Medical Letter Wranglings

I called the credit union to see how long their notary stamps were good for and found a lady with one that is good for over a year. Everything that's notarized must be valid for at least a year...which certainly adds another wrinkle to the paperwork. The fee is $10, so less than the traveling notary ($30). I have my doctor appointment and exam and then he says let’s go to get it notarized. I read the letter as we race down two flights of stairs and it looks good. He runs into the credit union and I identify myself and ask for the notary I talked with. After the doctor quickly signs the letter he wishes me well and races back upstairs. The notary is very gracious and carefully completes the notarization and adds the crimped stamp as double protection. She makes a couple copies for me. I’m so excited to have this piece of paper and then she realizes, the doctor put the wrong date on the letter! I have to start all over.

I go back upstairs and talk with the nurse and wait patiently hoping the doctor will correct the date and go back downstairs with me. 45 minutes later he comes racing out once again and says let’s do this. I again read the letter going down the stairs to make sure there are no errors. He signs the letter and this time it’s notarized properly. I’m so glad he was willing to go the extra step, as I just expected to be waiting for it to arrive in the mail.

We receive my birth certificates in the mail, but they’re not apostilled. Troy contacts the Vital Statistics Office and they say we now must mail them with a request for apostille to the Department of State.

We still haven’t received our dossier guidelines, but they hope to get them out to us next week.