Insurance paperwork, passports and visas; check!

We’ve finally almost completed all the paperwork needed for our trip. Not only did we want to make sure we had all the insurance information necessary in case we might need it – keeping William’s emergency stitches during our Siwa trip in mind – but we also had to renew William’s passport and have his Egyptian visa transferred from the old one to the new one. We now have a sufficient pile of insurance information, and we have given William’s new passport to the university so that they can arrange the visa transfer.

I was a bit nervous that this particular part of the paperwork would take some extra time seeing that it involves the Egyptian authorities. As William’s passport was expiring, his visa was only valid until the end of May, and getting him a new passport had taken a bit longer than planned. I handed William’s passports – the new and the old one – to the very nice lady at the university office responsible for these kinds of transactions. She looked at his visa that said “valid until 27 May 2008.” Nervously I asked if there was going to be a problem since the visa had expired, but she looked me straight in the eyes and said calmly “the visa has NOT expired, it’s only PENDING RENEWAL.” I liked the way she put that. She assured us that the passport will be ready for pick up on Wednesday, and I expect she’s right.

Now all that remains is the packing. Sigh.