Most of the long-term foreign residents I know are there on employment visas, which their employers keep renewing. The self-employed have to scrounge up different visas every time--one international marketing consultant I know is on a "cultural affairs" visa atm thanks to a client of his and some volunteering he does for a different organization. It's nuts.

It wouldn't surprise me if FWR foresaw the time loop--he certainly seems to be able to think in three (or four) dimensions without much trouble, though I too keep forgetting that these chapters have both already happened and haven't happened yet relative to the interrupted showdown with FWR.