...we have finally figured out which documents need to be notarized and authenticated in the US and which need to be dealt with here. Another interesting thing we have learned after an enormous amount of frustration, lots of email with SW and a discussion on the phone with Agency Director: Notarizing/Authenticating in the Netherlands and the US are
very different. Here's a hint: To be a person who is certified to notarize a document in the US you must take a short course. To do that in the Netherlands you need to go to school for a million years as well as be an attorney. This explains why our US docs need to go on to the State Department for authentication after being stamped by a Notary; in the Netherlands a Notary's stamp is pretty much equal to the whole Notary-State Department thing. I am far too tired to get into it any more now, suffice to say a bit of light has dawned and we are just about certain as to what we need to do. What we are very clear about as of tonight: The Holy Grail is the "Red Stamp" of the Vietnamese Government on every single document.
I would also like to add that my mum is awesome for busting a move to organize an appointment for our second Medical certificate (more on that later but yes, it involves a Notary), and MaryEllen -whom I have never met- in the Legal Department at my job's headquarter office in Boston who has been so sweet in getting everything organized for my Employment certificate. *Sigh*
Tomorrow morning I start my 2 week trip home with a flight to Philadelphia! I'll be hanging with my girlfriends till Sunday then off to my parents house in Massachusetts for a few days. Hans will meet me next Thursday, we'll catch some R&R in Upstate NY with friends, then back to Massachusetts. In between the fun will be some paper chasing and notarizing. Yeah.
