Hanging out at the Notaria Primera Nov. 15 2023

We spent three hours waiting at the very tech-advanced immigration/notary office for everything to be finalized but the system crashed and Leo had to take two kids back the next day to finish. Poor Leo LIVED at that notary for 7 months while we tried to get the kids citizenship and then my visa. My visa was from being a mother to Colombian citizens, which was the easiest way for me to get a visa. But really nothing in Colombia is easy or fast. We even hired a lawyer to help us fill out the paperwork and stuff, but Leo still had to deliver them in person, etc, so he really did live at that notary at least one day out of the three in a week he spent at home. You just had to wait in line, and sometimes he would go and the system would be down, or they needed cash for a particular form but not the others, etc.

Once, it was crazy because they had me as born in Canada (which they got from my US passport) but they wouldn't allow a US ID since I'm Canadian, despite that fact that I'm obviously a US citizen too. I can't remember how we got around that one.

One of the times he went the lady was out sick, at least that time he could come right back home (just a 2 hr Uber ride round trip.)

And another time, things were delayed because the counties from the states the kids' were born in were not in their computer system, so IT had to add them and that took a couple weeks.  Darn rural New Mexico and Wyoming!

And then another time they had issues because Leo's legal Colombian name includes his two last names, but his US id's only have the one last name.  That time, I just signed everything and Leo didn't.

Another time there were complications because in the US, they only have the mother's maiden name on the kids' birth certificates.  But since my name on my ID is Latorre, not my maiden name, then they wouldn't accept that.  I can't remember how we got around that one either--and no!  That is not a euphemism for bribery! Tempting though.

Oh, and the very first thing was that they wouldn't accept are certified translations from a US company, we had to have them translated in Colombia, so that was $1000 right there. Ugh.

And I had to leave the country for a day (in Feb? I think) to stay in Colombia because my tourist visa had ran out. And then we finally completed my actual visa as a mother to Colombians just a week before my extended tourist visa would have expired and I would not have been able to stay legally at all.  

Oh, and we still had to get cedulas (national ID cards) and passports for the kids which was a couple more months process.  The appointment slots for the passports open on Sunday at 5 PM and by 5:01, they're all full.  We tried multiple times and then finally clued in that the local papelerias (stationary/copy shops) run a racket and you can pay them to get an appointment and they have a computer program that just runs constantly grabbing up appointments. Yay.

And when I went to get my cedula de extranejeria (foreigner's ID) the ID card maker was broken, and they said it's no big deal, I wouldn't need it anyway.  Only I definitely did end up needing it but new appointment slots open at 5 PM on Sundays, and well, there's no papeleria racket for extranejeras.  Ugh. So I never did get it.  

Awesome filing system.

The Primera Notaria is a huge repository that would be awesome for family history.  It's the 1st Notary because it's as old as Bogotá practically and has records from at least 1567.  The building itself is from the 1700s--this room is only for immigration--but I watched a Colombian genealogy class once and the lady mentioned that notary by name and described it as an absolute disaster. (It is). Made me want to cry every time I was there wishing I could just digitalize everything and organize it all--not a one man job--but knowing it will probably stay that way indefinitely.  

And the next day we celebrated 6 new Colombianos with Popsy icecream and watching Colombia beat Brazil at fútbol.