Moving to a different country is somewhat terrifying. Especially, when you move to a place like Romania which has a strictly “wait until you get here policy” Ummm… hello? I have 4 kids in tow, I don’t want to “wait until you get here” I want to be prepared, right? When you are trying to get visas, get kids to doctors, establish insurance, pay taxes, bureaucratic nightmare doesn’t begin to cut it. Well, I have just recently needed to accomplish these tasks, and although, this list could be very different depending on the country, these are my experiences and best advice to offer.
Establishing visas
First off, be really aware prior (I stress “before”) to your move date, how long exactly you are allowed to be in the country without a visa. Also, make sure that you had all documents made official by your Secretary of State Office with the Apostille (Stamp Recognized Seal by the Hague). You can find more information here:
https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/legal/travel-legal-considerations/internl-judicial-asst/authentications-and-apostilles/Notarial-and-Authentication-Apostille.html
Some countries allow you to stay maximum of 30 days, some as high as 90 (possibly more) before applying for a visa. It really depends, but you could be responsible for fines by the government and possibly kicked out of the country if you do not cooperate with their requirements. You may be able to find out on the US Embassy website for that country what timeline you have to work with. In Romania, they give you 90 days to apply for a permission to stay after that hefty fines are in order and they can chose to deny you permission to stay based on your delay. Getting all of the stuff done is also a very time consuming process. For a general reference I wrote down the approximate times accomplishing each task took us. We had to start almost immediately to have everything completed in time. Before we were able to apply there was quite a few documents we had to have in order… Oh boy! Here it comes, you said it, BUREAUCRACY!
I can barely even spell the word without the help of spellcheck and google! But it is a term you will see in a new light when you start any process in a new country.
Keep in mind first step would be to hire an official translator for anything official. If you do not speak the language fluently, more than likely they will not accept just anyone (friends or family) translating for you. Be prepared to pay and they can be expensive.
Here is a list of what I had to do, enjoy… ! Some of these felt just plain silly:
Another thing, is government offices here in Romania are open very odd hours ( i.e. 0900-1130 every other Tuesday), and many times they have specific hours only for certain things (immigration will only take non-EU applications on a certain day between certain hours).
1.Pick up required document list from immigration.- 10min to an hour depending on wait times.
2. Hire an official translator.- Available by appointment, more often than not the next day. (And hope that their availability coincides with the office you need to go to). Some translators may not be licensed to operate in certain domains (legal, medical, social policy, etc) so ask if their licensed to translate in those functions.
3. Have all documents copied in triplicate and passports on hand at all times. – 20 minutes to an hour.
4. Get all documents translated. – 24 hour minimum if not a week, if there is a holiday.
5. Get all documents notarized (birth certificates, marriage certificates, immunization records) -we had at least three trips to the notary, each trip 3 hours minimum. Notaries will require the translators.
-Keep this in mind for places like Romania, unlike the states, in which they put the maiden name was married to the name of the the other person (i.e. John Doe of Miami FL and Jane Smith of Trujillo, CA married this day…) Romania does not do this, instead, they put the change of name in the field for the spouse (John Doe of Miami FL and Jane Doe of …) The only reason this complicates things is because when I went to get my permission to stay, my passport showed my married name, while my marriage certificate showed my maiden name. Why was this complicated? Because I had to sign documents saying that I was the same person as my maiden name and my husband had to sign a paper saying that he wasn’t a bigamist. Ha ha! This ended up taking us an extra trip to the notary and costing additional money. This process alone took over a week, as we had to go back and forth to the immigration office to the office that writes official statements at least 3 times.
6. Find an official address, place to rent with a contract, you must have this in order to do the next items on the list.
7. Have your landlord go to the estate tax office to add your name and pay the tax so you can bring that as proof of residency. One to two hours minimum.
8. Find a doctor that will see you and write you a document stating that you do not contain any health threats to the public, that you contain no communicable disease that could infect and cause an epidemic in the country. (Which is kind of silly because there are so many uninoculated people here. There has been at least 4 outbreaks of Mumps and Tuberculosis since we’ve lived here.)
9. Pay for health insurance (for anyone over the age of 14) -in order to do this they just so happened to be at three separate offices located across the city from each other. Another full day taken.
10. Pay the tax. One hour minimum, almost always a long line. (2 hour minimum)
11. Have your picture taken for your permission to stay card. Make sure its in the correct dimensions. Not always the same for the card your requesting.
12. Bring all documents, unsigned to the immigration office and make sure you receive a receipt that you’ve applied.
13. Wait for 6 weeks, hoping they’ll accept all this paperwork you ran around for months trying to obtain! If picking up your government document isn’t an option and you have to set up mail always go for the courier option which will be more expensive. Try to stay away from using the local post office because documents are notorious to disappear.
So, from start to finish this process took two and a half months. This was working consistently every week to get the items checked off on the list, too! There were times we were worried about whether or not we would make it by the deadline, but we did find out that as long as you keep in contact with immigration through the process they are pretty understanding.
What experiences have you had with immigration in your country? Any advice or tips?