THE RETURN HOME
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Of course mom wants her back, me I am like a little puppy in a pile of newspaper. I haven’t had the problems or the expense (considerable over $5,000 for medical treatment (the cold medicine overdose episode alone cost me $900 not counting the shrink visits and I have good insurance), shrinks, school, clothes, entertainment, furniture, decoration, etc. etc, in 5 months).
Well mom and I had a number of heart-to-heart talks. I finally relented and agreed to let her come back with a number of conditions including that if she was or became pregnant that I was not accepting that responsibility (that one was being fielded to good old dad for letting her run the streets for 2 years).
DOCUMENTS WHERE ART THOU DOCUMENTS
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Well she arrived back on January 8th two days ago but NOT without the usual major problems. We did not send her green card, social security card, or other ID with her. I told her and other she did not need them to get back in the country she had a passport with a visa stamp and that was all she needed. I was promptly told (by the daughter thru the rest of the family that I just didn’t want her to return so I had kept her documents). Well you know a more responsible young lady I have never known. So anyway one thing that we did forget is that she needed a permission letter to leave the country from mom since she would not be coming back with her this time (yes it is 18 in Colombia). Anyway as a few will remember I asked for a notary in Cali to notarize this so she could get back in. We sent her green card, social security card, and Texas ID card via FedEx along with a signed permission letter. If you complete the permission letter here you have to do it all in Spanish and then you have to get a certificate from the State basically saying that the notary is a valid notary. Well this process can take a couple of weeks, which we didn’t have. Well now here is where I really screwed up. We call the Lawyer/Notary in Cali that married us and explained the problem. This wonderful gentleman said no problem. Send me the document and I will notarize it for you for only 50,000 pesos This was 3 days before my wife and I were due to go home for Christmas vacation to see my family. Well we sent the documents, the notary notarized them and then she is suppose to get on the plane December 28th. Well she actually goes to the airport (and I have to tell you I was a bit shocked about this, it appears dad does instill the fear of God when he wants to). Anyway she is going thru security and the guy looks at the documents and immediately pulls her out and says this is a fake. What this dumb gringo did not realize is that when you get something notarized there you have to sign it again and also supply another fingerprint. Well that was no problem for our steady notary he just signed my wife’s name and put his fingerprint. It would have been recognized as a clear phony by anyone above the age of 6 okay maybe 7. So the good old security people hold her their for 2 hours (oh yeah good old dad has just dropped her off at the airport and headed off instead of the traditional wait till the plane takes off even if you can’t see the person norm). They take her passport and tell dad to show up at DAS the next Friday either with mom or a new authentic permission letter. Well we called that notary and asked what the hell? Why didn’t he just say it required two signatures and was not possible. We are pretty sure he knew what would happen because as soon as we called him he said not to worry as he had a “friend” in immigration. He tried for the better part of that week to get dad to go see him with his friend. I know nobody shakes you down in Cali, I have an evil and distrusting nature. Dad flat out refuses and says he will take his chances with DAS.
Well we do what we should have done in the first place. We do a new letter and I drive down to Austin (fun 8 hour round trip) and I get the certification letter from the State and we send it along with a notorized statement explaining that we did not ask nor would we have condoned our friend the notary forging my wife’s’ signature. Well dad takes the new letters to DAS and they are happy as little campers and say the daughter, nor dad, nor mom have anything to worry about. BUT they will have to investigate the passport to make sure that the Visa is not faked (even thou she shows them her new computerized green card, Texas ID card, and Social Security card). Well the official is very sorry but you know how these things are you just have to go thru the motions. Dad explains that she has to be back in the states for school by the 8th and doesn’t have time to wait for this. The sad public official says no problem for only 500,000 pesos just this one time he could overlook the requirement to do this investigation. Well dad argues and argues and finally gets it down to 200,000 pesos (WOW what a bargain). Dad by this time will do just about anything to get her back on the plane and pays the 200,000 pesos. I should mention that dad is not poor by Cali standards as he owns about 8 apartments and lives on the income from them. Not rich but he has money.
