March 17, 2018 And again we have to wait some more
Hello, awesome friends and furends!
This was the backyard this morning. It had started to snow again.
Winter seems to come back to Europe again. After endless rain on Friday and Saturday, the temperatures are dropping again and icicles are forming.
On Friday, Ralph’s papers came back from the legalisation office in the UK. We’ve been really waiting for them so much, as the legalisation of all 3 documents would have meant for us that we could have gotten married finally. I say “would” because as I opened the envelope with my heart beating heavily and my hands shaking, I saw a letter right away, explaining that they were unable to legalise all documents.
Oh no! Sigh…
They were able to legalise and put an Apostille on Ralph’s birth certificate and his divorce paper, but not the marriage certificate that Ralph got as it is from the registrar in England back then.
Deep sigh…. Some more waiting and hoping then… Again.
But there’s no giving up!
So on to yet another bureaucratic hurdle to overcome:
Ralph has to fill out a form online, on the UK gov site, to apply for a new marriage certificate from his previous marriage, which will then be sent to us. Once it arrives, we have to fill out the form for the legalisation office again, and send the new marriage certificate off to their office in the UK by courier. Again.
You would think it should be enough to have an Apostille for the divorce paper, which is in our opinion, the actually important paper. That divorce paper would not exist if the marriage on the marriage certificate would not have been valid.
But the Graz registrar wants everything certified, legalised and translated, certified of course. I don’t even understand why the Graz registrar even requires the certificate of no impediment (Ehefähigkeitszeugnis) from the British Embassy, who checks the same documents to make sure they’re all genuine, and that Ralph really is free to marry, if one has to have the same documents checked by the British government in the UK as well.
So basically Ralph’s documents have been checked and certified twice. It’s not right, those laws and regulations, as it’s unnecessary and it’s costing a whole lot of money that we would actually need for other things. And it’s costing time, sanity and sleep.
We’re always worried there will be some other bureaucratic hurdle thrown at us at every step.
Oh the certified translations arrived as well in the week before and they did a great job with it.
After getting a new marriage certificate and having an Apostille put onto it should be the last thing now. We can only hope. I definitely lost my usually positive attitude and am now always worried at each new hurdle that we resolve, as there’s always another one thrown at us.
Lol, I kind of see it coming that by the kind of luck we’ve been having, the registrar official who will (hopefully) marry us, is going to be on vacation for a couple of weeks or so, by the time we’ve got all the new paperwork finished.
Writing about those bureaucratic shenanigans and get it off my chest and onto my blog makes me feel a lot better, it always does! But enough of that.
Both of us are fine and well, although our sleep isn’t as good because of the upsets. But we’re totally happy together and we love having a home together with our 3 kitties!😽😽😽
Sonic, Samantha and Murli are all fine, happy and healthy. I’m sure they would love for spring to come finally though. Can’t wait to make our balcony beautiful and cat safe, and make it nice for us and the cats.
For now, they are usually cuddled up in their baskets and / or near the heating 😸
Samantha loves to sleep on and surrounded by valerian root pouches, next to the heater…
Murli likes to sleep in her comfy warm basket.
Or like yesterday, on the round chair in the living room, while I sit at the computer nearby.
Murli also had some fun with boxes. She just loves them!
Little boy Sonic and usually likes to come into bed, surrounded by stringy things 😸
At this very moment, I am already in bed, with Sonic cuddled up on my legs, as I finish writing this post.
Hopefully the next time I have an update regarding us trying to get married, I’ll finally have good news 🙏
Hope you all had a nice weekend! Stay warm and comfy! And lots of purrs and pawhugs!😽😽😽