All Aboard the Bureaucracy Train

(Warning - This may be as painful to read as it was to experience.) 

Finally, armed with a baby, and a birth date for all the forms, Steven and I were able to begin the process of getting all the documents that Hazel needs to leave the country. The first of those forms was her actual birth certificate, which would be issued by the Vietnamese Department of Justice.

On Thursday morning, the day after we'd been discharged from the hospital, Hazel and I set out to the US Consulate to get a stamp on the form that stated that she would be accepted as an American citizen. After the hassle of getting the baby bag packed, getting the baby ready, getting myself ready, getting out of my neighborhood with the least amount of tongue clicking from all the Vietnamese woman who think I should a) not be leaving the house and b) have Hazel bundled up like a Himalayan Sherpa in 90 degree heat, getting the form stamped was a breeze.

The following day, Steven had arranged for one of his friends at the school, Ms. Nga, to meet us at 8:30 at the Department of Justice to help with any Vietnamese translation we might need. Before we could meet her, we needed to complete one last step - to have the form I had just had stamped "authenticated" by the office where I had caused a big scene over our marriage certificate. Steven left early on the bike to get the "authentification," while I got the baby ready and took a taxi to the Department of Justice to meet Ms. Nga.


On our way, I got a call from Steven telling me that he has been informed that our form cannot be authenticated because the consular stamp is a round stamp and we needed a particular square stamp with the name of the consular officer. He was shooed away and told to go back to the Consulate for the square stamp. A few minutes later, I got another call from Steven informing me that the US Consulate is closed on Fridays. We decided to risk submitted the form as is and he left to join us.

Once we were all together at the Department of Justice, Ms. Nga took over. She gave all our forms to the man behind the counter; translated messages between the man and Steven and I as the first, second, and third version of the application we submitted were rejected one by one - the first because under "place of birth" we put "Ho Chi Minh City" instead of the name of the company that owns the hospital where she was born as we should have..., the second because Steven wrote the company name too big and couldn't fit it all on one line, the third because after all that we were informed that the form had to be filled out in Vietnamese; and kept pushing her way back to the counter each time we had to submit a corrected form without waiting at the end of the line. After about an hour and a half, we were told that our application had been accepted and that we could pick up Hazel's birth certificate the following Thursday.

I immediately went home and emailed my contact at the US Consulate and informed him that we wouldn't have the birth certificate until June 3rd and asking if that would be time enough for us to come in, apply for and receive Hazel's CRBA and passport and be out of the country by June 15th, when my visa expired. He replied that it shouldn't be a problem and we made an appointment for the following Thursday afternoon at 4:30.

The following Wednesday evening Steven and I realized that we had yet to get Hazel's passport pictures which we would need for our appointment the following day, so we took a taxi down to the tourist district where we knew a "passport picture guy," whose tiny street side shop doubled as a laundry service and copy shop. We got there and laid Hazel down on a blanket on top of the printer and tried to get her to wake up for her picture. Passport pictures have pretty strict guidelines and the subject has to be facing front with eyes open against a white background. We tried to rouse her by talking to her, playing with her hands and feet, tickling her belly, but she wasn't having it. Steven left to get an ice cube, but even rubbing an ice cube on her leg only elicited a quick frown and she was back to sleep. The copy man told us that we could just take a picture of her at home and bring it to him in the morning and he could doctor it up with Photo Shop and print it the correct size. Once at home, when Hazel finally roused, we spent a few minutes taking various shots until we got one we thought would work.

The following morning, I went to pick up the Birth Certificate and to request additional official copies and English translations, both of which we would need, in addition to the original, for our appointment that afternoon at 4:30. When I went to get the official copies, I was told to pay 30,000 VND (less than $2) and to come back the following Thursday. At the translation counter, it was the same thing. Pay 100,000 and come back next Thursday. I argued a bit, telling them that I needed them by that afternoon for an appointment at the US Consulate, to no avail and I had to leave with only the original. Then I took a taxi back to the photo shop, gave the woman there the pictures and was told to come back at 3:00 to pick them up.

Once home, I emailed my Consulate guy again and told him the situation and he again assured me that it shouldn't be a problem and asked me to come in at 4:00 to get the process rolling.

At 3:30, I bundled Hazel up again and she and I headed to the Consulate while Steven left school for the photo shop for the pictures. We all met up at the Consulate at 4:00, where we were greeted warmly by the Consular staff, who by then were all too familiar with my face and were happy to finally meet Hazel and Steven. By 4:45, all of our paperwork had been accepted and we were told that we could have her CRBA and temporary passport as early as the following day - with one hitch. The photos that we took weren't regulation size and we would have to take them again and bring new pictures back first thing the following morning with a copy of our flight literary that showed we were leaving on the 15th. We thanked them and made our way home to book our plane tickets home and try to get our 10 day old baby to look wide-eyed straight into the camera.

That evening, Steven went back to the photo shop and was told to come back at 9:00 the following morning to pick up the pictures. We also booked our tickets home on American Airlines leaving Saigon at 11:40 p.m. on Tuesday, June 15. We were informed that we would have to go to the airport to pick up a paper ticket for Hazel because they did not issue electronic tickets for an "infant-in-arms." Because American Airlines does not have a desk at the airport, we were told to go to the Japan Airlines desk, because we would be on Japan Airlines for the first leg, and ask them to issue the ticket.

Friday morning, Hazel and I set off again. We went by the photo shop, picked up the pictures, and headed straight to the Consulate. It wasn't until I arrived that I realized that I had forgotten to print out our itinerary, so I called Steven, who printed it out and left school to bring it to me at the Consulate. Once inside, less than 30 minutes later, Hazel had been officially recognized as a passport holding citizen of the United States at 11 days old.

Now, armed with a birth certificate, CRBA and passport, the last steps were to pick up her ticket and to get a Vietnamese exit visa so that we could take her out of the country. I went home, had lunch, fed Hazel and headed out again to the visa office to find out what we would need to do to apply for her visa. The man behind the counter was very helpful and, luckily for me, spoke conversational English. He explained exactly what I would need and said that if I came back and applied on Monday, I would have her visa by the following Monday. He then admonished me for bringing such a young baby out and told me to send my husband to apply for the visa.

Saturday afternoon, Steven drove to the airport to pick up Hazel's ticket, but found that Japan Airlines only has two flights a day, one at 5:30 a.m. and one at 11:40 p.m. and the rest of the time, the desk is closed, so he came back empty handed. That evening at 10:00 p.m he went back, but forgot to bring our itinerary, so had to come back again with no ticket. The following morning, he got up at 4:30 a.m. and left for the airport making sure he had all the paperwork he needed. But on the way, he was pulled over by the cops and had to pay a bribe to get out of a ticket for "starting a right turn before the light turned green" and by the time he got to the airport, the Japan Airlines desk was closed again.

On Monday, having learned that there was a Japan Airlines ticket office downtown, I went to the office with Hazel to see if I could pick up her ticket. At the JAL offices, I was informed that there was also an American Airlines Ticketing Office and that I should go there for the ticket, an office of which the AA offices in the US are apparently unaware. Back in a taxi, Hazel and I were off again. Once at the AA office, 20 minutes, and  first public diaper change and second episode of breast feeding in public, later, I had Hazel's tickets.

Meanwhile, Steven had been able to arrange for his school administration to handle Hazel's visa along with his paperwork and was told that we'd have everything we needed by Monday, June 14th.

So now we wait. If this final step in the process goes smoothly, we'll be boarding a plane bound for the US at 11:20 on Tuesday, June 15th. If not, I'll have another story for you.....