Drama ... Everything involves drama! Alternate Title: Passport, Take 2

Seriously. 

Almost nothing about this process has been straightforward.  It's enough to cause you some serious heart problems!

[SPOILER ALERT - EVERYTHING WORKS OUT. CALM DOWN  MOM.]

So, on Tuesday, we successfully obtained the consent from ICBF. That was the last piece we were missing to obtain Jhon's visa. I finally felt comfortable enough to order his plane ticket (and wowza was that NOT cheap).  All we had to do was get a "correction" to his passport.  Little did I know....

To make a long story slightly less long... well, I can try.

We head to the passport office this morning and quickly discover this "little correction" is pretty much not possible. We need an entirely new passport. Yay! I was definitely looking to spend another $75. Awesome.  But, whatever. We just want to get home.

So, we finally get to that point and we have to pull out the updated sentencia and birth certificate.  We quickly discover that the lawyer screwed up, again, and spelled our name wrong on the sentencia amendment.This almost caused further issues, but our rep quickly talked our way out of that one.  Score one for Senora Luz. Unfortunately, she couldn't talk her way around the next problem.

Which was that when our lawyer sent us the updated birth certificates on Monday, he was in such a hurry that he didn't wait for the notary to sign them. So, they were basically just photo copies.  Here's a little tip. Colombia does not accept photo copies.  Le sigh.

At this point, we actually LEAVE the office. They can't do anything until they get something from the notary in Puerto Asis that indicates that the documents we have are legit (just unsigned).  So, we wait around an hour or so until we finally get this arranged and head back to the passport office.  Upon arrival, we find out that the manager who was also waiting for the email got it, but the attachment was blank. On the phone again, attachment re-sent.  Then, another problem. The notary in Puerto Asis is rather... not tech savvy. Apparently, he was sending the document from some generic email address in an internet cafe.  Well, that pretty much negated the point of confirming that the correspondence was FROM THE NOTARIA in the register's office.  Good grief. 

So, several phone calls and another half hour of waiting later, they finally get an email that they are comfortable with.  So, we finish putting all the info together and they tell me "thank you, it will be ready Thursday afternoon."  Um, no. That won't work. We have to be at the embassy at 1:30! Another trip back to the manager, who assures us it will be ready on Thursday morning.

And low and behold... we arrive at the passport office today and it IS ready! Wahoo!  

We're almost there!