Round ll - FIGHT!

First off...I WILL get pictures up.  We have the CD with everything and I have to sort through them and post them.  Don't stress!!

So, we had a few days of paperwork free bliss surrounding the wedding, but as soon as my parent's left we hopped right back into the fray.

most of the papers for this process...

The first order of business is to get the official marriage certificate certified by the...something department.  RENIEC.  That nice piece of paper doesn't really account for anything, except sentiment.  We first had to go to another branch of the city to put in an order for a signed copy of the certificate.  That took 2 days to process and then with that piece of paper we took it to the RENIEC offices for them to register our marriage in their system and give up a certified certificate.  That process was actually the least difficult of them all.  The only thing I didn't have was a copy of my passport, but there are always copy places next to official buildings, so that was not a problem.  Actually getting registered was free and the nice man gave us our copy of the certificate right away.  We are now, legally, and officially married.  It turns up in the records now.

This process could also have been done for free and just by waiting for the respective departments to do it themselves.  But then we return to the problem of time.  The municipality has like 9 days to take it to RENIEC, and then RENIEC has 15 days to process it and issue the certificate.  It cost a little more to do it ourselves, but it was done faster and we feel more accomplished.  HA!  Beating the system....kinda.

With the certificate finished, the last piece we needed was my record of my migration movements.  Otherwise known as my entries and exits into the country to prove that I have been in Peru long enough to quality for Direct Consular Filing for Pollito to get his green card.

The internet says that the process is free.  Cool.  Pollito wouldn't let me go by myself into the center to the Migration offices, DIGEMIN, so I had to wait until someone could come with me.  Pollito finally took me yesterday.  I went armed with my passport and my migration card from the airport.  Just like the website says.  We arrived without too much difficulty, and then we had to stand in line for papers we could have printed off online.  Opps.  Half way through the line the opened up another window and I raced Pollito to the window.  I won and collected the paper and was told that I had to fill out the paper and pay the fee...wait...pay the fee?? Online it says it is free!!  Pollito asked one of the workers why it says free on the internet and when she went to go look it up she found that her computer was without a mouse.  Excellent.  So I filled out the form and we got in line for the bank.

Its good the bank has a branch at DIGEMIN, otherwise you would have to wander around and try to find one.  They also have a copy machine there where, for a fee,  you can get all your last minute copies made.  The bank line moved quickly because the only operations that the tellers do is to charge people administrative fees.  We were already annoyed that what we thought was going to be a fast trip was turing into a morning filled with waiting in line.  Good thing I had water.  The best was yet to come.

We were sent to little windows where I had to turn in my papers with my payment.  The guard stopped me at the front.  Did I have a copy of my passport?  No.  Thanks little copy room.  We got in line again.  I finally made it up to the window, and the woman goes, do you have a copy of your entry stamp?  No.  Good thing Pollito was there.  I stood at the window trying to ignore people giving me annoyed looks, and he went to get a copy.  The woman looked at my papers again and then back to her computer.  She said "You just have one entry into Peru.." and told her that I have two entries and that I had left in January.   I showed her the stamp.  She said that the system showed that I had entered Peru in March of 2011 and then re-entered in January of 2012.  EH?  No.  She told me to go up to the third floor to the Migration control window and have them sort it out.  UGH.

We went up and stood in line, Pollito fuming at the ineffectiveness of the Peruvian bureaucracy.   While we were waiting in line we saw some poor gringo looking guy being sent back and forth between our line and a big room.  Go! NO!, come back, tell them this...leave your stuff..nooo you might need it take it...go ask them!  come back!  Poor guy.  When we made it to the window I told the woman what had happened and she gave me a form and told me I needed a copy of my passport, the migration card, and my entry and exit stamps.  I filled out paperwork and Pollito ran downstairs for copies again.

We went up to the other window that was pointed out to us by the lady who gave us the form and turned them in.  This woman wrote down my information, literally wrote with a pen and paper in a ledger with lines made by a ruler, and took my papers.  We started asking her questions and she said to ask the guy next door.  We moved to the window next door and asked him when the system would be corrected.  He said I could come back on Friday or call.  When I asked him for the number he said, no, there is no number, you have to come down.  Ok...and I asked him what would happen if it wasn't finished.  And he said that if it wasn't finished then they would correct it right then and there.  Why, if they can do that, could they not just fix it for me now??  Bureaucracy.

What happened is that the day I left Peru in January, the entire migration system was down.  I almost missed my flight, but managed to get the proper stamps in my passport, but I guess this information was never entered into the computer.  Excellent.  Now they have to look for my migration card and enter it into the system.  And I have to return to check and see if they have actually done this and then stand in line again to get my migration record.

Pollito was livid at the whole process and at the building.  The building looks like its going to fall apart.  The little windows are really old fashioned and Pollito says that its a horrible image of Peru that is being given.  Since the office if the headquarters of everything with immigration, foreigners leave with an impression of Peru being inefficient, outdated, and backwards.  It does not help that they still enter records by hand.  Imagine there was a fire, all of those ledgers would be lost.  Never mind the time it takes to actually fill out these ledgers.  It was the same at the police station.  When you file a report there is no computer, the officer on hand just writes out half a page by hand and fills in the blanks with your information.  Talk about old school.

Talk about a whole lot of trouble to get a paper that says I have been in Peru for the proper amount of time.  What we thought was going to be a half hour turned out to be almost 3.  Good bye morning.