Hello, from Pakistan - Gracy's Pakistani Passport

The last couple of days have been quite eventful . . .

1st of all, Gracy has been very sick with a respiratory infection. Each time we went to visit her at Edhi Home, I could tell she was not feeling well & was running a temperature. Once we finally picked her up on Monday . . . the 1st place we went was to the chemist shop for medicine! Tuesday & Wednesday she continued to run a very high fever . . . so I had the guest house owner (Karim Meghji) help me find a "child specialist" doctor. We finally were able to take her to a doctor on Wed evening. She now is on an antibiotic, fever reducer & cough syrup. She is just now starting to feel better. It has been a rough few days for her!

In the midst of all of that . . . we had to start the process for MG's Pakistani passport. So, on Tuesday morning, we bundled her up & headed out. We had to go to a bank 1st to pay the passport fee (they don't trust the passport office with the fee money) & get a payment receipt. Then we took the receipt, her original NADRA CRC form (Pak child registration form) & original birth certificate, a certified copy of the guardianship order & little "Miss Sweet Pea" herself (she must be physically present) to the passport office. When we finally had our interview, we were told there is a new policy for foreign guardians of children . . . all Pakistani passports for overseas travel must be approved by the Director General of the Passport Office/Ministry of the Interior. So, we had to drive to the main passport office, have another interview with the Asst. Director & make a special application for this new policy approval. The approval was to be reviewed & signed on Wednesday by the DG (Director General). We didn't hear from the Asst Dir on Wed, so today (Thursday) we went to visit him. He told us the DG was not in the office this week & would return on Monday (don't know why he couldn't tell us that when we were there on Tuesday!). So . . . . we have to wait until Monday for the DG's signature on the special approval & hopefully we can get her Pakistani passport by mid next week. We need to visit the US Embassy by late next week to stay on schedule to finish within the duration of our visa (30 days) without having to file for a visa extension.

It's always more like 1/2 to 1 day of business & then several days of wait (everything is a manual process with every document typed on a manual typewriter!) Lots of opportunity for technical automation in this country! ;)

All-in-all, I know . . . It will all work out . . .

Take Care! I'll update again soon.

Nancy (Mama), Dalend (Uppa D) & Gracy