Adventures in Immigration

  In order to get married in Ecuador, I need several pieces of documentation: Certificate of Marital Status, translated & apostilled. Birth Certificate, translated & apostilled There are other pieces of documentation necessary, but they do not apply to me (divorce certificates, death certificates...)   Today I stopped by the courthouse to pick up the Certificate of Marital Status. Only $10 and notarized. However, it is in English so I need to get a translator for that. And for my birth certificate. I located someone nearby that can do it, usually takes a day or two.    Next up, though is to get the documents apostilled. What is that, you ask?  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apostille_Convention   Basically it is like a notary for international documents. For that it will be a bit harder. For that I will need to travel to Harrisburg to get my documents apostilled. So I will be taking a day this week to do so.   One nice thing that came up is...

  Along   with everything else there is this issue as well:  https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/akz8g4/the-trump-admin-decided-against-effectively-stopping-immigrationfor-now?utm_source=vicenewsfacebook&fbclid=IwAR3t5houKi7PhNU-rvoMobMT738IgWrmjLYfmTM2YKog9Hjc26dW9e0oJWI The furlough has been delayed, but this directly impacts me & my ambitions. As the descendant of immigrants, as like most people in this country, all I can say is I see echoes of Trump's nationalism in how my people (Italians) were treated when we came to this country.

  For various reasons we pushed the date back to 10-3-20. Only 3 weeks extra.

As a quick note, her ring came in today. Looks legit. I cleaned it with alcohol. So no COVID. I sent her a photo & she has been very excited all day. Good news...

  Well, it looks like some big news is in the works as far as the quarantine is concerned in Ecuador:   https://drive.google.com/file/d/1W6acSDfVXOECpnV7FDO0TDQNRPbMZhOf/view?fbclid=IwAR0mAqPzE3J2DVtm52R4aoUChvtFZ_oHaNSLCVP8RaiygWZOxSzCB1kyHi8   Here is the translation thanks to Google because I am too lazy to do it by hand: RESOLUTION NATIONAL COE - AUGUST 15, 2020   The National COE, in permanent session on Saturday, August 15, 2020, by unanimously of the full members, resolved:   1. Approve the modifications to the “Protocol for entering the country by air, permanence and exit of mandatory preventive isolation ”, updated and jointly validated by the Unified Command Post –PMU-, as well as by the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Human Mobility, Public Health, Government, Transport and Public Works, Tourism, Economic Inclusion and Social, National Service of Risks and Emergencies and the National Police; same that will enter into force from August 15 of the cur...

One of the things you need to make a marriage happen of course is an engagement ring. I found a very nice one on Amazon that wasn't an outrageous   amount of money.  It also comes with the wedding band too, which I will need at some point as well. I had an inscription put in, "Te amo." Appropriate. The only downside? It was made in China, & I just read an article about how COVID has been found in packages in New Zealand & (ironically) on shrimp imported into China from Ecuador. So the plan now is to open the packaging outside the house & clean the rings with alcohol. I assume no, but does anyone know if alcohol (I have 91% in my house I use for airbrushing) has an impact on white gold?   With all that said, & that the only obstacle to getting married in Ecuador is the quarantine, the current plan is to wait & see what happens. If the quarantine is not lifted by November, we will do the civil ceremony in the Dominican Republic rather than in E...

I recently talked to a lawyer in Ecuador about marriage laws, as they impact foreigners. The good news is that the law that says I must be in residence in the country for 75 days has been revoked, so there is nothing stopping me from getting married there. Well, except for the Coronavirus & the quarantine. But still, this will be significantly cheaper for me, as well as being better for me in that I marry under Ecuadorian law, get indisputable spousal rights under the law, & will probably be easier when I decide to immigrate in the next 7 years.