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Welcome to a new series of articles from Brussels, our own Di is currently going through the hoops in settling into the EU with her love. If you have a similar or even different story to tell let us know EDITOR
«The Great Paper Chase»
It was Christmas day 2000 when my, now, fiancé and I decided that we’d had enough of long-distance relationships and that we would spend the rest of our lives together in Brussels (his home town). A very joyous day it was! We had spent the festive season together in Brussels and I had to return to Adelaide at the beginning of January to commence preparations for the move which was planned for somewhere around the end of May 2001. In order to marry a Belgian in Brussels you must have a civil ceremony at the local town hall of the Commune in which you reside. Booking this ceremony is what starts the process that provides the title for this article. The Belgian Consulate was able to provide the following list of required documents; · Birth Certificate · Certificate of Citizenship · Certificate of Residency · Certification of single status I had a copy of my birth certificate and the Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages was able to help with certification of the fact that I was not married. In Australia, Certificates of Citizenship are only given to migrants who become «paper aussies». For people born in Australia, to Australian parents, they automatically become citizens. It took many hours of negotiation with the Department of Immigration before they would agree to issue a Citizenship Certificate but in the end I did get it. The Certificate of Residency was another story! There is no Government Department anywhere in Australia that will issue such a thing. On the advice of the Belgian Consulate I made a Statutory Declaration certifying my residency in Australia. This had to be witnessed by a Notary Public who was approved by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. By the time I had all the papers Phil – my fiancé - had obtained details from the Commune about their specific requirements. Luckily, there were no additional documents that were required but we began to find out that when you request information from Government departments they only tell you some of the details for each requirement!!! With the information from the Commune we learnt that all the documents had to be translated to French (the native tongue spoken in our Commune) and this had to be done by a person approved under the international NATI convention. Once you were in possession of the documents in both English and French you then had to have them stamped with the Apostille (this one comes from the International Convention of The Hague). Over the course of several weeks I was able to find a suitable translator (in Sydney) and had the full set of documents by the end of the first week in May (3 weeks before I was due to leave the country). Feeling quite calm and relaxed I headed off to Foreign Affairs for the affixing of the Apostille. The stamp can only be used if the official signature on each document can be verified by Foreign Affairs. Well, of course, there was one missing – it was the one on the Certificate of Citizenship and could not even be identified, let alone verified. It took many, many hours of debate with Foreign Affairs and Immigration before it was finally verified. Oh by the way, you may know the signatory – Phillip Ruddock, the current Minister for Immigration! So with 2 weeks to go I express mailed a copy of all the documents to Phil so that he could pop into the Commune just to make sure that everything was perfect. Huh! Apparently my birth certificate did not have « birth certificate » written on it and this was not acceptable. There was nothing for it but with 5 days to go I had to get another one, have it translated and then have both documents stamped!!! Believe it or not – I’m not sure how – but we got that certificate. Phew!!! What an exercise! Here in Brussels we have now been able to book our wedding (28 July) but not before a few more scares. Anyway, everything seems to be under control now. I know, though, that I will be most relieved when we have the marriage licence and they give me my identity card to certify my new residency status!!! If you are having any similar difficulties or have any questions about dealing with the various Government Departments please do not hesitate to send me an email at the contact below – I’d be happy to help you out – well try to at least! |
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