Farewell to Karen (hopefully only temporarily)

Karen © Ricky Yates

A person who has featured in several of my previous blog posts is Karen, an American who came to Prague in November 2008 to train as a TEFL Teacher at the Caledonian Language School. A few weeks later, she found St. Clements and became a regular worshipping member of the congregation.

Unfortunately, along with another American young lady called Anna, Karen was forced to leave the Czech Republic at the end of April 2009 because of the total incompetence of the Caledonian School in helping both young ladies obtain work permits and residence visas. A second visa application, via the Czech consulate in Chicago, was also unsuccessful. Full details of what happened can be found in my earlier post entitled TEFL Teachers – Caledonian School and Broken Promises.

A few weeks after I started this blog, Karen became a regular visitor . . . → Read More: Farewell to Karen (hopefully only temporarily)

Update on my previous post ‘More problems with Czech Bureaucracy’

Schengen Visa – Image in public domain via Wikimedia

As I feared, Anna has suffered the same fate as Karen. Despite going in person to the Foreign Police three times this past week, accompanied by a Czech speaking friend, she has had to leave the country today. She was eventually told that her application for a work permit & residency visa, submitted in Berlin on 21st January 2009, would not be granted because she had exceeded the 90 days she was allowed to be in the Czech Republic as a tourist.

Anna sent me a text/SMS message with this information early on Wednesday afternoon. I rang her straight back and invited her to join Sybille & I for a meal at Grosetto that evening so I could learn more about her experience with the Foreign Police and also say a proper ‘Goodbye’. We had . . . → Read More: Update on my previous post ‘More problems with Czech Bureaucracy’