Wow, did you think a place on earth existed where the employees were even more disgruntled/ inept than the DMV? I have news for you: there is! It's called the New York Department of State and you can find it on Christopher Street in NYC. Now that I've said it, I'm sure it will be a top attraction in the Big Apple.
"Worse than the DMV, couldn't be" so you say, go ahead, entrance is free!
After waiting many weeks for my birth certificate to arrive, I headed up to New York for the apostille. I should clarify, this is not my regular birth certificate- not the one my parents got when I was born, I have that and its easier to get. In New York, they call it the "long form," this is what you need apostilled for your dossier. I wasn't born in NYC, so I though I could have my birth certificate apostilled at my county clerk's. The county clerk was the courthouse, so after going through several sets of the most sensitive metal detectors on earth (seriously my wedding band set them off) I found the clerk's office. They were very understanding, but no, this was a state form and had to be done in NYC or Albany. They even gave me directions to both locations (really? we were only about 35 minutes from NYC and 4 hours from Albany) and how to get the apostille.
I left the clerk's office and hopped on a train to NYC, thankful that my phone has a GPS and a data plan. It's been a while since I've spent time in New York and I always get lost in Lower Manhattan where the streets aren't a grid.
I found the building and walked in, as I approached the elevators a man started screaming at me "where are you going." You know how Walmart has greeters? Well this man's job is to set the tone for the building. And he excels at his job. "I'm here for an apostille. I've got these directions (thank you county clerk) and I'm heading to the 19th floor." Well to put it politely, he loudly informed me that in fact the office had changed to the second floor.
You might be asking yourself, who is at the NY Dept of State and what are they there for? A lot of people are foreign and trying to get apostilles on the American marriage licenses or the child's American birth certificate so they can get the documents sent back home. So a lot of non-native English speakers. Do you know what is universally understood? No, not the international "I'm chocking" gesture. Loud, angry English. Yup, everyone understands that.
Just a few short hours and $10 later I had my apostille.
On the flip side, I did find that Canal Street has the most efficient (notice I did not say polite) Post Office in the United States. And off our documents went to Washington State.
Oy, what a process. My husband and I are pre-homestudy/working on paperwork right now. I'm waiting for my birth certificates arrive to go through all of that apostille hassle, but it's coming up soon. It's good to see someone a few months ahead of us in the process, and I look forward to reading more.
ReplyDeleteI came across your blog on the FaCAB site, btw.