Notaries, Visas, and Hoops of All Kinds

 Just over a month has passed since I made the decision to accept a teaching position in Belèm, Brazil. What some of you might not know is that I am going to be teaching in a Christian international school. In this particular case, it means that I have been appointed as a missionary with the Network of International Christian Schools (NICS). I will be working at Amazon Valley Academy in a yet unassigned grade. I am excited to have the opportunity to work with the ministry AVA is doing through academics and other outreach ministries. Watch for further posts on how you can partner with NICS and help with those ministries!

  Most people are asking, "So, when do you leave?!" That is a very good question! For now, that is up in the air. You see, visas take a ridiculously long time to obtain from Brazil-usually five to six months.  Not only that, but there is a crazy process that all of the necessary documents have to go through in order to be acceptable for a visa.

1.  Copy of Diploma, Copy of teacher's license, copy of driver's license, copy of passport, local background check and release, and verification of employment all have to be notarized in the state each was issued in. (Thank goodness I've lived in Montana my whole life! No roadies needed!)
2.  All of those documents have to be sent to the Secretary of State who will put an apostille on it. (This makes it a legal document suitable for use by countries participating in the Hague Convention.)
3.  All of the documents then have to be sent to the regional Brazilian Consulate (in Montana's case, the Los Angeles branch) to be legalized as a Brazilian document.
4.  Next, the documents are sent to AVA in Brazil so that the school can apply for my visa.
5. Wait and pray that Brazil decides you are okay to be in the country.

  Between all of these steps, a lot of prayer goes up that nothing will be found wanting and sent back. I already experienced this with two of my documents when I sent them to the Secretary of State. The notarization wasn't up to par and I had to go back to the notary. 

  Not too big of a deal, right? Well, it was. First off, the notary just happened to be off on the Monday I went back. On Tuesday, she wasn't sure how to fix it, so I tried another route and went to a different notary. That notary informed me that I needed the original notary to fix it. And of course, this was after 4 pm, when the original notary gets off work. On Wednesday, I couldn't get a hold of the Secretary of State office until 4:30 pm, because she's out of the office on Wednesdays from 8:30-4:30 pm. I really needed to find out exactly how to fix the notarization. Thursday came around and I called the notary to find out if she was in. Nope. She had left early! AH! Friday rolled around and I spaced that I needed to go to the notary as I was in the middle of preparing report cards for third quarter. Oh bother!

  Thank goodness I have a wonderful mom! She totally saved my bacon and was able to take the documents to the notary, and then mail them for me on the following Monday. 

  I am currently waiting for those two blasted documents to come back from the Secretary of State. This whole debacle makes me a bit worried about what might happen with the legalization process at the consulate. 

  It's out of my hands though and it will be however it will be. God's got the situation under control and He knows how much I want to be in Brazil for the start of the school year. Who knows? If all of my blog readers are praying about it (hint, hint), maybe He'll perform a miracle and I will have the shortest visa process ever!

Pray I see this or something similar on my documents before the middle of April!
 (Picture courtesy of Wikipedia)