One of the most confusing steps in preparing for our trip was getting the proper paperwork for the boys to attend school in Argentina. The schools ask for the boys’ passports, birth certificates, vaccination records and a certified original record of their school transcripts that is approved and apostilled “por la Haya.” Of course I could easily make copies of their passports, birth certificates, and vaccination records but I wasn’t sure about how to officially translate them. Argentina has official translators but the United States does not have translators with such official titles. The bigger problem was the school records. The boys’ school in Phoenix (Desert View Learning Center) does not give grades or transcripts. To further complicate matters, I didn’t know that apostille is an English word and “la Haya” is the Hague Convention. Fortunately, Professor Mark Healey (my colleague in Latin American History) is a wealth of information. He explained that apostille is a process for internationally legalizing documents. I later learned that my Mexican friends are familiar with the apostille process; they had to do so to get their Mexican documents recognized in the United States.
Getting the documents apostilled was a major process. Each state can only apostille documents issued in that same state. Thus, I had to order a certified copy of B’s birth certificate from the county of San Mateo, California since he was born in California. Then I had to send this certified copy of his birth certificate to the California Department of State for it to be apostilled. I already had several official copies of B’s birth certificate but none of them were certified versions. For all of the other documents, I had to do the following: 1) Draft a Spanish translation. 2) Ask an ASU professor of Spanish (Cynthia Tompkins) to officially translate the documents. To do so, she added “Yo, Cynthia Tompkins, certifico que la traducción hecha por mí al español, es una traducción fiel y correcta de la Declaración Jurada, en ingles presentado por las partes.” at the bottom of each page. 3) Have Cynthia sign each document in front of a notary so that the translation was notarized. 4) Take all of the notarized translations to the Arizona Department of State for them to be apostilled. What a process!
Since Desert View Learning Center doesn’t issue grades or a transcript, I asked the boys’ teachers and the director to sign letters that said that they had successfully completed their grade level. When Cynthia (an Argentine) saw these documents, she rightly laughed – the documents did not look official. After some brainstorming, I asked the director of Desert View Learning Center to write an additional letter that explains that the school does not give grades or a transcript and I translated F’s standardized testing results. F just completed fourth grade and the standardized test results should hopefully be able to stand in for grades. B didn’t take any standardized testing but since he will be joining first grade in Argentina (the boys will be repeating the second half of the grades they just completed in the United States), hopefully his lack of grades won’t be an issue.
Getting the documents apostilled was a major process. Each state can only apostille documents issued in that same state. Thus, I had to order a certified copy of B’s birth certificate from the county of San Mateo, California since he was born in California. Then I had to send this certified copy of his birth certificate to the California Department of State for it to be apostilled. I already had several official copies of B’s birth certificate but none of them were certified versions. For all of the other documents, I had to do the following: 1) Draft a Spanish translation. 2) Ask an ASU professor of Spanish (Cynthia Tompkins) to officially translate the documents. To do so, she added “Yo, Cynthia Tompkins, certifico que la traducción hecha por mí al español, es una traducción fiel y correcta de la Declaración Jurada, en ingles presentado por las partes.” at the bottom of each page. 3) Have Cynthia sign each document in front of a notary so that the translation was notarized. 4) Take all of the notarized translations to the Arizona Department of State for them to be apostilled. What a process!
Since Desert View Learning Center doesn’t issue grades or a transcript, I asked the boys’ teachers and the director to sign letters that said that they had successfully completed their grade level. When Cynthia (an Argentine) saw these documents, she rightly laughed – the documents did not look official. After some brainstorming, I asked the director of Desert View Learning Center to write an additional letter that explains that the school does not give grades or a transcript and I translated F’s standardized testing results. F just completed fourth grade and the standardized test results should hopefully be able to stand in for grades. B didn’t take any standardized testing but since he will be joining first grade in Argentina (the boys will be repeating the second half of the grades they just completed in the United States), hopefully his lack of grades won’t be an issue.
Before we left the United States, we also needed to get tourist visas for Paraguay (we are going there for Argentina’s winter vacation) and Brazil (we hope to visit the country sometime during our stay). We already had visas for Argentina from a previous trip. Luckily we investigated the procedures early because we learned that one of us needed to make a trip to Los Angeles to visit the Paraguayan consulate and getting a Brazilian visa takes a long time (I had to schedule an appointment with the Brazilian Consulate 4 weeks in advance). United States citizens must have a visa for travel to both countries. We can get the visa to Paraguay either at the airport upon flying into Asunción or at the consulate. The only option for us was to get the visa at the consulate because we plan to enter the country by bus from Argentina. As a result, I had to fly to Los Angeles for a day to pick up our passports from the Paraguayan Consulate (I had mailed them there) and drop them off at the Brazilian Consulate. We then had to pay an agency to pick up our passports from the Brazilian Consulate and mail them to us. The trip was expensive – not only did we have to pay for airfare and car rental; we also had to pay for the visas ($160 for each country for 3 people – F doesn’t need a visa for Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay since he is an Argentine citizen). I made the most of my day in Los Angeles, I also met a good friend from graduate school for lunch and made a short visit to the Museum of Contemporary Art (my favorite piece of art was Elliott Hundley's The Lightening's Bride. It can only be fully appreciated in person).
One thing that we did not initially do, but that I highly recommend is to bring a photocopy of a child’s birth certificate for any foreign travel. It was not an issue when we arrived by air in Argentina, but it was an issue when we traveled by land between Argentina, Paraguay, and Brazil. At most of the borders, the immigration agent asked for proof that we were the parents. The boys’ passports do not list the parents. Thus, the agents asked to see the boys’ birth certificates. Fortunately, we were eventually able to convince the border agents that we were indeed the boys’ parents. To avoid such issues, we will be sure to travel with copies of their birth certificates.