And the visa saga continues...

Yes. At the end of our last post, I was so excited that we had finally received Solomiya's passport and could send off our visa applications. Well, the saga continues. I will the relay the events of the saga in bullet format (only because it's easier for me).

• Visa applications sent to Ukrainian Consulate in NYC.
• 5 days later Mike receives a phone call from the Consulate letting us know that our visas could NOT be approved.
• (I have a suspicion that they were not approved because we asked for 5 years and did NOT ask for an employment visa. They probably thought it was fishy that we would not want to work if we were going to live there for that long).
• Guy at Consulate tells Mike that we should get work visas (because short-term visas are not an option) if we want to stay in Ukraine for 5 years and proceeds to tell Mike how to go about this.
• We contact 'Hope & Life' in Ukraine in explain the situation. Volodya and Oksana begin investigating the possibility of "hiring" foreigners.
• We want a 2nd opinion about our visa situation so Annie contacts Ukrainian Consulate in San Francisco.
• Woman at Consulate says yes, we  can obtain these visas for 5 years. Man at Consulate says no, we cannot obtain these visas for 5 years. We decide to not get a 3rd opinion.
• We do some research on the Internet and get 1st hand advice from American friends currently living over in Eastern Europe. Apparently... Ukraine is issuing 1, 2, & 3 year short-term visas- even though this information is nowhere to be found on any Ukrainian Consulate website. Not a huge surprise...
• We play around with the idea of reapplying but asking for a short-term vs. long-term visa.
• We skype with Volodya and Oksana. They report on all of the investigating they have done and believe that it will be possible for us to get work visas. Only negative thing- the office in Uzhorod where they must complete the process tells them that things will be different in the new year (rules, regulations) and that it would be better to work on this in January.
• We decide to still leave for Ukraine in January (US citizens can legally be in Ukraine with no visa for 90 days out of every 180 days) and work on the visa stuff in country.
• We hear from 'Hope & Life' that it may be possible for us to get 5 year 'Religious' visas vs. work visas (this is good because the work visas are $800 a piece, oi).
• We wait for more news regarding this option...
• The end.

So, this is where we stand visa-wise. Regardless, we are planning on flying to Ukraine in January (a couple weeks later than originally planned) and working on visa-stuff from there. We believe that something good is going to come out of all of this. Like getting permanent resident status! Please do pray for favor in this visa situation.