The Bureaucracy!

We went to open a checking account this week and were required to bring more paperwork than we would need to do secret nuclear research in the US. This is the land of bureaucracy and to survive it you just have to sit back and laugh. The next day we went to the commune with our relocation person to “register”. It is required that when you move to a new commune (community), you must go and register there. They want to know who is living in each commune at all times. After registering, a police officer comes to your house to check and make sure you are really living there. They are serious about keeping out the riffraff. When you move out you must “unregister”. Registering involves bringing a similar ream of paperwork as the bank account but they must be guaranteed with an “apostille”, which is a sheet of official paperwork from the US stating that the birth certificate and marriage certificate are accurate. Of course we didn’t know about that (even though we had been working with an immigration lawyer...sigh) so I couldn’t get registered. Howard has a work visa so his paperwork was accepted. So all of my paperwork has now been Fed Ex’ed back to the U.S. to give it another try, but it should be back in three weeks. The good news is that I don't have to move back to the US in the meantime!