Communism alive and kicking in Romania

Ok, while not communism per se, there are a lot of people who don't seem to have received the memo that communism fell in 1989. Passing the buck seems to be the norm. Go to government office and it won't be open. Or it'll be open a couple hours a week. Ask someone for info and they'll tell you to go somewhere else, even if they could help you. No one seems to want to work in government offices. Basic things, like elevators, working phones, or AC don't exist in government offices. Don't expect post offices to have pens, boxes, etc either.

The younger generation is better, but there is still a lack of compassion and caring in the older generation. Especially when it comes to caring for public facilities, like not putting posters up all over building walls or graffiti all over the place. Basics like soap, water, or toilet paper can't be found in bathrooms. And more likely than not you'll have to pay to use pink toilet paper and a turkish squat toilet (unless you go to Piata Universitati's free toilets).

I realise that they haven't had it easy, but neither has Germany, yet they recovered well from two World Wars and communism. So I don't see why Romania can't either.

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Apostillisation in Peru

Turns out that Peru only apostillises documents that have been legalised IN Peru. I think this is ridiculous. I guess they expect us to go all the way back to Peru to sign a document.

My husband got them legalised in Korea, at the Peruvian embassy by a Peruvian notary, but they will only legalise them (again) at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. That really doesn't help us; we need them apostillised.

We're going to try to get them done in Peru. His mother has power of attorney, so we sent his ID with the paperwork to Peru. Fingers crossed this will work!

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Welcome to the world TMI

Our daughter, TMI, was born this morning at 6:31am after 52 hours of labour. She came 3 weeks early. weighing 2.73 kgs and 47 cms long. Natural childbirth and we were home 8 hours after she was born.

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FAQ: How much longer is it going to take you?

The long and short of it is I don't know. We can guess, but they're always asking us for more paperwork. As of now, supposedly we're almost done, we just need the following documents:

• A letter from my husband giving me permission to change my name from my maiden name to my married name.
• A letter from my husband giving me permission to register our marriage in Peru.
• For my name to be changed in Romania.
• For our marriage to be registered in Romania.
• For my CNP to be issued.
• For my passport to be issued (supposedly I can apply here at the Korean embassy).

The two letters will take at least a month to get done since they need to be legalised and apostillised and therefore will have to be sent to Peru.
The name change and registration of our marriage should take about 4 months.
The CNP is probably another 4 months.
The passport is up to 6 months.

Now this is IF everything goes according to plan. Keep in mind that while I was in Romania for nearly a month, no office accepted any of my documents. Best case senario I can apply for my passport in June of next year and have my Romanian passport in my hot little hands by Christmas. My lawyer is optimistic, though having finally seen first hand what things are like in Romania, I'm really not sure what to think anymore.

By who really knows? They might say I'm missing some paperwork, or offices might not take my documents, or they might keep odd hours.

Fingers crossed I'll have my passport ASAP, but no matter what I'm going to keep trying until they say no.

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Legalising signatures at the Peruvian embassy in Korea

Getting a signature legalised in Peru costs about $1. Overseas at Peruvian embassies it costs about $25. Not fair if you ask me. And we can't send the documents to Peru because you have to sign them in front of the notary. So to get the 4 documents legalised in order for me to change my name and register our marriage, I'm going to have to pay $100 for my husband's signature to get notarised. Then I still have to pay to get them apostillised. At least that only costs $8 for each document.

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Getting permission to change my name and register my marriage

The latest is that I need my husband to sign two papers: one giving me permission to change my name and one giving me permission to register our marriage. I don't get it. Seeing as I already changed my name in Peru and the US without his permission. I even became a Peruvian citizen without his permission.

But, the Romanian authorities want it, so there's not much we can do. He has to sign them in English and Romanian. So that's four pieces of paper to legalise at the embassy here in Seoul. Then they have to be sent off to Peru to get the apostillisation. Apostillisations in Peru cost about $10, yet in the US, they're only $8. You'd think they'd be cheaper in Peru. That's Peru for you.

We also have to use a new marriage cert. Peru, finally, joined the Hague Agreement earlier this year. We tried to use our Peruvian marriage cert that had been apostillised in the US, but they didn't understand that. They kept saying that we had been married in the US, despite the fact that the translation plainly said we had been marred in Peru. So now we have a new certificate apostillised in Peru.

We're doubling checking everything before we start the process. Each legalisation should cost about $30 plus another $10 for the apostillisation, meaning it'll be about $160 plus postage to Peru, back to Korea, and then to Romania. So about $200. Fingers crossed this will work!

Be sure to read about what has happened so far. You can find everything in the quick summary of dates.

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