We have some homework to do. Let’s start with the easy part: my birth certificate.
There is actually TWO types of birth certificates you can get from Italian authorities: the ESTRATTO and the INTEGRALE. In theory both work, but just to be sure I’m gonna go for the INTEGRALE I opted for the “ESTRATTO” instead, because it comes already translated in many different languages. If you’re unlucky, getting either of these certificates might require you to go in person to some dusty office in some decrepit building of your beautiful medieval Italian town and ask a thick-glassed old clerk to fetch it for you from some moldy cabinet full of weathered paper binders and make a copy. Luckily, Spelunca is a super high tech town, the Singapore of Italy OH MY GOD I’M LAUGHING SO MUCH BY WRITING THIS. Anyway, it has to be requested from the Spelunca town administration online portal, which is only accessible by residents. Luckily I can ask my parents. Clearly, by now it’s end year holidays, so no chance of getting it before mid-January, but we’re not in a hurry for this one. Eventually it arrived somewhere around January 10th, and my dad mailed it to me.
Now the tricky part. Mei-Lin’s documents have also to be requested in person in Taileng. The difference is that, while my parents are retired and have plenty of free time, Mei-Lin’s family is really on a tight schedule, so it’s a big issue to take an hour permit from work for going to some office to request a document. Things go SLOW, and eventually collide with LUNAR FUCKING YEAR FESTIVAL, which is a big thing in China and Taiwan, especially this being the FIRST one after the pandemic, so lot of people rushing to renew their passports for traveling etc, slowing down all the procedures. AYFKM.
Eventually, with LOT OF UNDUE DELAY, Mei-Lin’s relatives manage to get for us the original three documents (birth, family status and marriage certificates). All of them except the birth certificate are already in English, so Mei-Lin’s mom translates the birth certificate to English (using a common template found online), puts her signature on it, and proceeds to requesting related legalizations from a local notary and, later, the MOFA office. Whew!
So, last week we got all these documents. It is not 100% clear to me whether these have to be sent to Taipei or to the Zivilsthing in Zerneve, so in any case better first to send a scan to the Swiss consulate trade office in Taipei for validation.
The answer is swift:
The documents are correctly prepared, except that the translation of the birth certificate was signed by Mei-Lin’s mother. This cannot be accepted due to the conflict of interest. Please make sure that the translation is done by a professional agency and the translator himself/herself signs at the District Court.
AYFKM. Why? Mei-Lin has signed herself a translation for another official document before and it was never a problem!
I ask for clarification and they confirm that, yes, we need not only an “unrelated” 3rd party (like a friend or similar), but really a professional translator or agency. Clearly, this makes the current original document unusable, because the applied legalizations (which also legalize the invalid translation) are void. So we are back at square one with this one. We need to request a new copy of the birth certificate, and find a proper translator. We will start by asking to the notary recommendations and we’ll keep you updated here of course, for your delight.
