Waiting for apostilles
Guys, I haven’t disappeared – and neither have my dreams of making Aliyah! ✨
Right now, though, things are moving at the speed of bureaucracy. I’ve gathered almost all of my documents, but many of them still need that magical golden ticket called an apostille.
At first, I thought it would be easy. Just pop into the office of a Notarius Publicus in Sweden, wave my papers around, and voilà – official stamps! That’s exactly what I did the first round. It cost me a small fortune, but later I realized: all I got were stamped copies of my documents. Not the real deal. Typical me – my creative brain just short-circuits when faced with bureaucracy.
So, I rolled up my sleeves and dove deep. And now I get it: an apostille means the authority that issued the original document has to tell another authority, “Yes, this really IS the original.”
Sounds simple? Hah. Welcome to Germany. 🇩🇪 A country where efficiency does not apply when you’re dealing with official paperwork. You can’t just go to the embassy or send everything to one central office. Nope. Each document (like birth certificates for me and my ancestors) has to be sent to the exact office in the exact city where it was issued. By physical mail. Traceable, of course.
Here’s how it goes:
You send off your precious document.
Weeks later, you get… a paper invoice. (Yes, paper. By post. The kind that CAN get lost and WILL get lost.)
The fee is 13 euros. But naturally, the invoice only lists a German bank account number – no international transfer info.
So you call. No email, just endless hold music on an international line. Hours later, a real human finally gives you the IBAN and SWIFT so you can pay.
Once you’ve paid, they slap a giant stamp and a glittery holographic sticker on your document (bureaucrats love stickers!) and mail it back to Sweden. Which, as you guessed, CAN get lost and WILL get lost.
Multiply this circus by four documents and you get an idea of my life right now.
The good news? I already have all the authorized translations, neatly stamped and looking very official. The less-good news? I’m still waiting for the originals to make their way back to me through the German postal labyrinth.
So please, keep your fingers crossed – that the mail arrives, that the stamps stick, and that I can finally move on to the next step.
Until then: I’ll keep you posted!