Baby Paperwork: CUIL numbers

In order to have a bank account, get a credit card, own a car, or receive any Social Security benefits in Argentina, you must have something called a CUIL (Código Único de Identificación Laboral). This is a number that includes your DNI (Documento Nacional de Identidad) with two additional digits in front and one digit added at the end.

Jon and I got our CUILs through Jon's company almost immediately after we arrived in Argentina. Until we had a CUIL, Jon couldn't get paid, and we had to (pretty much) store all of our cash under a mattress in our rental apartment, so this was priority #1. After that, we haven't given much thought to this number, we rarely use them, and now that everything has been set up, hardly anyone ever needs the number.

That is, until we recently tired to book a trip to Uruguay on the Buquebus ferry. The ticketing agent at Buquebus informed me that our children were not able to travel internationally until they each had their own CUIL numbers. This was a mere five days after returning from Brazil - a trip where no one needed, or even mentioned a CUIL - though when I brought this up to the agent, he shrugged and told me that we must have broken the law. I was told that we either got the kids a CUIL number, or find another way to Uruguay. Granted, I wasn't so dead-set on getting across the river, but I figured that if this was a potential problem for future travel, we may as well get the kids their CUIL numbers.

In my research into how to get the CUIL numbers issued, I found that AFIP (the larger government organization that issues CUIL numbers) has recently issued a notification that states CUILs are no longer required for children. Clearly, Buquebus has not gotten this memo - and didn't care that I brought it to their attention. Also, laws change so quickly in this country that no one can keep the current status straight, so I wasn't going to press the issue.

First, if you may already have a CUIL, you can check your number via the ANSES website. If you don't have a CUIL, read on:

Obtaining a CUIL is pretty easy, assuming you have the correct paperwork. You need to apply in person at an ANSES office. The office closest to me is located on Cordoba 1118 (esq. Cerrito) and be aware that these offices take liberal leave for holidays, days surrounding holidays and when they are open, they are open from 8:00am - 2:00pm. You don't need an appointment, but arriving early is an advantage as there always seem to be lots of people in need of the office (similar to the DMV or Social Security Offices in the US). I arrived at 8am and walked right in. You start at a reception desk where they ask why you have come and verify that you have all of the right documents. For a CUIL you need:

• Parent's DNI (and a copy)
• Child's DNI (and a copy)
• Child's Partida de Nacimiento (and a copy)

Once you have proved that you're prepared, you get a number and wait until you're called. For me, this was 25 minutes. Once called, I sat and waited for each document to be painstakingly analyzed, and at the end of the process, I had a CUIL for each of my children. All included, the process took about an hour. Luckily, the kids didn't need to be with me to have the CUIL issued, so it was easy in and out.

Not the most exciting day of my life, but at least we can rest assured that our Argentinean children can successfully apply for Social Security benefits if they happen to be living in Argentina when they retire. Maybe. If the funds are still around (snicker, snicker...).

Baby Paperwork: Getting an Argentine Passport

Unless you are in Argentina as part of a foreign government, having a baby in Argentina means that you have an Argentine child (congratulations!). According to the Argentine government, regardless of where you are from - your child is all Argentine, baby. This also means that in order to leave Argentina (or, more specifically, South America), your child must have an Argentine passport.

The Argentine paperwork is a domino effect of tramites, so you need to have the baby's birth certificate and DNI before you can apply for the passport. You need an appointment for this step, though I requested an appointment the day Alex's DNI arrived and there were plenty of appointments to be had. We could have gone in the next day if we wanted, but both parents need to be present and the earliest appointment is 11am (yup, because that's what time they OPEN! What?!) so we had to wait a few days before we could both make it happen.

Before you go:

• Make an appointment. There are three locations in the city where you can apply for a passport, choose the one closest to you and follow the prompts online. After choosing a location, you need to choose the type of appointment, for a passport this is a "tramite regular" (the appointment explainations are a bit confusing). Two points: 1) The appointment will be sent to your email where you need to open and click on a button to confirm it. This email was hanging out in my spam folder for about a week before I thought to look there. 2) You appointment isn't truly an appointment, it's just a time slot that you are allotted to apply for a passport. When we went there were, like, 100 other people claiming to have an 11am appointment.

The day of the appointment, bring with you:

• A printout of your appointment confirmation (which is sent to you by email)
• The baby's official birth certificate (partida de nacimiento)
• Both parent's DNI
• The baby's DNI
• A debit or credit card
• Both parents
• The baby

We also brought our apostilled marriage license, our US passports and copies of everything, but only the bulleted points were requested by the agents. A list of items is also available on the guia de tramites website (Spanish only).

We arrived at the office at 10:58am, and waited outside in line with the 100 other 11:00am appointment people. Once inside, we were directed to the Mesa de Entrada where they confirmed why we were there (for a first-time infant passport), looked at all of the documents we brought and gave us a number. When our number was called, we passed to another desk which looked at all of these items again and gave us another number. 

Our number was called by the banco this time.  This is where you pay. No cash, the fee was AR$400 for the passport only. The bank ran our card, we signed and then were given - yet another number.

This number was the real deal.  We waited just a few minutes (even though we've been through 3 desks already, it only took 10 minutes or so) and were called up to the Toma de Tramite desk. Here they asked us a few questions, nothing too complicated but it was helpful to have a basic understanding of Spanish. They took a picture of Alex, took his thumbprints (again a bit difficult given his age, but got it done with patience) and printed up a delivery receipt.  We were told that the passport would be delivered within 15 working days, and if we aren't home for the delivery we can pick it up from this same location. 

The delivery can be tracked or you can pick it up (bring with you your DNI, delivery receipt and baby's birth certificate if you have to pick it up). We have not received this document yet, but according to the tracking number it was dropped off at our local OCA on November 28. I guess we'll see when it makes its way to us!

***UPDATE*** Alex's Argentine passport was delivered on December 11. Ironically, Jon's DNI arrived on December 12. So that makes it 14 days to deliver a passport, 96 days to deliver a DNI.  

Baby Paperwork: Getting a US Passport

Getting a US Passport was the most bizarre of the paperwork steps that we went through with Gretchen, it involved a jalopy, a man sitting on a tree stump and a photograph for the baby books. This time around I was better prepared. With photo composition guide in hand, I went to one of the many Kodak locations in the city and had passport photos taken of Alex. The poor Kodak employee took about 30 pictures with her camera and even then I had to send back the first developed photos because Alex's head was too big in the shot. If you have the pictures done for you, double check their work. Ask for a ruler, be sure to measure to the millimeter, because you don't want to have to go to the embassy for this appointment twice.

The embassy refers to this process as "Reporting a Birth Abroad" and it includes several steps: receiving a CRBA (Consular Report of Birth Abroad aka foreign born birth certificate), receiving a US Passport and - in a separate appointment - getting a social security number. The CRBA and the Passport can be done at the same appointment, so that's a bonus.

Before you go to the embassy:

• Make an appointment, without an appointment the embassy will not see you to register the birth.
• Complete the Application for Consular birth abroad. Print and bring with you
• Complete the Passport Application. Print and bring with you
• Get passport photos taken. There is a whole laundry list of requirements for the passport photos so be sure to take a careful look at what you're bringing in. In 2011 there was a guy that took pictures in a van across from the embassy but I've heard conflicting reports as to if he is still there or not.

On the day of your appointment bring with you (taken from the US Embassy website):

• The child’s birth certificate.
• Proof of citizenship of the U.S. citizen parent(s). Your current U.S. passport is the most frequently used form of proof. Your U.S. birth certificate or naturalization certificate is also acceptable.
• Parents’ marriage certificate, if applicable.
• Proof that you were in the United States prior to the birth of the child (tax returns, pay stubs, utility bills will suffice. We brought W2 forms, one for each of our jobs in the US, and that was all we needed)
• Completed application for consular birth abroad
• Completed application for U.S. Passport
• Passport photograph
• US$205 (or equivalent cash in AR pesos depending on the daily exchange rate), payable in cash or credit card. US$80 for the passport book, US$25 for the processing fee, US$100 for the registration of birth abroad.

Both parents needed to be present, as did the baby. As we entered the embassy, it was a quick reminder that the US is not as baby-friendly as Argentina. No liquids (including milk/formula), no special line for infants or expecting mothers, no cell phones or electronics. As American citizens we can bypass the huge line for visas and go right in, but that still includes a metal detector, passing another guard, entering a separate building, passing another guard and then taking a number and waiting our turn. This waiting took over an hour and 20 minutes, even with an appointment.

We approached the window that called our number, the agent collected and reviewed each and every one of the documents above. Once finished, we sat back down and waited for the cashier line to call us up (they call each person by name). Then we sat down and waited for another window to call our name. By this time, the entire embassy had cleared out and we were one of only two families still waiting. We were called up to the final window for a short interview, when that was complete we needed to sign the two forms we brought in front of the agent.

Now comes the part where the US Embassy page was a bit confusing. In order to have the certificate and passport delivered to you, you need to prepay for a DHL envelope. There is only one DHL location that works with the embassy on this, located at Avda. Cabildo 1209. Tell them that you need to purchase a guia for the US embassy, it should cost AR$70. This gives you a tracking number and receipt, but the actual envelop stays at DHL (the deliver it to the embassy themselves). Ours was delivered 11 working days later, and anyone at home could receive the delivery.

Our happy little American. USA! USA!

So now we are the parents of a full-fledged American citizen! And he is officially grown out of his 3 months clothes to top it all off - he is, truly, an American.

Baby Paperwork: DNI (Documento Nacional de Identidad)

Now that we have our Partida de Nacimiento (official Argentine Birth Certificate) we are ready to apply for our son's DNI.

This process is remarkably easier than it was back in 2011, maybe the whole "Nuevo DNI" campaign is really making a difference! Many of the "Comunas" have services that allow you to pick up the Partida and then go directly to a different desk and apply for the DNI. Our particular location (Comuna 11) did not have that feature, but the good news is that you can apply for the baby's DNI at any Centro de Documentacion Rapido location (for a list, click here: http://www.nuevodni.gov.ar/centros.htm) or at any shopping center in Capital. The greatest part is that there is no appointment needed - you just need to apply for the DNI within 40 days of receiving the Partida.

Only one parent needs to go accompany the baby for this little tramite, a nice change from many of our other baby paperwork appointments. Alex and I went a few days after getting the Partida, and we were in and out in under 30 minutes.

If you're adorable and have a new DNI, raise your hand!

Bring with you:

• The original Partida de Nacimiento
• The accompanying parent's DNI or Passport
• The baby
• AR$35

That's it. We needed to take a number and wait our turn, which only took a minute or two. The agent confirmed a few details, had me double check the information she typed up about Alex (name, address, etc) and then took his picture and digitally recorded his thumbprints.  These last two items are the hardest for a little baby, but the agent was patient, nice and helpful and had clearly dealt with newborns before. 

We left with a receipt of payment and the all-too-familiar form that you give to the delivery guy when he brings the DNI to your house (Jon and I just renewed our DNIs so we have quite a collection of these forms at home). Anyone can receive the DNI when it's delivered, so long as they show an ID and have the form. The DNI is promised to be delivered within 15 days - it was delivered to us within that timeframe - so we are happy campers! One last difference, Alex's DNI is good until his 8th birthday, his sister's is only good until she turns 5. 

We can only hope that Alex's hair stays this awesome until his DNI needs to be renewed. Until then, mom will have a bit of fun combing it after bathtime. What a precious little guy!!

Baby Paperwork: Getting an Argentine Birth Certificate

After giving birth to Gretchen in 2011, I considered myself a bit of an expert on registering a baby's birth in Argentina.  Low and behold, everything has changed in the last 2 years.

Now that we have our precious little boy, we need to go through the process all over again, and for that I need to re-learn the system. At least the order has remained the same, and the fact that the whole process is a domino effect, one step needs to be completed before you can begin the next step.

Here is a breakdown of the steps:

1. Register for the baby's official Argentine birth certificate: Partida de Nacimiento
2. Apply for the baby's Documento Nacional de Identidad (aka their DNI)
3. Apply for the baby's Argentine Passport
4. Register a "birth abroad" with the US Embassy; this step now combines the certificate of birth abroad (official US birth certificate), application for US passport and application for a social security number
5. Have a permiso de viajar made for the new little one (this step is not required by law, but it allows each parent to travel with the child out of the country. A really good idea in case a emergency happens at home or while on vacation and parents need to travel separately with the baby.  Without this paper, both parents must be present to take the child out of Argentina - and here are stories of immigration agents that have refused travel even when both parents are present if you don't have the permiso.)

On to the Partida de Nacimiento (aka Official Argentine Birth Certificate).

In the hospital the doctor, midwife or attending nurse writes us a birth certificate that has all of the details of the birth along with a footprint and thumbprint from the baby. You are given a copy of this document, called the Partida de Nacimiento, and the original is sent to a central location for your hospital. Our hospital is located in Palermo, but Alex's birth certificate was sent to a building called "Comuna 11" way out in Villa del Parque. The hospital will give you information on how to obtain an appointment to get the official version of the birth certificate, there is a phone number to call or you can request an appointment online. Once you have your appointment, you need to bring the following items on the day:

• DNI of the Mother and Father, and a photocopy of each
• Original marriage license (with apostille seal) of parents (if married) along with a photocopy.
• Passports of Mother and Father
• Copy of the birth certificate document from the hospital

With these documents, the appointment was simple.  We went in at the allotted time, sat down with an employee and filled out a questionnaire (asking about education level, place of birth).  This process was easy and the employees were quite friendly (as opposed to the last time we had this pleasure...) but it would be a difficult appointment to complete if you did not have at least a basic understanding of Spanish.

Once the information was collected, they asked one parent to sign a document and then shuffled us to a different desk to sign the partida de nacimiento. The same person needs to sign both places, though it doesn't matter which parent signs.  We were given a slip of paper telling us to come back in 48 hours to pick up the completed partida, and sent on our way.  Only one person needs to return to pick up the completed document, and when I went to retrieve it I was in and out the door in under 5 minutes.

I am unclear as to if the baby needs to come with you or if both parents need to be present at the first appointment. All three of us went just to be sure.

One great perk about this new system is that the birth certificate has the baby's DNI number posted right on the back, so with the partida you can get the ball rolling elsewhere. You still have to apply for an actual DNI, but at least you have the number for things like adding the child to health care plans or purchasing plane tickets for Christmas travel :) And I'll save the DNI process for another post. 

Here is a picture of our little guy, complete with a birth certificate all his own! Precious boy!

Buenos Aires Birth Day: 2013 Edition

When our daughter was born in February, 2011, I posted an update on the pregnancy and birth experience in Buenos Aires. It's time for the same update, 2.5 years later and a very different experience to tell.

The whole pregnancy and birth were still very good experiences, and the two pregnancies were pretty parallel until the birth itself. The biggest difference in the pregnancies is that this time around we had local insurance, as opposed to last time when all of our appointments were paid in cash and then reimbursed through our US insurance as an out-of-network claim. It's hard to find a good doctor that you connect with and trust, so even though my OB didn't accept our local insurance, we stayed with him - Dr. Juan Carlos Proccacini, who works out of Sanitario de la Trinidad, Cervino 4720, Palermo. To maximize our coverage, we still paid in cash at all of the regular pregnancy appointments (and then submitting them for reimbursement in the US) but all additional appointments; the blood work and other analysis, we had done at the Hospital Aleman since it is the closest hospital to us that accepts our local insurance.  This is a great perk of having local insurance, for the vast majority of routine procedures and appointments, all you have to do is flash your little card and no money needs to change hands.

Appointments:

• The appointment schedule for my pregnancy with Alex was the same as with Gretchen until we hit 33 weeks.  Since Gretchen arrived at 36 weeks my doctor wanted to play it safe and start weekly monitors early. This was an ironic twist since Alex waited until almost 40 weeks exactly before deciding to join us.
• I also started weekly non-stress tests (in Spanish, monitoreo) at 33 weeks. Each week I brought the results to my doctor's appointment, and each week he said "I'll see you next week".  Until 39 weeks...
• I decided against the birth classes this time around, I retained enough information from the first time around that I didn't need to take the full on class. I did, however, go to meet with the midwife because 1) She didn't end up attending my birth with Gretchen, her replacement did, she was on vacation and 2) my Spanish is still at a point where, under stress, I wasn't sure she could understand me.  I wanted to make sure she knew my name, my face and the fact that I am not great at articulating myself in a second language.

The Hospital:

• Through our local health insurance, we obtained a "prescription" for birth at 35 weeks from my OB, submitted it to the insurance company, and then received a pre-approval paper to show at check-in. This allows the hospital to anticipate our arrival, and made check-in a 10 minute process as opposed to the seemingly endless process we went through in 2011.
• With this pre-approval, we had a single room - but not the suite we had last time around. This was just fine for us, plenty of space considering that we didn't have the parade of visitors that the rest of the maternity wing seemed to employ. The biggest differences were that we didn't have a choice of daily menu items, no daily newspaper and no mini-bar.
• The check out process was still really slow, but we realized that it was due to my doctor not signing a check out order until after 2:00pm. I was ready to leave around 10:00am, after 3 nights away from home, I was more than ready to get back to my own bed (even if my doctor preferred me to stay for an additional night).  It was fine once I knew what time to expect to leave, but this was not made clear to me.
• There is a new process to register birth in Argentina, each hospital has a central location where the original documents from the birth are sent (the birth certificate) and you can either call or go online to request an appointment. The location for the appointment is dependent on the hospital where you delivered and needs to be started within 45 days of the birth - I will write more about this new process as we work through it.

The Birth:

• I had been having contractions for a number of weeks (perhaps months...) but on Thursday night they were more regular than before. I started keeping track, and sure enough, the contractions were 5 minutes apart for an hour, then two. I called the midwife, we agreed to wait another hour to see if they kept progressing. After another hour, we decided to head to the hospital (meeting her there at 12:15am, not the most ideal timing...). 
• Our plan was to have our beloved empleada, Candy, stay with Gretchen for the first night after the birth, she was our first responder. I was not convinced that we were going to check in to the hospital, so we woke Gretchen and brought her to the hospital with us.
• We ended up checking in to the hospital, calling Candy to meet us there and bring Gretchen home, and take solace in knowing that by then end of September 20th, we would have a baby boy!
• I will cut past the dramatic part, but after a number of unsuccessful hours of pushing we were not any closer to having a baby, my doctor made the decision to go ahead with a cesarean birth. Despite what I have heard about Argentine doctors, I do not in any way feel that this was a decision made for convenience, I feel that he was making the best decision for me and my baby. I know that the cesarean birth rate is quite high in Argentina, somewhere around 35% (slightly higher than the US, at 30%), but I feel that it was a necessary measure. I think the most important factor is having a trusting relationship with your doctor, this is the only foundation for feeling secure in their decision-making.
• After a c-section, I was offered to stay in the hospital four nights, though we requested going home after the third night.  Jon spent one night in the hospital, but then we wanted to be sure Gretchen didn't feel left out so I spent the other two nights alone with Alex.  This was a good choice for us, but after 3 nights we were ready to reunite as a family.

Though it certainly wasn't what we were expecting as we packed up for the hospital late Thursday night, we are so happy to have a healthy little boy join our family. The biggest lesson for me is that no two births are the same, as no two children are the same, and the most important factor is that we did everything possible to provide for a safe birth. At the end of the day, that is all that matters.  

And look at this little peanut! Such a looker! We're loving getting to know our new little guy.

Look at all of that thick, black hair!

Have Passport, Will Travel

Someone was looking out for us because today something magical happened... Gretchen's Argentine passport arrived!  We are now safe to travel outside of the country.

This officially ends the Legalizing Your Baby series.  It has been a crazy road, and considering that Gretchen will be 3 months old tomorrow, I truly believe that we accomplished this in the least amount of time possible. 



Look at how excited our little princess is!  We cannot wait for her to meet the rest of her family, and now we are finally able to take a breath and just be excited for our trip. 

I dare you to say this isn't the cutest photo ever

Legalizing Your Baby: Permiso a Viajar

The next step of our process doesn't actually legalize your baby, but it does allow you to travel legally with your child. I have heard this document called a number of different things, for the purpose of this post I will refer to it as the "permiso".

The permiso is a legal authorization signed by both parents and notarized (by an Argentine notary public or escribano) that states that the minor child can leave the country. This document can be obtained for each individual trip, or as a universal permission for all future trips for the child. The permiso is designed to prevent child abduction - by making it more difficult for a single parent to take a minor child out of the country without the consent of the other parent. In theory the only time you would need this document is if you were traveling alone with your minor child, however, as with most things in Argentina, it is smart to be over prepared. Depending on the immigrations agent that you have, you may be asked to produce this document even if both parents are traveling together, be prepared. Also, if you have a minor child, this is something you want to get taken care of as soon as possible just in case some sort of emergency arises and you need to travel solo.

Anyways, as far as obtaining a permiso is concerned, I am a little fuzzy on the details, but I'll tell you what I know. An escribano can prepare and authorize this document for you, and we went to Escribania Maschwitz - Tucuman 715. Here are the documents we needed to complete the permiso:

1. Original passports of both parents
2. Original DNIs of both parents
3. Original DNI of the baby

We verified that all of the information was complete and correct in the document and then both Jon and I signed the page. Three days later we had the completed permiso in hand, complete with notarized legalization. This will now be one of the documents that is always in our travel portfolio when Gretchen is with us. I have looked for more thorough information to share about obtaining this document, and the best information I have found is on the US Embassy website and the Ministerio del Interior site, but these resources aren't really that thorough (my apologies).

Now that we have this, we are just missing one last piece of the puzzle. The Argentine passport. Let us hope it arrives sometime within the next 6 days... Or someone is going to be a not-so-happy camper.

Legalizing Your Baby: Obtaining a Social Security Number

Who could deny this face??

At the advice of my friend Kelly and the Anonymous comment left on my Baby Passport Received post, I decided to try my luck at the Embassy and apply for Gretchen's Social Security number. The package containing her new passport gave nice, clear instructions on how to accomplish this very task, my only hesitation was not knowing if the Embassy would keep the documents needed to complete the request.  Good news!  You only need to show the documents.  Even Better News!  The whole thing took less than 30 minutes. 

The funny thing about applying for a Social Security number is that the window is only open from 8:00am - 11:30am Monday - Friday, except Wednesdays.  For some reason, they are closed every Wednesday.  So today I packed up my good little sleeper and we arrived at the Embassy around 11:15am.  As with the other times I have been to the Embassy (to renew a passport and to apply for a passport) it was no necessary as a US citizen to wait in line to get in, I approached the shaded window to the left of the entrance door, showed my passport and gained immediate entry.

I followed the instructions I was given and approached Window 16, which is actually a fingerprint window, so I waited for my number to be called and approached the correct Window, #17.  To apply for my daughter's Social Security number I needed:

1. My US passport
2. My daughter's US passport (and the instructions specify that the passport needs to be signed by a parent with the child's printed name in the signature line, who knew?)
3. My daughter's original birth certificate, the Certificado de Nacimiento

It is also helpful to know both parents (aka - my and my husband's) Social Security numbers.  I don't have his memorized, but they were able to look it up in some sort of database.  I was asked for a mailing address for where I wanted the card to be sent, and that was it.  If you choose to have the SS card sent to a local (Argentine) address, the waiting period is ~2 months, if you choose to have it sent to a US address, the waiting period is 2 weeks.  We have not had good luck receiving mail in a timely fashion so I opted for the US address option. 

If there is Social Security money left when she retires, I'll be smiling too.

So far, this has been the easiest part of the Legalization process.  Thanks to Kelly and Anonymous commenter for your help! 

Legalizing Your Baby: Argentina Passport & Permenant DNI

Waiting Area #1

Another step in legalizing our Argentine-born baby process is to apply for Gretchen's Argentine passport, without which she is not able to leave the country.  This process changed recently (May 9, 2011 to be exact), the biggest change for us is that you now need an appointment with the Registro Nacional whereas before it was only necessary to go to the building and wait in line. 

Here are the steps that we took in this new process to apply for our newborn's Argentine passport:

1. Get a DNI for your baby.  You need the DNI number to make an appointment.
2. Go to the Registro Nacional de las Personas website to make an appointment.  Print the appointment confirmation.
3. On the day of your appointment bring the following items to the Registro Nacional de Las Personas, located at - Humberto Primo 243 in Centro:
1. The appointment confirmation, 
2. Both parent's original DNIs and (US) passports,
3. Original DNI of the baby,
4. The baby's birth certificate (Certificado de Nacimiento),
5. $130 pesos,
6. The baby and at least one parent.

After we were inside the Registro, things progressed very smoothly.  It is very similar to the DMV in the US.  We waited in a preliminary line and received a numbered ticket.  We moved to the first waiting area until our number was called, where we approached a window, presented our documents and paid the processing fee.  We progressed to the next waiting area and waited for our number to be called a second time - this is where the passport processing truly began.

At this final step we were asked for all of our original documents again so that the agent could input all of Gretchen's details into the computer.  I was then fingerprinted and asked to sign on my daughter's behalf.  The agent took Gretchen's photo and fingerprinted her thumbs, which was quite the process on a 10 week-old, but worked after the 3rd or 4th attempt.  We were told that her permanent DNI (the one we received at the Civil Registry is just a temporary, handwritten version) would be delivered to our house in 5-10 working days and her passport delivered in 15 working days, and we were sent on our merry way. 

Today marks the 5th working day since our appointment and I am pleased to say that we have received her DNI!  Now we are holding our breath and crossing our fingers that the passport is just as timely, as we have plane tickets to the US in (count them...) TEN working days!  Let's hope this new passport process is swift!

Legalizing Your Baby: US Passport - Received!

Though the peacefully-sleeping-baby gods have not been with us this week (or last week, or the week before...) the US-citizenship gods are on our side! Today we received Gretchen's US birth certificate (more accurately called the Consular Report of Birth Abroad, or CRBA, certificate) and her US passport. She is officially a United States citizen now - hooray!

You may remember from my first post about the US Passport process that we were told to expect our documents to be delivered in 10 working days. This ended up being an understatement as our original appointment with the Embassy was on April 15, 20 working days ago. No complaints here, we're just happy to receive them.

Gretchen is relieved that she can never be president

These documents came with instructions on applying for a Social Security number, something that I hadn't given much thought to. According to the instructions, we can apply through the Embassy - this is nice, we thought we needed to apply in the states - but they require you to submit the baby's US passport, original birth certificate and the passport of one of the parents. Considering that we plan to travel internationally within the next month, we are going to wait until our return to turn in all of these important items.

We now have 2/3 of the documents needed to bring our child to the land of the free, more updates to come on the progress of our other adventures in Legalizing Your Baby paperwork.

Legalizing Your Baby: US Passport

Today we successfully completed Step 2 in what I have dubbed the "Legalizing Your Baby" process. This step is perhaps the most important one for us because once it is complete, Gretchen will officially be a United States citizen.

Before you even think about starting the US Passport process, you first need to have a Certificado de Nacimiento. Once that is in order, let the passport application begin! To set the scene for our situation, Jon and I are both US citizens living in Argentina with work visas. Jon is a naturalized US citizen, but this was not addressed during our application process. So our daughter is eligible to be a US citizen because of us, but we need to apply for her citizenship status. Here is the step-by-step:

1. Make an appointment to apply for a passport with the Embassy. Be sure to print out the appointment conversation and bring it with you to the Embassy.
2. Go to the "reporting a birth abroad" section of the US Embassy website (and read it very carefully). This is where it is very important to read directions, and to have all of the documents listed on the website with you at your appointment.
3. Both parents and the applying child need to attend the appointment. When you arrive at the Embassy there is a window to the left of the entrance - go straight to this window. Don't wait in the line of people applying for visas, it's generally a really long line.
4. Be sure to also bring your US passports, without the passports you will not be admitted. (We found this out the hard way, my poor mom had to turn around and go home because she only had a drivers license.)

Our appointment was this past Friday, here is how it went.

We were admitted directly into the Embassy without waiting in line. After they took our electronics and liquids (keep this in mind if you have a formula-fed baby, no liquids are allowed inside the Embassy), we were told to proceed to window 15 inside the Embassy waiting room. We waited for 10 minutes and then were called up to window 15 - which is where they collected all of the paperwork listed on the US Embassy site referenced above. We then proceeded to the cashier window, paid our US$210 and waited for the next step.

Here is where our appointment took a ridiculous twist.

Original Photo

All of our paperwork was in order, however the passport photos we provided were too close up to Gretchen's face so we to have new photos taken. The agent collecting our paperwork said that she would start the application process, but we needed to bring in new photos before they could fully apply for her passport. She gave us the option of going to a photo shop and getting pictures done OR there is a "guy in the park" that takes photos and knows the requirements. This was great news! We could go to the guy in the park across the street and have pictures done in 15 minutes without needed to return to the Embassy another day. So we ventured across the street to find the Photo Guy. The Embassy guards gave us the directions to the Photo Guy: "he sits by the second big tree across the street", and this is exactly where we found him.

The Photo Guy photo

The Photo Guy is a very enterprising man that sits by the second big tree across the street from the US Embassy and takes pictures until 12:30pm Mon - Fri. When I approached him to take Gretchen's picture, he directed me to the backseat of an old beat up car that had a white sheet hanging in the back seat. Let me describe the state of this vehicle; there was at least an inch of dog hair in the car floor, it smelled of booze and sweat and the front passenger's seat had been replaced by a tree stump with a pillow on top. I held my infant daughter up against the white sheet while the Photo Guy sat on the tree stump and took her picture. The result is the lovely photo on your right. Then the Photo Guy went into the car parked in front of the photo lab car and developed the pictures.

That's right. My infant daughter's passport photo was taken in the back seat of a homeless man's car while she wore a bib that said "fabulous". Whatever works.

After we reentered the Embassy and turning in our Photo Guy photos, we waited for another 15 minutes for our consultation. We answered a few minutes of questions, signed a few documents and Gretchen's passport was ready for processing. We then proceeded to the DHL line in the next building over to prepay for the delivery of the passport. This was very similar to my experience with renewing Jon's US passport last July. The nice part this time around was that we were allowed to cut ahead of the DHL line because we had a baby with us - score! We were given a receipt that we need to show when the passport is delivered and we were on our way.

So now we wait. Just like with a passport renewal, we were told that Gretchen's passport would be delivered to us in 10 working days. All things considered, we were at the Embassy for a total of 1 hour and 45 minutes which includes our make-shift photo shoot.

Next up, Step 3: getting an Argentine passport for our little portena.

Legalizing Your Baby: DNI and Certificado de Nacamiento

Now that we have a beautiful baby girl, we need to make her legal. 

As I promised in my Buenos Aires Birth Day post, I will keep you updated on the paperwork processes of documenting a birth abroad.  As with any international paperwork, there are lots of steps - and like most processes in Argentina, everyone has a different rendition of what was required so we had our fingers crossed on Monday when we began the process. 

The first step is to get a DNI (Documento National de Identidad) and Certificado de Nacimiento (Birth Certificate).  This process varies by hospital, in Sanitario de la Trinidad if at least one of the parents are Argentine nationals they can register at the hospital.  In our case, we're both extranjeros so we have to go to the Civil Registry and apply for our documents in person.  Here is the step by step:

1. Call to make an appointment with the Civil Registry (4373-8441/45).
2. Bring the following items to your appointment:
1. Both parent's original DNIs and Passports
2. A copy of both parent's DNIs and Passports
3. An original marriage license (if you were not married in Argentina the license has to have an apostille stamp - which is basically an internationally recognized notary stamp)
4. The "Partida" form issued at birth.  This form is filled out by the midwife or doctor involved in delivery and there are very specific instructions on how to complete the form.  Be sure to check the form for completeness before heading to the registry office. 
3. Our appointment was located at Uruguay 753, between Cordoba and Viamonte.
4. Once inside the building, there is a main information desk that you check in with.  They will direct you to the correct window.

Here is where it got a little dicey.  We gave all of our documents to the clerk and she began by calling us up to answer a few questions.  We had a translator with us because although our Spanish is pretty decent, we didn't want to leave it to chance.  For reasons unknown (maybe because our guy wasn't a "certified" translator) the clerk said that we were not able to use the translator and one of us needed to answer the questions for ourselves.  I took the lead because my Spanish is slightly stronger than my husbands, and I filled out the first form she provided.  After this, she insisted on my husband answering the rest of the questions - and she added that if he asked me or the translator for help she would void our appointment and we would have to start over.  Por suerte, Jon passed that test with flying colors. (Side note: When Jon and I got married, I legally changed my last name to his but failed to change my passport to my new name.  Because of this, Argentina will not recognize my married name and instead of making it an issue I have continued to use my maiden name in all of my Argentine documentation.  I have been told that this is why Jon had to answer all of the questions regarding Gretchen, because in Argentina, legally, her and I have different last names therefore I am not her legal parent.  I don't know if this is true, but it was definitely an interesting point...)

We were given Gretchen's DNI on the spot and handed a receipt with instructions to return in two days to retrieve her birth certificate (we have up to a month to claim the certificate, according to the receipt). 

Now that we have her DNI number, we are able to make an appointment to receive her Argentine passport.  As soon as we have her birth certificate, we can make an appointment with the US Embassy to receive her American passport, so this first step was critical. 

To celebrate this important milestone, Gretchen and I celebrated by doing the most American thing we could find.  I got my first 30 cm sub from Subway.  It was delicious.