We sent out an urgent prayer request yesterday. Basically, if we do not receive our completed paperwork from France by July 26th, we will have to leave the island of St. Barthelemy and cannot come back until next year (6 months later). Without the paperwork from France, we cannot get our French passports and without French passports, we cannot stay here permanently. The Gendarme (territorial police) told us that if we do not leave before our 3 months are over, they could put us in jail and then deport us and forbid us to come back for another 3 years.
Well, after much prayer from so many people and prayer/fasting on our part, we received word from the Prefecture (they deal with immigration/VISA issues) that we can leave St. Barthelemy before our 3 months is over, have our passports stamped on the Dutch side of St. Maarten and then return and stay another 3 months. The Prefecture on St. Martin (the French side) that we dealt with is supposed to hold a higher position than the Gendarme. She said if we have any trouble to just call her and she will help us out. We also had my aunt ask her lawyer about what the Prefecture told us and her lawyer said to trust what the Prefecture says, she knows her "stuff" about immigration laws.
So, we received our answer to our prayer! We are going to stay for another 3 months and hopefully, our paperwork and french passports will be completed by October 26th and we can stay permanently. If we do not have our paperwork and passports by October 26th, then we have no choice nor other options but must leave for 6 months. So we praise the Lord for this present victory by working on our behalf to let us stay here and trust that all of the paperwork will be in by October!
