A Little Story I Like to Call "Getting My Degree Legalized"

I'd like to start out with a request for your prayers. I still have about two and a half months left at my job (so there is time) but it's hard to remain hopeful all the time about my replacement. We came close with two different people who didn't work out for different reasons. Please pray that we find someone with a servant heart and missionary spirit who will be a good fit for the parish and us for them. Thank you!


Now onto my story about getting my degree legalized. If I want to use my degree in Chile, then there is a process to get Chileans to recognize it as legitimate in their country. Just for the record (Mother and Andres), I DO want to use my degree in Chile, I'm just not sure how possible that will be since my degree is in Theology. To my knowledge there are not a lot of paid positions for my field. My best bet is that once I become fluent in Spanish a Catholic school might want to hire me to teach Religion. Anywho...I called and emailed the consulate here in the U.S. to get the skinny on what I have to do. These are the instructions they gave me:

LEGALIZATION OF SCHOOL DOCUMENTS Step 1:  Document must be signed by a school official (Principal, Counselor, Registrar) before a Notary Public. Step 2: The signature of the Notary must be certified by County Clerk or Secretary of State’ Office.  This certification must be in ORIGINAL issued in one of the following States:  Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Ohio, Wisconsin.  After being legalized by the County Clerk or Secretary of  State’ Office the document must be sent to the Consulate General of Chile.   Step 3: US$ 12 per legalization in Money Order (no personal checks) payable to the Consulate of Chile.  Step 4: Include a self addressed and stamped envelope to send you back the document. IMPORTANT: In order to validate this document in Chile, it must be legalized by the Foreign Affairs Ministry of Chile, Legalization Department. Agustinas 1320, Santiago, Chile. 

They say Chileans are a bit bureaucratic and that they like their red tape and to make you jump through hoops and wait in many, many lines. Well, today I got an experience of that in our own U-S of A.  I had to send an envelope inside of an envelope inside of an envelope to my college along with a check for $26 so that they can print me off another diploma and have it notarized. Then they must send it in the next envelope inside an envelope with the $12 money order to the Chilean Consulate in Chicago. Note I had to send it to the consulate in the jurisdiction where I went to school and not where I live now- or else I would have sent it to Salt Lake City. The consulate will authenticate/legalize it and then mail it to my parents house in the final envelope provided. It's being sent to their house in case this whole process takes longer than two and a half months. BUT as you may have noticed from the directions, the process doesn't stop there. Once I arrive in Chile I also have to have it legalized there. I'm not quite sure why I have to do this twice. And will they make me pay for it even more in Chile?


So how did it go sending off the envelope inside of an envelope inside of an envelope? Not so good. I got the run around. When I started this morning I knew that I needed to get postage for my three envelopes and the $12 money order- everything else was ready. So I called up the post office and asked: Do you sell money orders? The answer was yes. Perfect! Off to the post office I went on my merry little way during my lunch break. I get there and go up to the counter and request the money order and postage. I get the postage first and start sticking stamps onto my envelopes. Then comes time to pay- but you can only pay for money orders with cash or debit. Usually I carry cash on me but I didn't have enough today of all days. No problem because I have not only one, but two debit cards! Except one I don't know the pin to and the other the post office machine will not accept. I pay for the stamps with cash, cut my losses with time and move on. I drive to my bank, go up to the counter and ask: Do you sell money orders? The answer is yes. Perfect! Except they cost five stinking dollars! It only cost $1.10 at the post office. I say heck no, take a measly $12 out of my account and leave. Then I go across the street to the grocery store. I asked: Do you sell money orders? The answer was yes. Perfect! And how much do they cost? 25 cents a piece! Jackpot! I might have wasted 45 minutes but I saved $4.75. I got my money order, stuck it in the middle envelope, checked the other envelopes to make sure they had the correct addresses and put it in the big blue postal mailbox.


Done and done! Hopefully. Now check out some pictures.

The contents of the first envelope. The forms I had to fill out for my school. Plus 26 buckaroos!

The infamous money order

The final mailing package: an envelope inside an envelop inside an envelope

It should have been picked up at 4:30pm today! It's on its way....