crossing our fingers...

So we've pulled out our (thick) file of immigration paperwork, and today we're submitting a variance request to INZ with the hope that they'll grant us two things:

1) Our current visas expire in August, and we're hoping that by submitting our police checks (which we hadn't received from the FBI when our current visas were being processed), they'll extend our visas for another two years, the maximum allowed under our Missionaries and Religious Workers visa. I'm thinking it might also help me with the job search to be able to prove my ability to work in the country for more than just the next six months. What's really cool is that when we attempted to photocopy our background checks for our files, the copy came out with "UNAUTHORIZED COPY" printed all over it in. That's some pretty sweet technology.
2) Bryan's also applying for the ability to work with a program called Wise Up, teaching social and behavioral skills to primary school kids. He would only be working 5 hours/wk at most, but the program is very much in need of male facilitators and it would give us a little extra income as well as more experience working with kids. His current visa prohibits him from working anywhere but the church, so we're crossing our fingers that they'll be lenient on this one, since it's only a few hours and it's kinda related to his field of study.

Wish us luck! We've been needing to get our act together on this for a while, so it will feel good to have all of our paperwork finally in and step into the part of the process that's out of our control :)

-Rachel