On applying for residency permission

For the last several years we have been required to apply twice a year to the Mongolian immigration office for permission to reside in Mongolia. While the process is not terribly complicated it always involves hiring someone with more time than I have to visit various government offices over the course of two weeks and demands that I spend some hours filling out paperwork. Usually, the registration process also entails a day-long, personal visit to the immigration office. Sometimes the officials at immigration act as if they will not continue to grant me permission to stay in Mongolia. Other times, the officials seem almost eager to issue me a renewal of my residency permission. For some years now, I pray all year for my residency permission to be granted when the time comes to re-apply.

This past occasion when I applied for residency permission, I had a new assistant with me. Initially, I had a lawyer who legally established my company and obtained residency permission for us. He died several years ago. Then for a few years, some fellow missionaries, who had a legal assistant, were kind enough to share his services with me. This past year, my company hired an accountant with experience dealing with the immigration office. Bolormaa (pronounced Ball•or•mah') worked in a job previously where she was required to handle the company’s employee’s requests for residency permission and visas.

Despite our diligent efforts to prepare everything the day before we went to the immigration office, Bolormaa found out the morning we planned to request an extension of our residency permission that we needed another tax document. Now obtaining a single tax document may not seem like a daunting task—especially if you pay your taxes as I do. However, waiting to obtain the tax document can be challenging. Sometimes people wait hours to meet the tax official who can give them the stamped document that they need to show their payment of tax liabilities. When Bolormaa told me that we would need to stop by the tax office before we went to the immigration office, I thought briefly of panicking.

Rather than panic, we prayed before we left for the tax office eventually headed to the immigration office. When we arrived at the tax office a few minutes before they opened we found a parking lot that was already filled with vehicles. We had prayed, and I determined to leave the timing of our day in God’s hands. As Bolormaa left the car, I told my father that we should go ahead and wait outside the car because it might be some time before Bolormaa returned with our certification of tax payment.

But within about ten minutes Bolormaa returned amazed that our request had been dealt with so promptly. We hopped back into my vehicle and set out for the immigration office.

The first thing everyone does when they enter the immigration office is to take a number to wait for service. The next step is to purchase the forms needed to apply for residency permission, a visa, or whatever service one is requesting. Then while we were waiting for our number to be called we began to fill out the forms. There were nine forms that needed to be filled out. Within a few minutes of completing all the forms, our number was called. Again it was providential: we completed the forms just in time to be called to the window.

As the conversations swirled around me I noticed some officials were asking many questions of the people at the windows. In the past, I would get nervous as I imagined all the questions that they might ask and what my answers would be. But this time as we filled out forms, I prayed for patience and wisdom, peace and calmness. The Lord was good to answer my request, and during the entire time we were at the immigration office I was at ease.

Our number was called. Bolormaa and I went to the window to present our forms, letters requesting an extension of residency permission, bank details, a letter of domestic registration from a local government official, a tax document, passport pictures, passports, registration documents of two types, and copies of our apartment deed. (There may be a few more items that I have forgotten.) All the pieces of paper made quite a stack. The immigration official flipped through the stack, asked two straight-forward questions, and approved our paperwork.

Again, Bolormaa was surprised at the ease with which we obtained residency permission. I assured her that it was because we prayed.

Bolormaa is not a Christian although she has attended several church services. These clear answers to prayer are an important witness to God’s power and care for His servants. As you think of her, please pray for Bolormaa’s salvation.