It was frustrating and very very complicated affair to solve the problem that was a result of our forgetfulness, but last Friday it was solved. You know, I understand that it is important for a country to try to curb child traficking, the only problem is that there could be easier and still trustworthy ways to do it and not so much bureaucracy. The only way the authorization can be made, however, is with the authentication of the signature of the parent in front of a Brazilian government or official representative (such as a cartório or children's court judge or, abroad, the Brazilian consulate).
The bitterest consequence of this ordeal was the waste of money and time (two whole days of missed work for K -- Thursday and Friday, most of the day on Friday for me and a dear friend). $: over 45 bucks spent only to cross the Lincoln Tunnel into Manhattan back and forth (twice on Sunday) + the tolls. 70 bucks completely wasted for a global express mailing of the permission notarized in the U.S. (cannot be used here), 40 dollars paid to the consulate for the authorizations, parking in NYC, gas, etc, etc, etc.
I'll try to make a long story short, but I probably won't succeed -- you can just skip the post if you want! K went to the Brazilian consulate on Thursday and they told him they couldn't do the authorizations because they didn't have a certain seal that comes from Brasília and that would probably only be available the next week. He went back and tried to argue with them to no avail. He called our in-laws who in turn called us and we called my cousin who works as a "higher officer" (delegado) of Brazil's Federal Police (Polícia Federal, equivalent to Federal Marshalls, immigration officers and the FBI, up to a certain point) who then tried to contact the Guarulhos airport Federal Police officers. By the time my cousin got back to us, K had already notarized the document at a notary public in NYC and mailed it express to us. BAD MOVE -- useless!! That's why after he got the phone call from his mom about this he tried to get back into Manhattan (crossing the tunnel again) to go into the post office and try to stop the mailing. Too bad that particular P.O. closed at 3 pm! K had to drive all the way back home (2h) because he needed to print out new photos of the authorization and to fill the form again.
My cousin said that the airport officers told him that K had to go back to the Brazilian consulate the next day and that the consul would have to fax the document to the Federal Police. In addition, it would be best if I could go to the Federal Police at the airport and wait for the fax to arrive so they could process the authorization and hand it to me. Sweet, huh?
K left very early to NYC (6:30 am) and I, fortunately was "saved" by a dear friend who volunteered to drive me to the airport and to wait there with me so I could get the document. We kept in touch with K via her cell phone and my in-laws. We got to the airport before noon, but didn't leave before 4:30 pm!! K had a really hard time at the consulate -- they didn't want to authenticate the authorization and fax it to Brazil. He finally got to talk to one of the actual consuls and she finally did it, around 3 pm. We still had to wait for the delegado to get the fax and stamp everything and hand me the document...
Well, at least it worked out and we're ready to travel. New resolution: try to ALWAYS plan to have the whole family go back to the States together every time. WHAT A HASSLE!
Thing is, I'd always remembered to have this authorization before, but this year was just an unlucky one and we totally forgot. Sigh.
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1 comment:
Baaaaaad planning.
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