Good Morning Fine People! Ok, so I meant to have this written around May, but yeah, that never happened. Life got busy and here we are, less than a month until moving day! But anywho... I wanted to talk about the process of preparing for the move to Kuwait. Let me just say this, the paperwork is NO JOKE! First, before anything you have to go to the doctor and get your medical testing done. I had to get a chest x-ray to check for TB, and a blood test to check for HIV/AIDS and Hepatitis. Once I got those results, I sent them in. Then I had to have a LEGALIZED copy of my degree. This isn't just a random copy. This meant having to actually go to the university and they put a university stamp on it (like the little raised stamp), notarized it, and sealed it. Luckily I don't live THAT far from my university, just an hour and a half-ish. Next, I had to go to the police department(S) and get my criminal background check and fingerprint card done. For my county, that meant going to two different police departments waaaaay on the opposite sides of town from each other. Then I had to make a copy of my driver's license.
So now, after all of this is done (as if it isn't crazy legwork already), the REAL legwork begins! All of this paperwork has to be authenticated and attested. The university already started that process for the degree by notarizing it. The other paperwork has to be notarized too... Easy, right? Wrong. You have to get it notarized then take it to the courthouse for the notary to be authenticated. I found this out AFTER going to the Secretary of State's office with my <just> notarized paperwork. So of course, she says you have to take it to the courthouse in the county of the person who notarized it for you. Since my friend who did my notary wasn't a resident in the county where I lived, I just went and got it re-notarized at the bank! Sounds easy, right? Wrong again! I got it re-notarized and took it to the Dekalb Co. courthouse to get authenticated, and the lady tells me, we can't authenticate this because the signatures don't match. You need to go find a new notary. OMG. So I drive around that day (after work, because I had ALREADY taken off a day of work to have all this done), looking for a notary that was still open, because apparently all the banks in downtown Decatur close at 4. I finally went back to my own bank and I got there right before 5 and they were able to do it for me free of charge. So the next day after work I fly over to the courthouse to have it authenticated AGAIN. Good deal, got it done. Then the next day I went BACK to the Secretary of State office because all of my paperwork must have the state seal on it. (I'm glad all the notaries in universities are already on file in the Secretary of State's office!) Done!
NEXT... The paperwork must be sent off to Washington DC to get legalized and attested. I have 3 sets of paperwork to be sent off, my degree, my fingerprints/background check, and my drivers license. The company I'm working for sent us a couple of companies to go through to get this done. I got a quote on the price and it was about $260ish. So I got a cashier's check and sent it in with my paperwork, along with the quoted invoice. Then I got a phone call to say it was REALLY more like $390! Apparently I selected the wrong things. But he worked with me and combined all the ones that had the same notary and that took it down from 3 items to 2 items, therefore I only owed another $21! Thankya Jesus!! So they stamped my paperwork with the US seal and sent it to the Kuwaiti Consul to get attested. I got all my paperwork back in about 2 weeks. The total cost of doing all this (which will be reimbursed because you KNOW I kept all my receipts), was about $500!
SO... I'm not sure how the process differs for other countries, because this was Kuwait's process, but if you are planning to go overseas, start getting your paperwork together! It's No Joke! At least all my running around can save somebody a few steps in the process!
<3 <3 You My Friends!
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