Visa: It's Everywhere You Want to be.

Sorry we haven’t posted in a little while. We’re kind of holding our breath now for a volunteer organization to give us a contract so that we will have all the necessary paperwork to remain in the country for at least a few months. We have been volunteering at a couple different places at this point. The first place is F.A.S.T.: this stands for something in Romanian, but basically they work with a large Roma (gypsy) population outside of the city.

These guys said that they couldn’t sign a contract with us because they are going through some organizational changes and don’t know if they can accommodate volunteers. This was very disappointing because we feel that they are a good organization and would have enjoyed working more with them.

So we started to volunteer at the bear rescue/sanctuary just outside of Brasov. When we talked with one of the coordinators, she said that they wouldn’t mind doing a contract and they do this sort of things with foreigners all the time. We like this organization as well and the people who work there. Most of the work is centered around feeding the 50+ bears they have there since they are big animals and they eat a lot. Hopefully in time we can get more involved with the organizational aspect because it seems like this is the area that they need the most help. When you click on the bear picture, you can see the bear sanctuary website - it's translated into English using Google translate, so the meaning can get lost in translation so to speak...

The way it looks right now, we have a best-case, and worst-case scenario, and even worst-case is not all that bad.

Best-case: We get the volunteer contract and subsequently the visa and we volunteer at the bear sanctuary. During this time we find work either legally with a company that can hire us in Romania or we find a job(s) online and continue working with the bear place on a volunteer basis.

Worst-case: We don’t get a visa and have to leave the country for a couple months. In this case we would probably go to Moldova and volunteer somewhere that can provide housing and food since we don’t have money coming out of our ears. We come back to Romania in late July and still are able to have our party in August. We will then have another 90 days to get a visa and this time we will be more prepared.

I know that just by looking at our blog it seems like we have just been sitting around and being tourists. This is not the case. Most of our time was spent in vain going through interviews and waiting for a response from one of many people who made it seem like it would be a sure-fire thing to be able to hire us until the Romanian Bureaucracy swiftly cut our hopes short. If it happens that we have to leave the country we will be more familiar with everything that’s available and also what they will need to do for us when we come back in July.

But please cross your fingers that we get the visa this time around. We don’t want to have to look for another apartment in July. We like this one and we don’t want to have to go back to Moldova until it’s time for setting up a party. Parties are better than being homeless in Eastern Europe.

Amidst all of this waiting, we made two more trips back to the friendly folks at the immigration office. Technically, our deadline for turning in all of our documents is April 7th – that would be this coming Wednesday – and understandably, we began to feel stressed out when we realized that we had just one week to gather everything up signed and stamped. So in the beginning of last week we visited the immigration office to get more information specifically about the volunteer contract and what should happen if we don’t have everything in on time.

Since Robert already took his turn talking to the immigration official, it was my turn. Friendly would not be the word I’d use to describe the official, however, he was civil. He referred me to section 195/2001 of the law which pertains to volunteering and said I could just search for it on the internet and get any details I need there. I proceeded to ask him the rest of my questions anyway, even though I’m pretty sure he was hoping to get rid of me with his first suggestion. I found out the following: there is no minimum number of volunteer hours needed, you can get a volunteer visa for a maximum of one year, and as long as you turn in your first document (among many) by the 60-day mark then you are not past the deadline. This was helpful.

We decided to try to collect as many of the documents as we could without the volunteer contract so we would be entirely prepared. Off we went to the doctor’s office to get a clean bill of health! Fearing this could take longer than a couple days with blood tests, etc, we wanted to get this out of the way first. Our friends helped us find a doctor with open appointment hours, and after waiting about fifteen minutes in an empty waiting room, we were invited into the doctor’s office. We handed her our passports, she asked “Are you healthy? Do you have any diseases or mental problems?,” we both answered “yes” and “no” respectively, she took our blood pressure, she signed and stamped our medical clearances and we were done! Who knew it could be so easy?

After she took my blood pressure she said that it was a little high. She said this was normal since I was a little fat. I suggested that it was because I drank a lot of coffee before I went to see her.

Next was our medical insurance. Our timing was off because we arrived at the state medical insurance office outside of “public hours.” This means the civil servants working there are far too busy chatting amongst themselves to be bothered with matters of serving the public. They were kind enough to provide us some information for our return trip, though. We were informed that in order to receive health insurance, one must first have a “CNP” which is a Romanian identity number. We could obtain one of these numbers by going to the police station (incidentally, the same location as the immigration office) and inquiring there.

Back to the police station we went! Upon explaining our situation to the front desk attendant at the police station, we were directed around the building back to the immigration office. And so we found ourselves in front of the immigration officer once again. It was a different man than I had spoken to a couple days earlier and although he was equally as civil as the first, he turned out to be much more helpful.

First, we asked him about the CNP number. He asked us if we already had a visa and proceeded to explain how the various types of visa will determine what we need to do for our medical insurance. We told him we would be volunteering. He then explained that there are many different types of volunteering (religious, humanitarian, etc) and that, too, would change our insurance requirements. Why this was not written on the “informative” website, I don’t know. We went on to ask him about the various tariffs that had to be paid for visa applications. He began to explain, “The tariff is 120 euro. You must pay this to the Takramama (or something like that).”

Us: So you can’t just bring cash and pay it here?
Immigration Officer: No. You must pay it to the Takramama and then bring us the receipt. But you must pay the Takramama in Romanian currency, not euro. You must take out euro, have it exchanged into Romanian currency and then pay the Takramama and then give us the receipts.
Us: Ummm…so let me make sure I understand this. I start with lei, then change it to euro – 120 to be exact. Then I take the 120 euro and change it back to lei, and save my receipt. Then I take the lei and pay it to a specific location (the Takramama) and save that receipt as well and give it to you along with the euro-to-lei exchange receipt…?
Immigration Officer: Yes.
Us: (Pause.) ***quizzical look***
Immigration Officer: I don’t know why this is.

Perhaps when said this aloud it sounded equally as ridiculous to him as it did to us.

Us: And what about the 230 lei that this sign here talks about? (*Note: This fee was mentioned nowhere online or anywhere else besides on a printed out sheet of paper taped on the Immigration Office door.)
Officer: That must be in lei and deposited at the CEC Bank into the account number printed on the sign.
Us: And then bring you the receipt…?
Officer: Yes. But the price varies depending on what kind of visa you get. So does the 120 euro tariff. Just bring me your volunteer contract when it is signed and I will tell you what to do after I see it.

And so out of all of that (and there was more…), we found out that…
1) the 60-day deadline is somewhat flexible (“Three or four days is ok. Just don’t let it be 24.”),
2) the visa might not cost us as much as we thought, and
3) we might have to visit the doctor again since her note apparently must read word-for-word that we do not pose a danger to Romanian society (the officer kindly wrote out what it needed to say on a sticky note for us).

Oh, and as of Thursday, everything is closed until Tuesday due to the Easter holidays. Who needs Easter egg hunts when you’ve got Visa scavenger hunts instead??