And now we wait.

Our visa applications have officially been submitted, thanks to the tireless efforts of my husband despite a busy week of work and internship and my inability to be of assistance until I returned home around 5 pm, when most government offices were already closed. We've discovered that notary publics are not a very common thing in Christchurch, so while one bit of paperwork could be signed off on by a judge at the courthouse at no cost, another bit required Bryan to run around to law offices in search of a notary public who was immediately available, at a cost of $85. And that's on top of the fee that we already paid to process the actual form, a certified copy of our certificate of marriage, which will delay the processing of our visa applications until its arrival about 2 weeks from now. The costs aren't actually an issue, as we planned for this to be fairly pricey, but it's frustrating to feel such a constant lack of control over this process. We're also still waiting on our background checks, and are not sure what will happen if they don't arrive in time.

But the bottom line is that we have placed the bulk of our forms in INZ's hands, which relieves the stress that's been looming over us this last month, so we'll take the rest as it comes. This is still part of the adventure :)

-Rachel