Having a baby in another country is not a trivial matter. Well, having the baby isn't so bad, but trying to make two countries believe that you have actually had the baby is another matter. The paperwork for Canada is fairly straight forward as Riley is actually a Canadian. However, she is also entitled to US citizenship, for obvious reasons, and that's where the problem arises. We were trying to buy flights to go home for a spell this summer and just before we hit the "purchase" button, I had a thought. "What happens when we need to get Riley on the plane? I bet she needs a passport."
Most people don't try and get a passport for a child before she was even due to be birthed (tomorrow, in fact), so the documents are not all that easy to come by in a timely manner. Now its a game of chicken - how much time do we give ourselves to get the passports (flight dates?) and which country do we go with to get her home? I think a Canadian passport will be the easiest to get for her, but are we going to have to answer questions at customs when our child has a different nationality than ours? Probably a bad idea to try and sneak her through in a critter carrier, but tempting. Regardless, we'll have to get the tickets soon and put our faith in the passport office to get the job done.
Speaking of government offices, we are having a serious problem with the post office. We have gotten a lot of cards in the last couple of weeks and a few packages. About 50% of the cards come with scotch tape re-sealing them and have clearly been opened. Its not clear if anything has been removed because we don't know what cards contain things and which do not, but obviously there are some unscrupulous postal employees. But who to complain to? Because both US and Canadian post offices are involved, plus customs on both sides, everyone can blame someone else. Even if we could find someone to listen, there is complete deniability. If anyone has suggestions, I'm all ears.
-Chris
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6 comments:
Wow! Good to know. I'll be sending a package shortly; have you had problems with those as well, or just cards?
Just cards at this point, but make it a lot of work to get into :)
Interesting - but, in the end, having dual citizenship will surely be worth the hassle :) looking forward to the three of you meeting the three of us! Regards -
Carol, Evan, and Juliette
sent a package at the beginning of the week. hope all the contents are intact..
Hi guys. I am sending a package tomrrow via UPS, please keep your eye out for it. I will track also. Riley is so beautiful, I cannot wait to meet her. Wait until she laughs at you at 16 and you cannot get her to tell you what is so funny. Maureen
Hanover 977@yahoo.com
Sorry, I didn't mean to alarm people. Packages really haven't been a problem, mostly letters. I really don't think it will be a problem, it was just frustrating to know someone is going through envelopes being sent to us.
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