Visa Requirements Part 3: Getting Your Crap Authenticated by the Secretary of State

There's a reason I made this post separate from the notarized/certified post. Simply because there's some bureaucratic, nonsensical government jargon I needed to explain first.

The most confusing things you'll ever encounter is this concept of getting your paperwork authenticated. In the state of Georgia, there are two different state seals that can authenticate a piece of paper:

1.)The Great Seal
2.)An Apostille

I cannot tell you how many times we went back and forth between the Secretary of State's office & the Church's Travel Office. Let me tell you what happened first, when I called the Secretary of State, I got an automated recording talking about Hague convention & Non-Hague convention countries, and what the requirements are for both. You can imagine the deer in the headlights look that appeared on my face. So I called the Travel Office & asked which one I needed & told them I had no idea what Hague meant or what an Apostille was! They told me that I needed an Apostille.

However, after doing a google search for Brazil, I found that it was a non-Hague convention country, which meant that they only did Great Seals not Apostilles. So I called the Travel Office BACK and told them that Brazil was a non-Hague country and it needed a Great Seal not an Apostille. A lady at the Travel Office told me I needed an Apostille, for sure. So I called the Secretary of State & they told me they don't give out Apostilles for Brazil, they only do Great Seals for Brazil. So after getting teary on the phone, and calling the Travel Office several times I FINALLY found someone who knew what they were talking about, and they told me I did indeed need a Great Seal.

*Deep Breath*

So yeah, it may be different from state to state, but in Georgia, there are certain countries who've agreed to the "Hague Convention" which requires an Apostille Authentication. There are other countries (like Brazil) who are "Non-Hague Convention" country and require the Great Seal Authentication.

SO, if you reside in Georgia, and you get someone at the Travel Office who says you "absolutely need an Apostille for Brazil" & "Does the Secretary of State deal with the Brazilian Embassy on a daily basis?" ask for a supervisor to talk to. Or call back and ask for someone else. You DEFINITELY need a Great Seal. When in doubt, call. If that doesn't work, do what your Secretary of State asks for.

Now, it's incredibly tempting to lose your patience with either the Travel Office or the Secretary of State, especially when they're making you jump through fiery hoops like some circus poodle. But trust me, when you feel like you're beginning to lose your cool, take a deep breath and watch an episode of Doctor Who or How I Met Your Mother. If you don't have time for that, listen to one of your favorite songs, or a funny How it Should Have Ended video on YouTube. Those 3 minutes don't last long, and it'll take your mind off of how frustrating and ridiculous this is.

I bought so much chocolate, ice cream, sour punch straws & Redbox movies than you can shake a stick at, just to get me through that week of getting all this paperwork done.

Before you go down to the S.O.S, I'd make sure you have enough money to do this. Georgia asked for 10$ PER PAGE to get my documents authenticated. Now, when you add up my passport pages, my driver's license, my affidavits, etc, etc, that comes to 100$, which the Travel Office doesn't prepare you for at all. So it was quite a shock when we called and found out that we were gonna have to drop that much cash just to get this stuff passable for Brazil.

If you are in a bind for cash, like I was, or your family has no way of paying for this, like mine did, ask your bishop. The Lord is not gonna prevent you from going on a mission just because of money. That's what tithing's for. That's what President Monson's missionary fund is for. Tell your bishop you need help with this, and he'll pull some strings to get this paperwork done for you. Not to mention, it's tax deductible :)

Hopefully this helped you out a bit, and you have a better idea of what to expect for the next few weeks.