The Long Wait...

This entire process has required me to be patient. It has taught me that even though here in the USA everything we do has a sense of urgency, not everyone in the world lives the same way. We want our food fast, we don't like to wait in lines, the list can go on and on. I started this process in January and anytime I submitted paperwork, I had to wait for it to be processed. After my interview, I had to wait to hear back. I have no problem waiting but I think this next wait I'll have to endure will be the longest but I plan to occupy my time selling everything we're not going to take with us or keep and decluttering our lives so that when we leave the USA we will leave knowing we only have the necessities.

Part of this process is authenticating documents which is also called attesting documents. Here's what happens: Depending on dependents and marriage things will be different.

1 - Get all documents notarized, except marriage certificate and birth certificates (if you're traveling with kids). We had to get my teaching license and marriage certificate notarized. Our Credit Union notarizes for free. The point of this is to certify that documents are true and authentic.

2 - Send documents to the Secretary of State to have them authenticated and say that those that signed the documents were real people with the "power" to sign them. (Marriage Certificates and Birth Certificates must be done at the Secretary of State they were issued. For me that was going to Raleigh. I had an entire post about that adventure. Click here to read that post.)

3 - Documents are sent to the Secretary of State in Washington, DC to say that all documents are true documents.

4 - Documents are sent to the country you'll be traveling to for them to say documents have all been authenticated and are true. (for me that is the UAE)

5 - Once all parties have authenticated documents they are sent back.

This process can be confusing. Some people opted to take care of all of the steps themselves. I chose to take our marriage certificate to Raleigh myself for the authentication process but that's all I did myself. I paid a company, ProEx, to take care of all of the other steps including notarization. This saved me having to run around and kept me from the headache of worrying about my documents.

I sent everything to my recruiter and he told me my entire packet has been sent to the UAE for VISA processing and now I wait for our plane tickets.

Let the waiting begin...

Be Kind to One Another and Be Uniquely You!