any misplaced blame is not intentional, just a result of the current Fog of Bureaucracy)


Welcome to today's match in bureaucracy football, and boy, fans, can I tell you it's going to be a good one.

On this side of the Atlantic (and Europe, and the Ural Mountains), we have the Kazakhstan geolocals. We have ...

wearing red white and blue, the US Embassy, who will be playing the position of "visa issuer" for Kazakhstani citizen Marie Aigerim Den Hartog so she can get on a plane and enter America and be a US citizen.

wearing the adoption agency Reaching Out's colors of I don't know what, junior coordinator Lola, playing the role of blocker and guide

Also on this side of the world, the major domo facilitator coordinator, Larisa, the quarterback.

Carrying the baby, wearing the same clothes she's worn for three days, Mom and US Citizen and running back, Bobi.

And now a big welcome for the OtherSideOfTheWorld team,

12 time zones away, let's give a big cheer for

the Albuquerque BCIS (INS) suboffice, in red white and blue but a different uniform than the state department;

Chris, the on-the-ball coordinator for Reaching Out, who has put up with hotel fusses and has had spot on information through out this process. The de facto Quarterback.

Then there's Don from Reaching Out. He supervises.

OK today's rugby ball, also known as Aigerim and her US entry visa, began its journey in January of 2005 with the standard submission of an I600A petition to classify an orphan as an immediate relative, advance processing.

Skip the rest of the tedious epic.

The permission form to issue my adopted child a visa is the I171H. It was issued last November from ABQ BCIS. Due to some delay of game penalties (all penalties are assessed to me no matter what team incurs them), the fifteen month lifetime of the background check, aka fingerprint clearance, had already ticked down alot. So it expired Oct 6 2006, after my first
trip to Kaz but before I would have the baby's visa done.

So in August, before the first trip, I went to ABQ BCIS and got an appointment and got refingerprinted on August 10. Sweet.

August 25, the week Mitch and I left to Kaz, Chris and Larisa checked and the reapproved clearance hadn't been telexed to the US Embassy in Almaty yet. I made the info pass appointment, drove to ABQ, and the adoption officer said, yes it had. That night, Chris checked again, with the team on the Kaz side of the world, who said no it hadn't.

What Ever.

First trip passes, Aigerim is awesome, time passes, Chris gets the Blessed Email that says, from the US Embassy in Almaty, yes the clearance has been reapproved.

Someone, possibly uber-quarterback Larisa, set the marching dates to Oct 18-20. During Don's traditional travel powwow, my inner coalmine canary says to him, that doesn't leave much slack before a weekend if something goes wrong. He agrees but says that's what he's been told it takes.

Last night, 5pm, Lola phones me here in the hotel. For those of you wanting to send me Christmas cards, Mitch has found the address and will soon have the phone number from me. I am prescienting the story, see, it's a good storytelling technique, foreshadowing I guess. Here's another bit of foreshadowing: there is hotel laundry in our future.

She says my fingerprint clearance has not arrived and I need to phone the embassy here and fix it.

What?

I try the phone number, am flustered, get several different people, but I keep getting the same wrong number, some goodnatured Russian bear. The third time, I just flat out ask "US Embassy?"

He says, at 5:15 at night, "Good Morning."
I'll bite.
I say, "Good Morning."
He says, "Good Morning. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten" and hangs up.

That was one of the best natured people I've ever bothered with a wrong number. God bless him for giving me some relief.

The phone rings, it is the front desk, the message for me is the nontransposed number for the adoption officer at the Embassy, and when I phone it the Embassy is closed for the day.

I phone and leave messages for Chris and Don and then email all with what I know.

Dear Chris phones Lola, gets the story, phones me back, emails the copy of the email in which the Embassy confirms receiving the clearance, is sure that yes the last name did get filed differently and that when I call in the morning or show them the email they will find that one was sent.

Ahhhh.



The coal mine canary, who doesn't belong in this unfleshed out analogy of a rugby match, is not sure. Its eyes are apprensive and dark with fear. It sits quietly and waits out the night.

8:40, the most clueless person of all in this arrangement (that would be me) tries to make headway and phones Asyla at the US Embassy.

She is kind, she is clear, she is gentle.
They DID get the reapproval clearance transmission.
The NEW expiration date is October 2005.
They can't use the transmitted clearance.
ABQ BCIS needs to send a new, accurate one.

And she says I need to reschedule my flights.

It is 8:40 pm on thursday night in ABQ. By the time I can reach anyone at work in ABQ, it will be 8:40 pm friday night in ALA, too late to make any progress on the business here before the weekend.

The coal mine canary no longer is squawking in distress, hoping for action that will save it. It is at peace because it has just plain fallen over dead. We are no longer suspecting a bad situation, we are clearly in one.

So there have been phone messages and emails. I was distraught last night, at how things have not worked out and how I am somehow in the magical center of blame. You should have called the INS and told them to send a new transmission.

So if one of you has the literary desire, and do not care to write about General Arresting Gear(a bullet proof vest and some dockers?), here are the reversals and handoffs that would make a very exciting football game.

Chris/etal ask the US Embassy if clearance received
US Embassy says yes.
Running back is sent to go get baby/football. Catches ball.
Blocker says, can't go forward. Embassy does not have your clearance.
Running back tries to reach Embassy, embassy closed for the night.
Running back calls US blocker, who says I have confirmation that yes the Embassy says they received your clearance. Working day in America passes.
Working day begins in Almaty. Running back reaches US Embassy. US Embassy has gone long for the pass of the visa paperwork, told the quarterback throwing the ball that they are ready to receive it, and then refuses to catch it. Why? Because sometime between the time they told the quarterback they were ready to receive it , and the time it arrived to them, they rechecked the paperwork and it wasn't right and somehow this information failed to reach any quarterback.
Pitiful little (poor pitiful me, hardly) running back, arrives out of breath, expecting to pick up visa. US Embassy enjoys the scenery.

Running back has baby but no visa. Because we need something from the US side, today's working day in Almaty is shot. Which means the next working day in Almaty, should everything get straightened out in the US today (place yer bets) is Monday.

Thank goodness the sun came out. Outside, I mean, you know, the kind in the air.
Nugget has been a trooper and Mom has actually somewhat adjusted from her "Nag Bobi to do something" strategy when Bobi is a situation where she's done everything she's knows to do. I've tried to follow instructions and communicate. When I told Mom that I had already just done what I knew to do, and instead could use support and empathy and rapport, she grew silent for a long time, lips pursed, eyes concentrating. She came out with "Unbelievable".

And "Digusting".

God, I love you Mom.

The soonest we will be home in Tuesday night. I hope my employer isn't reading this.

We will be touring in Almaty today. We'll wave from Kok Tobe. I am going to do some consolation shopping. Like for shirts.

Thanks for your comments and support and I hope to have better, or at least more accurate, news for you sometime.

Love ya
Bobi

PS Aigerim is a grinning awesome little hero. I will post about her separately. She deserves to be more than footnote to a paperwork trip through the looking glass.