It has arrived!

Indeed the day has come!  My passport is back in my hands and tucked inside is a magical stamp, also known as a visa, that will allow me to work legally in DR!  Hurrah!

Interestingly, I received a Student Visa (or Estudiante!).  The company's letter (I realized this later, as my Spanish reading skills are very poor and online translators are not always much help) made a point to state that my salary is strictly to cover the cost of living, so that is why they could give me the student visa.

So tomorrow, after lunch with Ola, I'm going to get my travel/medical insurance, and then scan the internet for awesome flight deals.  Today, there is one that is a bit cheaper than what I've seen for Monday, but it would also get me into Santo Domingo at midnight, which may not be that convenient.  We'll see what deals there are tomorrow.

Also excited because mom and dad decided to come up this weekend, which I'm glad for, since the last time they were here, we didn't really have a proper "I'm leaving for a year" goodbye.

I've also begun the official packing (previously I've just been doing pseudo packing, where I gather together all the stuff I want to take in the dining room - now it's actually being packed properly into the suitcases) and so far its going well!  Although I'm not happy that the American airlines charge for checked baggage - you don't even get one checked bag free!  It almost makes Air Canada seem enjoyable!  ALMOST.

Alright that is it for now.  I leave you with a picture of happy me with my passport/visa!

The visa, or lack thereof...

I'm still in the country, even though I had planned on leaving tomorrow.  The reason: the ominous visa!

In the beginning, I placed a call to the DR Embassy in Ottawa to find out what type of visa I needed (since no where does it really tell you what visa is for what).  They gave me a bit of info, such as that I needed to apply for a multiple-entry work visa.  Great I said, send me the form!

So she sent me the form and referred me to their website again for the other details:

1. Letter of application addressed to the Consul or the Minister of Foreign Relations (in case the person is already in the DR), signed by the applicant or legal representative. The letter of request can be issued by an individual or a company and should contain the following:

a) Name, nationality, place of residence, proof economic solvency and the profession of the interested party or the activity to which the applicant is or will be dedicated in the country. Check!

b) Relationship or parentage of the person that will be responsible for the applicant during his/her stay in the country, if this is the case. (This is not necessary if the person is applying by way of a consulate abroad.) Check!

c) If the person is applying individually, the letter should contain the person's proof of economic solvency, nationality and profession or primary activity. (This is not necessary if the person is applying by way of a consulate abroad.) Check!

d) If the person is employed or is to be employed by a company in the Dominican Republic, the application should be made on company stationary and signed by the highest-ranking officer of the company, indicating the position to be occupied by the applicant. The company needs to establish that it will be responsible for the applicant during his stay in the country. Check!

2. Form 509-Ref, typed or printed, accompanied with a Internal Revenue. Check!

3. Four front view 2 x 2 photographs. It's actually only two... money wasted...

4. One copy of the main page of the passport. Check - except they forgot to tell me that I needed to send them the original (even after I said to them, so you just need a copy right? Right.)

5. Certificate of Good Conduct: issued in the jurisdiction of origin. If the beneficiary has been more than three months in the country, it needs to be issued by the competent local judicial authority. Check!

Info Missing: 

• $150 fee.  (Which after I had sent the cheque, they clarified that it was actually supposed to be a $150 USD Money Order.  Information that would have been useful to mention rather than just telling me a $150 fee...) 
• Copy of Birth Certificate

And then, just before I was to send my passport and the $150 USD Money Order, I got a call from my contact at the Embassy, who now informs me that I can't get the visa unless a) the company gains permission from the Ministry of Labour to hire a foreigner or b) they state that they aren't going to pay me, and then just pay me under the table and I'll go down as a student.

Well, b) sounds slightly illegal, and I'm not willing to risk that, and a) sounds great, albeit time consuming.  So another email sent to my AIESEC contact to get the permission for option a).  Company replies saying they've never had to do that, and that they're going to get some other documents from the External Relations Department instead.  Hmm.  Okay.  So I still haven't seen these documents and I haven't heard back from the Embassy about whether or not this is okay.  I'm so confused and frustrated.

When I told one of the previous interns about all of this he just said: welcome to the DR. 


Great.

And that is the story of why I am still in Canada.  Not that I'm complaining... I've been enjoying the whole not working thing and the whole watching the Olympics thing.  

All of my running around is finished (okay, with slight exceptions... like finding somewhere to fix my watch - another story for another day) and I'm all vaccinated and malaria pill'd.  Still some packing to go and a lot of cleaning and packing of my room to go. 


On another note: today was awesome for Canada in the Olympics!  I'm super proud!  I also ordered a rather large Canadian Flag today to take with me...

My soon to be roommate may think I'm crazy...

So I have decided to live with two other interns, Pavol (from Slovakia) and Andrew (from Kenya, I believe), while in the DR.  I've been emailing with Pavol everyday now and have been pestering him with all sorts of random questions.  Most of you reading this know me, and know that I am a details person.  Questions poor Pavol has had to deal with include:

How many hangers are in the closet? 
What size is the bed? 
Could I have the dimensions of the windows? 
Do you get a lot of bugs in the house?

Today he replied to my sequence of random questions with: "you are being really detailed im curious how you are live haha."

That can't be good.

Also, still don't have a visa.  Don't even know if I've been approved...

And tomorrow is immunization day!  I'm sure it will be a lot of fun to receive multiple needles in one day...

For those of you interested, here are some pictures that Pavol has sent to me of my soon to be new home.