Getting married: obtaining San's birth certificate

We had already just arrived back in Macedonia when San's sister was knocking the doors of the public notary (cartorio) where San's birth certificate could be retrieved. Armed with the authorization (the procuração - again a document so colourful with all the stamps, seals, signatures, official Brazilian green ink and silvery shiny anti-counterfeiting strips that only the looks of it could leave the impression that you'd better not do any harm to this little paper) stating that she legally would be able represent San in her absence, San's sister got in front of the lady behind the counter. After asking the question "Can I have a birth certificate for my sister?", the procuração was studied briefly. It was given back with the simple answer: "Não!" And there you are. :( Now what? Asking for the one in charge? So it was done. The man in charge of this section of the cartorio was on holiday, or so I remember. Whatever it was, it was not possible to speak to him. If we wanted to speak to him we had to wait. "But", so the cartorio's girl continued, "it will not be possible to get the birth certificatate with the authorization you are having. For the birth certificate San has to come herself in person to obtain it!" And that was it.

Some weeks and many stressing phone calls later it appeared that, indeed, the girl at the cartorio was wrong. That with the authorization it is possible to get the birth certificate. That we just got ourselves another 4 weeks delay in a precious timeframe of 6 months validity of the necessary documents (the in February 2007 obtained statement of civil status being the starting point of these 6 months).

In the end, San's sister got the birth certificate and we could move on to the next step in the process: legalization of the documents by the ministry of foreign affairs in the far away capital Brasilia.