Back in September, I wrote a post about all the paperwork I did before coming to Panama, which I was told I'd need for my temporary immigration status here. It was a saga in and of itself to get that documentation all together in one place! I ended that post saying,
"I've brought all of this stuff to Panama, and done a few more things here. My best guess is that I'll be wrapping things up at this end some time in September, but I'm not yet sure about exactly when. I'll do an update on the Panama side of paperwork when I know more."
Apparently, "some time in September" was overly optimistic . . . The overly-brief synopsis is that my sense of urgency was very much misguided, but I'm still glad that I got the icky bureaucracy aspects of the trips in my rear-view mirror as much as I could.
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This is an ad I see all the time in my web browser.
I haven't clicked on the link (and this photo doesn't link to the advertiser, so you can't either). |
I'm now on the cusp of moving forward with immigration stuff, and so it seems like a good time to update this bureaucratic saga. So, after all that paperwork I did before I arrived in Panama, what did I do with it after I arrived?
Meet with a translator
The very day we arrived, my host Jeanette helped me find an authorized Panamanian translator, who could do the official translation of my official English documents into official Spanish documents. (There's a list of certified translators here). Jeanette helped me photocopy my documents first, so we could give him copies rather than the originals. Our translator met us at a restaurant of our choosing near a metro stop of his choosing, and we handed over photocopies of my official documents. He compared the originals to the copies to make sure they were the same, asked a few questions, and then told us he could probably get us the translations within a week. We gave him a 50% deposit of $75.
Health certificate
The very next day, I popped into Clinic Salud to ask if they could provide me with a "certficado de salud". The clinic had no line; it was super clean (as in, the marble-ish floors were so shiny I could see my face reflected in them). They checked my passport and had me fill out a form; they then did a urinalysis and blood test. We fiddled a bit with my credit card -- this was the first time I'd used it, and so I was a little nervous that there'd be problems -- but eventually it worked fine.
I'd gotten blood tests back in Pennsylvania before I left, and my insurance company and I are bickering over which of us pays the $350 for those tests. Here in Panama, the clinic charged me $35, which I paid without complaining. They didn't do a physical exam (no height/weight/blood pressure/etc), and I never got the results of my lab work, but I got my certificate quickly and easily. That was a sweet surprise!
[Spoiler alert: Unfortunately, the certificate was only valid for three months. Since my eventual appointment with the Immigration authorities was delayed so much, I had to redo this; again, it was quick and easy, and was another $35.]
Get translated documents
After a week and a day, I pinged our translator via Whatsapp (the communication tool that everyone uses here). He said it'd be a few more days. Then another day. We were pretty relaxed about timing by this point, and so it was lovely to receive the translations back 13 days after I'd given him the photocopies.
In spite of our translator making a point of his expertise (that he's been an authorized translator since 1978, he mentioned several times), he spelled my name wrong in a few of the documents he gave us. I've had other Spanish speakers write my last name as "Grannell" instead of "Crannell"; I'm not sure why that seems to happen!
Make an appointment, through the embassy, with the immigration office
This was the aspect that most helped me realize that the process is NOT urgent. Our official checklist says to reach out to the Embassy as soon as we arrive, and I'd heard that the visits happen "in the first week or two", but I'd learned that several of the Embassy folks were out of the office, and the ones that remained had more urgent things than me on their plate. After a few emails and a whatsapp, I got this response back:
Good afternoon Annalisa, I am so glad you are already here. Please wait for the appointment because I am alone with many deadlines on my plate. [This other person] will be back the second week of September.
To which I just said, phew. If it's going to be a month before I can even set up an appointment, I am not going to sweat about deadlines on my side of things.
One month turned into two months. When Embassy Person #2 returned and I asked about the appointment, she sent me the list of paperwork I needed, and I let her know I'd already done it, and then she said she'd get back to me. A few weeks later, I met Embassy Person #1 at a reception, and she told me that they were meeting with immigration officials to figure out exactly what needed to happen, because the recent change in government has changed regulations and/or procedures.
I later had lunch with a former Fulbrighter, who was not at all surprised by these stories. He noted that Panama law gives people 6 months in-country, and so many people take short out-of-country trips every couple of months, just to get that new stamp on their visas. Since I'm planning to go to the math meetings in January, that might be all I need, he suggested (while simultaneously reminding me that he's not a legal expert).
Two months turned into three months. Every once in a while, I'd re-ping the Embassy folks, who would send me a version of "we'll get back to you". Last week at a Meet-and-Greet for grantees, I met with two different Embassy folks. They both said that because I'm on a Fulbright, I'm required to do the Immigration paperwork (so the "I"ll just wing it" conclusion I came to in the previous paragraph doesn't match what they're saying). One of the Embassy folks gave me another "we'll get back to you" timeline, but the second one jumped on things, and now I have an appointment with the Immigration folks on Monday, three months and 10 days after arriving in country. She also told me I'd need to get a new health certificate.
So . . . this Monday I'll get a chance to see how well I've followed all the paperwork rules so far.
Given the general speed and attention that my Immigration paperwork has gotten so far, I'm not particularly stressed that I'll get kicked out of the Fulbright program if I filled out some paperwork wrong; at this point, I figure there's a chance I'll have to jump through annoying paperwork re-do's, but I can deal with those. The one travel aspect I am trying to protect is that I want to attend the January Math Meetings in Seattle, and I know that I'm not supposed to travel out of Panama during the several-week-window between my submitting the paperwork to the Immigration folks and their eventual approval. We're cutting it close for that.
Wish me luck!
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