As most of you know, Ami and I will get married soon. We will be doing this in Key West, Florida and need to get a wedding license, of course. The practice in Florida is that non-residents can get the license without any waiting period (residents must wait three days) and can get the license in one county and get married in another. Sounds easy and I think it would be...if I was in the states. The hard part, for me anyway, is that the license is good only for sixty days. So once it's issued, you then have two months to get married or you'll have to get another one.
So with the sixty-day period in mind, I left America without doing anything with regards to the license and got to Korea seventy-two days before the wedding. Then, with about sixty-five days to go, I started looking into what exactly I'd need to do. At first, it looked like getting one in the mail was impossible, but with a little more digging I found a place where I could do it. So I contacted the place via email and they quite quickly got back to me and requested that I send them some info and then they would create the documents I'd need to get notarized.
Meanwhile, I started looking for places to get a notarization here in Seoul. After a few searches, I found that the US Embassy is the place to get these things done. So I looked them up and found my way to an appointment page and made an appointment for as late in the day as possible because, as you know, I have to work. I was a little disappointed to find that the last appointments they offer are at 2:45, but what could I do? I made one for the 8th, which was the earliest day I could get one at that time.
The place in Florida put all my info on the forms and emailed them back to me and I printed them out at work. Now, during this time, Ami was in contact with two friends (sisters) that are here in Korea because they are coming to the wedding. The plan was (astute readers will notice the verb tense I just used) for Ami to fly, with her friends, to Florida. Ami wants to help them and apparently these two have never been out of the country; in fact, they've never, I think, been on a plane. So Ami felt she should go with them to guide them through the airports and immigration. I had decided a few weeks before to fly alone and go into Orlando to hang out with my family for a couple days before we'd all make our way down to Key West.
So once I got the paperwork and the appointment at the embassy, I felt pretty confidant that things would go smoothly and as Ami kept asking me if she could buy the plane tickets, I told her to go ahead and get them. So she did. She and the sisters booked their flights, with my help, via Orbitz. I, however, did not buy my ticket for no real reason other than I was just being lazy about it.
So our appointment day came and Ami caught a taxi to my school, and I cut out early to join her for the ride across the river to the embassy. The embassy experience was fairly painless and I paid $50 for a notary from a nice lady there. She looked at the forms, asked me for a few details, made us both raise our right hands, swear it was all true, and then told me that she would do the notary. Now, these two forms had a place for her signature and the official stamp, but she informed me that embassy policy is not to sign and stamp the forms directly but to instead put another paper on top of the forms from Florida which would then be attached to the them and bear her signature and the stamp. This made me a little nervous but she assured me that it was policy and that it would be ok. So after that was done we left and found a post office and I had the forms sent as fast as I could to Florida.
One week later I wake up, go for a run, and come back to find an email from the Florida office telling me that the forms will NOT be accepted because they were not stamped and signed in the right place. The email then says that I should reprint the forms, get it done right, and resubmit them. So I fire off an email that says, "Hey, the embassy here doesn't do it that way. Just accept it, you idiots. The US Gov trumps your little county gov." Ok, I didn't quite put it that way, but anyway, I get an email back telling me sorry, we won't accept it.
Obviously, I was less than happy with this turn of events, but what can you do when you are stuck between two forces who won't agree on how to do something that YOU need to do? Ami wanted to go back to the embassy, but that would mean making another appointment (a week from now at the earliest), taking off work early again, doing the taxi thing again, and then probably being told, sorry, we don't do it that way. So I told her we would not be trying again. I looked around a bit for other places that would do notaries but couldn't find one. So we cancelled her flight (I did this yesterday and got everything but $100 back) and will be flying together to Orlando to go in person to a courthouse and get this thing done. Thanks to Wendy, Rigel's wife, I found out we can do it there and get it on the same day. I only hope Ami's friends don't end up in Iowa.
What a stupid world we live in.
Meanwhile, I started looking for places to get a notarization here in Seoul. After a few searches, I found that the US Embassy is the place to get these things done. So I looked them up and found my way to an appointment page and made an appointment for as late in the day as possible because, as you know, I have to work. I was a little disappointed to find that the last appointments they offer are at 2:45, but what could I do? I made one for the 8th, which was the earliest day I could get one at that time.
The place in Florida put all my info on the forms and emailed them back to me and I printed them out at work. Now, during this time, Ami was in contact with two friends (sisters) that are here in Korea because they are coming to the wedding. The plan was (astute readers will notice the verb tense I just used) for Ami to fly, with her friends, to Florida. Ami wants to help them and apparently these two have never been out of the country; in fact, they've never, I think, been on a plane. So Ami felt she should go with them to guide them through the airports and immigration. I had decided a few weeks before to fly alone and go into Orlando to hang out with my family for a couple days before we'd all make our way down to Key West.
So once I got the paperwork and the appointment at the embassy, I felt pretty confidant that things would go smoothly and as Ami kept asking me if she could buy the plane tickets, I told her to go ahead and get them. So she did. She and the sisters booked their flights, with my help, via Orbitz. I, however, did not buy my ticket for no real reason other than I was just being lazy about it.
So our appointment day came and Ami caught a taxi to my school, and I cut out early to join her for the ride across the river to the embassy. The embassy experience was fairly painless and I paid $50 for a notary from a nice lady there. She looked at the forms, asked me for a few details, made us both raise our right hands, swear it was all true, and then told me that she would do the notary. Now, these two forms had a place for her signature and the official stamp, but she informed me that embassy policy is not to sign and stamp the forms directly but to instead put another paper on top of the forms from Florida which would then be attached to the them and bear her signature and the stamp. This made me a little nervous but she assured me that it was policy and that it would be ok. So after that was done we left and found a post office and I had the forms sent as fast as I could to Florida.
One week later I wake up, go for a run, and come back to find an email from the Florida office telling me that the forms will NOT be accepted because they were not stamped and signed in the right place. The email then says that I should reprint the forms, get it done right, and resubmit them. So I fire off an email that says, "Hey, the embassy here doesn't do it that way. Just accept it, you idiots. The US Gov trumps your little county gov." Ok, I didn't quite put it that way, but anyway, I get an email back telling me sorry, we won't accept it.
Obviously, I was less than happy with this turn of events, but what can you do when you are stuck between two forces who won't agree on how to do something that YOU need to do? Ami wanted to go back to the embassy, but that would mean making another appointment (a week from now at the earliest), taking off work early again, doing the taxi thing again, and then probably being told, sorry, we don't do it that way. So I told her we would not be trying again. I looked around a bit for other places that would do notaries but couldn't find one. So we cancelled her flight (I did this yesterday and got everything but $100 back) and will be flying together to Orlando to go in person to a courthouse and get this thing done. Thanks to Wendy, Rigel's wife, I found out we can do it there and get it on the same day. I only hope Ami's friends don't end up in Iowa.
What a stupid world we live in.
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