A journey to Sakhalin: one step closer

Well, to say the least, it has been a very interesting week.  Shane is now on his way home from Yuzhno (YEA!).  I spoke with him on Monday and he had been told by the HR department in Sakhalin that our visas were going to be delayed and that our move would not be able to take place until October or November.  Apparently, there is a quota for how many work visas are issued in Russia each year, and this year's quota was met in May.  For some reason that is still unknown, this was not communicated with us until this week, 1 month before we are scheduled to be there.  So now the scrambling begins.  There is talk of moving us to Japan or Houston for a few months until it all gets settled.  Shane would have had to work his new job from one of those places.  Not fun.  While I would have loved to be home to visit family and friends, the whole thing would have been hard on my son, my dogs, and my husband (he would have had to work hours that would coincide with Sakhalin, which is 16 hours ahead of Houston), not to mention living in a hotel for 2 months!

It all turned out to be unnecessary stress on all of us.  Today we find out that we are getting our visas after all.  Shane is going to get something called an "advisor" work visa, since the quota on those has not been met.  Our LOIs (letter of invitation) should be issued next week, and then all we have to do is go and get the visas put in our passports.  So it looks like the move is on.  Full steam ahead!!