Best laid plans

So much for receiving my birth certificate with apostille today. The Secretary of State hasn't even received it from the Bureau of Vital Statistics yet. They think it should arrive today, but probably not before the UPS man makes his pick-up. Not what I was promised, but what do you expect from your friendly government workers...

The road goes on forever

We (i.e., PwC-Lux) think we determined the problem with my work permit application - a supposed lack of proper certification for my birth certificate, criminal record and university transcript. We actually can't confirm this as the person in charge of my file at the Luxembourg "Ministrie des Affaires Etrangeres et de L'immigration" is on "holiday" until next Tuesday (gotta love Europe) and the person that PwC-Lux spoke with could only confirm what was written in the file - that the application was incomplete and missing the aforementioned documents. This notwithstanding the fact that they were definitely included in my original transmission.

In an effort to comply with what seem to be new rules that (we think) may require an apostille (legalization of a document for international use under the terms of the 1961 Hague Convention Abolishing the Requirement of Legalisation for Foreign Public Documents) to be included with those documents, I made a quick road trip to Austin to obtain apostilles for my original documents. Easy, right? Try again. Of the 3 documents, only the notarized letter from the Dallas Police Department could be apostilled in its current form. My transcript was not notarized by Texas A&M University, so it could not be apostilled. The fix for that was easy enough - trek down to the UPS store, make a copy of the transcript, provide a signed statement that the copy was a true and correct copy of the original, have said statement notarized and return to the Secretary of State for an apostille for the notary of the statement on the photocopy of the original transcript. Whew.

Now for the dirty part. Though I got to Texas as soon as I could, I was actually born in Kansas City, MO. To my chagrine, the Secretary of the State of Texas cannot provide an apostille for a document that was produced/signed outside of the great State of Texas (i.e., a birth certificate issued in Missouri). That's right, the birth certicate has to be apostilled in Jefferson City, MO. After many phone calls were placed to the Missouri Bureau of Vital Statistics, the Missouri Secretary of State, and 2 different courier services, I discovered that 1) a new birth record would be required before the Secretary of State could provide an apostille (my existing version is too old); 2) an unrelated 3rd party (i.e., courier/legal representative) could not obtain my birth record directly from the Bureau of Vital Statistics; but 3) the Bureau of Vital Statistics could produce the birth certificate and courier it to the Secretary of State along with a "next day air" envelope, at which point the Secretary of State could provide an apostille and mail the document back to me. I was assured that the Bureau could send out the birth certificate today and that the Secretary of State could provide same day service on the apostille. Given mail pick-up times, this probably means the document will be mailed out tomorrow and be in my hands Friday. I'm crossing my fingers, but not holding my breath...

If all goes well, I will have the revised application completed and mailed by the end of the week and the Luxembourg Ministry will have everything they need early next week, at the same time or before my file reviewer returns from his holiday.

While I still think I will be stuck in limbo for 1-2 weeks (maybe more), I think progress is being made. At least on my end.

What a day.

Wishful Thinking

My excitement last week turned out to be premature as the letter I received Thursday was not my work permit. I was informed by PwC-Lux this morning that it was a letter requesting additional information from me. They are going to talk to the Ministry and let me know exactly what I need to do to move forward.

For now it's back to the waiting game...and taking more French classes.

It's on now.

Thursday, September 17, 2009:

1. Wake up

2. Go to work

3. Go to client meeting

4. Go to French lesson

5. Show up late to concert at Poor David's Pub (Autumn Boukadakis, Bobby Duncan, Greg Whitfield)

6. Go home

7. Check mail

8. Find Luxembourg work permit

9. Freak out a little.

Yep, it's real and it feels very strange. My move to Luxembourg was all very nebulous until tonight - until this one piece of paper (that I can't even read) put into motion a sequence of events that ends with my walking off a plane in Luxembourg, alone and barely speaking the common language of the country. Am I excited? Yes. I can't wait to get over there, test my limits, travel around Europe, learn a hell of a lot about myself and my work, etc, etc, etc. Am I nervous? Hell yes. How could I not be?