Alright, so not so long ago I announced I'm getting married and so on. So now that we have established that I would like to share a very small sample of just some of the stress and drama involved that we have had to deal with.
Alrighty then... So, back in 1992 we moved from New Zealand to Australia, during the process I needed my birth certificate and everything went well. Back in 2000 is when we moved from Australia to the United States, suffice to say, that was many months of INS crap that had to be dealt with, and also many years after moving here still had drama with that. To keep a long story as short as I can, the INS had to have the one "Original Copy" of my birth certificate leaving my Mother with just a certified partially typed/written copy.
Now comes the fun... So a couple weeks ago I had to renew my card at the DMV to reflect my current address, because the courthouse will not let you get married unless you have a valid picture ID that shows your current address. So we get that done, they accept my birth certificate I had at the time (certified copy). We head down to the courthouse thinking, "finally all set to get this done".
Yeah...things got worse at this point.. So we get there, sit down with someone and after 20 minutes of doing all this stuff with them, they asked what date we had setup with a judge already. Go figure, we didn't realize we had to set a date with a judge first before doing the other process. So we go upstairs, the judge for our wedding day has left for the day and won't be back till Monday. In the back of my mind I'm swearing up a storm. We get directed to someone else, they are able to help us and get a date set.
After another 20 or so minutes we head back down, wait for 30 minutes because they are with someone else getting their marriage license. Go in, sit down, they ask for our information. Finally, we both hand them our Birth Certificates....they inform us they are not "valid" and have to be printouts of the original birth certificate. So regardless of the fact it is a "certified copy" they will not accept it. More swearing in the back of my mind.
Well my fiancee she just walks over to another part of the courthouse and with $20 and 10 minutes, she has her's printed out. Remember that I am from New Zealand? Can you just imagine the bullshit at this stage I have to deal with in order to get it?
So I had to buy skype credit ($10) and had very little money left on my card. Called up the New Zealand Department of Internal Affairs, oh they will send out a new original copy, but the cost would be $40 USD total, and could take up to 3 weeks (at that point it would have been days after the wedding). But that would be a worse case scenario thing.
Finally, I get some funds on my card, order the certificate, asked them to make it urgent and that I need it asap. Well last night at work I had DHL deliver it there. I open it up and guess what? It pretty much looks like the exact same thing as I already had, only it was a nicer piece of paper and didn't say certified copy.
I can officially say I have at least 20 new grey hairs, all dedicated to this drama and crap. It's these types of things you never realize you need till the last minute. Hopefully my experience will help others prevent themselves from the drama.
So today we are heading back down to the courthouse, and if they don't accept an original copy i'm going to flip the freak out!
Rant is over! Just had to get it out for anyone who cares to read lol. Have a great day everyone!
Alrighty then... So, back in 1992 we moved from New Zealand to Australia, during the process I needed my birth certificate and everything went well. Back in 2000 is when we moved from Australia to the United States, suffice to say, that was many months of INS crap that had to be dealt with, and also many years after moving here still had drama with that. To keep a long story as short as I can, the INS had to have the one "Original Copy" of my birth certificate leaving my Mother with just a certified partially typed/written copy.
Now comes the fun... So a couple weeks ago I had to renew my card at the DMV to reflect my current address, because the courthouse will not let you get married unless you have a valid picture ID that shows your current address. So we get that done, they accept my birth certificate I had at the time (certified copy). We head down to the courthouse thinking, "finally all set to get this done".
Yeah...things got worse at this point.. So we get there, sit down with someone and after 20 minutes of doing all this stuff with them, they asked what date we had setup with a judge already. Go figure, we didn't realize we had to set a date with a judge first before doing the other process. So we go upstairs, the judge for our wedding day has left for the day and won't be back till Monday. In the back of my mind I'm swearing up a storm. We get directed to someone else, they are able to help us and get a date set.
After another 20 or so minutes we head back down, wait for 30 minutes because they are with someone else getting their marriage license. Go in, sit down, they ask for our information. Finally, we both hand them our Birth Certificates....they inform us they are not "valid" and have to be printouts of the original birth certificate. So regardless of the fact it is a "certified copy" they will not accept it. More swearing in the back of my mind.
Well my fiancee she just walks over to another part of the courthouse and with $20 and 10 minutes, she has her's printed out. Remember that I am from New Zealand? Can you just imagine the bullshit at this stage I have to deal with in order to get it?
So I had to buy skype credit ($10) and had very little money left on my card. Called up the New Zealand Department of Internal Affairs, oh they will send out a new original copy, but the cost would be $40 USD total, and could take up to 3 weeks (at that point it would have been days after the wedding). But that would be a worse case scenario thing.
Finally, I get some funds on my card, order the certificate, asked them to make it urgent and that I need it asap. Well last night at work I had DHL deliver it there. I open it up and guess what? It pretty much looks like the exact same thing as I already had, only it was a nicer piece of paper and didn't say certified copy.
I can officially say I have at least 20 new grey hairs, all dedicated to this drama and crap. It's these types of things you never realize you need till the last minute. Hopefully my experience will help others prevent themselves from the drama.
So today we are heading back down to the courthouse, and if they don't accept an original copy i'm going to flip the freak out!
Rant is over! Just had to get it out for anyone who cares to read lol. Have a great day everyone!
