Work Permit

Well, I am about to head back to Kumi after being in Kampala for several days. I came down mainly to get started on the task of trying to get my work permit. I was a bit discouraged on Thursday after speaking with a lady at immigration and seeing that the requirements included a criminal record check from Canada which I do not have and was not aware was needed! Anyhow, I did some research and contacted the RCMP in Canada who reported that if the specific requirements for fingerprinting are possible to do here in Uganda then I should be able to get a criminal record check done without being in Canada in person. The site, however, that they referred me to reports a waiting time of 120 days on average and possibly more for the criminal record check to be processed! Considering that the Uganda paper processing I think can take anywhere from 2-4 months to complete and then the snail mail time to get the fingerprints to Canada and criminal record check back to Uganda etc... I would likely be ready to leave the country by the time my work permit was processed. Anyhow, today I went back to immigration and spoke to a different lady and when I shared with her what I found out from Canada regarding the criminal record check and fingerprinting and processing time etc she just said not to worry about it and to just fulfill the rest of the requirements for my work permit:)!

Unfortunately, although I have a letter from the hospital it doesn't have the specific details that are required by immigration so I still have to go back to Kumi before I am able to submit my papers for my work permit.

Please pray for this whole process as it is just beginning and from the stories of others it can be a long, tedious process that requires numerous trips to immigration. I don't look forward to it. I especially feel anxious as I have some potential travel plans that take me out of the country in which case I will need my passport. I know I have to submit my passport to them at 2 different points in the process so hopefully the timing doesn't conflict!

Will keep you posted on the progress...