When I originally accepted the grant to Moldova, one of the conditions for being here for more than six months was that the U.S. Embassy would take care of our registration/visa process. This was a huge relief because it is expensive and time consuming getting six visas. We simply had to give our embassy contacts a passport photo of each of us, a copy of our passport, and sign a couple of forms. Done.
Well, two months into our stay, the Moldovan government changed the process for us and it has turned out to be another one of the joys of living in a developing country. We all had to go to a local hospital and get our blood typed, sign new forms, pay additional money, and take a trip to the ministry of registration/documentation (or something like that).
So, earlier this week Amy and I, along with Miles and Rayna, traveled to the embassy and met with Valentina (my primary contact there) and then we traveled by embassy transport to the aforementioned ministry building. We ending up meeting with four different people in this building, going from unmarked door to unmarked door. We ended up having to pay an additional fee beyond the stated amount we were told ahead of time (this was for some sort of expedited process, of all things), and we had to get pictures taken again (for Amy this was the third time). Throughout this process, Valentina had to talk with several different people, and we just blindly followed her from floor to floor.
The bottom line is that we should receive our "legitimatize" with one month to spare before we leave. This allows us to exit the country and re-enter (otherwise if we leave we will be denied re-entry), and presumably this documentation is necessary so that when we leave for good we will not have to pay a fine. After all we have spent, I'm not so sure we'll make out in the end.
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