Tomorrow was another day with the same issue. Studying English became irrelevant for the time being. My task was to find a sponsor or I could continue to live comfortably in Russia with my level of English.
Days passed and I had not the slightest idea who to approach with this request. My circle of contacts did not include any people with money, let alone people with money in hard currency. Organizations outside of Russia were out of reach for me and even if I had found a way to contact them why would they sponsor me? I was an ordinary Russian citizen who wanted to immigrate for no particular reason. After much deliberation, I decided to call my friend in Australia. He was my only chance to get that affidavit.
International phone calls from Russia at that time were extremely expensive. Money matters aside, the procedure of calling was complicated. Skype, WhatsApp, and other applications did not exist because there was no Internet in our homes in the early 90-es. Calls had to be placed via an exchange operator. First I called the telephone exchange and scheduled a call for 2 am because of the time difference. Then I waited for the phone exchange to contact me. I did not expect much. Surprisingly the call went well. My friend promised to get an affidavit from the Australian Jewish Welfare Society (AJWS). A few days later the AJWS faxed the affidavit of support directly to the Australian Consulate in Moscow. It probably helped my case that the affidavit was from a well-known charity and not from an individual whose finances had to be verified.
After that, the next step would be to fill out another, more detailed application form. Then the applicant would be asked to go through education and employment verification. If everything was good the last step would be a medical examination for the entire family. Every time the average response time from the consulate was 3 months. The application process could easily take one year or more if not rejected.
I waited patiently and soon received a letter the consulate. Inside there was a medical exam form with instructions. I was getting a fast-forward to the last step! The medical exam at that time could be done anywhere. I made appointments for my son and myself at the local clinic with doctors of all specialties from the dermatologist to the urologist and the endocrinologist. Some doctors did not mind to sign the medical form; others did not take it well. The form was in English and who knew what they were signing? We did get a clean bill of health from the doctors and I again went to Moscow to submit the completed form.
This time the waiting was longer. It became so nerve-racking that I was losing weight regardless of how much I ate. I plodded along with everyday life, but the thought of my application’s outcome never left my mind. One day I was sitting in the office in front of my computer and suddenly had a vision of my mailbox and a large yellow envelope sticking out of it. I hurried home and indeed the envelope, too big to fit into the mailbox, was crammed into it. The envelope contained approval of my application for permanent residence issued in June 1992 and valid until mid-April 1993. At the bottom of the page, the consul wished us a happy and prosperous life in Australia.