Sunday, March 18, 2007

Still Waiting... Some More

We're REALLY frustrated now...

It has been a week and a half since our agent said she would be sending our documents, but we have not received send/receipt confirmation... That means we still don't have any idea about when we will be traveling.

I guess all we can say at the present time is: We'll keep you posted.

UPDATE: We received an e-mail from our Coordinator Friday the 23rd indicating that he has received our paperwork (FINALLY!).

Tuesday, March 6, 2007

Still Waiting....

Well, it's now March 2007 and we've made little headway. Our application STILL has not gone to the consulate.

We ran into another "problem" in February when the translator noticed that the medical form provided by our agency did not contain all of the information required by Kazakhstan. Fortunately, the translator notified us when she did not receive a response from our agency and we actually had resolved the problem by the day we were finally notified by our agency.

At this point, we have withdrawn our appilcation from the agency and are now working with the country coordinator who has picked up the ball. Essentially, we have fired our agency. I won't mention any names here, but recommend you contact us for referral information before using a Memphis agency.

We are very fortunate that our country coordinator has picked up the ball. Otherwise, we would have lost 1-2 months while switching agencies.

Words to the wise:
1) In addition to checking the BBB registry, ensure that your agency is fully staffed and that they keep the published office hours.
2) Whenever possible, use the forms posted on the Kazakh Embassy web site unless otherwise specified.