I need to have on my high-school and my Uni diplomas some apostilles applied. An apostille is a stamp applied on a document that you intend to use in a different country that the one that issued the respective document. It's an international certification. Some enlightened minds realized that it's no fun wasting time with all the bureaucracy, running from place to place; and also not fun for the institutions that collected papers after papers from each person that needed a document to be recognized. So they came up with this thing called "apostille". Why? To make things simpler. Simpler.

But how easy is it to get this apostille applied on your documents? At least in a country like, say... Romania? In Romania, to get this apostille applied you need first some other sort of stamps applied on your document. If it's a Uni diploma, then you have to go to this department in the Ministry of Education, and there they put their mark on, to authenticate it. Seems rather easy. (It used to be more complicated, a real hell, but after some media scandals...) If it's a high-school diploma, things get more complicated. First you have to go to your high-school (walk on the memory lane) to get a paper that states that your high-school diploma is genuine. With that paper, and the diploma, you go to this institution that applies a stamp on your diploma, and only after that you can go get your apostille. Simple, right? Wrong.

For the Uni diploma, first you have to make a call and make some sort of reservation. When you call, at the phone answers this guy that holds you a long lecture about how to get directly to the point, so we wouldn't waste time on the phone, and also seems to do his best to make people not come to get their diplomas stamped. First time I called he told me that for the country I want to go usually it's not required any stamps. So I had to have this checked. Of course I need those stamps. So I called again:
Me: "Hello, I need my diploma authenticated"
The guy: "For what country."
Me: "... (insert name of the country"
The guy: "Usually they don't require that, so you don't need any stamps. See, it was so easy, we don't need to talk a lot, just straight to the point, etc, etc"
Me: "Yes, I need that stamp, I was told I need it. Do you put that stamp for high-school diplomas too?"
The guy: "No, for this go to this place (names place), etc, etc. See, it was easy" (and I felt him about to turn off the phone.
Me: "But I need stamp on my Uni diploma too."
And then I got scheduled. For Monday.

For the high-school diploma, I called my old high-school in the morning. I asked when I can come for that paper, and due to the circumstances I could only come on Monday too, sometimes close to the time I was scheduled for in the other place. I rushed up to my high-school. When I got there, I went to the secretary. I entered this room with 4 offices, but there was only one secretary. She was reading and typing something at the computer. I stopped in front of her desk and I said "Hello!" (Romanian has a more official formula for this salute). But the woman didn't even turn the head at me. She didn't even say "hello" without turning her head. She did nothing. Just continued to stare at her piece of paper, as if she was still alone in the room. She was completely ignoring me.

Lucky me, though, one of the phones there rang, so she had to stand up, come near me to the desk on which was the respective phone and answer. Only after that she seemed to acknowledge me. She didn't ask anything, just looked at me. So I told her what I came there for. To this she barked: "You need copies of your diploma, your ID card, and you have to write a formal request." Ok, why couldn't they tell me all that on the phone? Maybe I would have made the copies before coming there. But, to my luck, there was a shop in the near with a copying machine and white pieces of paper for me to write that request. (And lucky me I brought with myself something to write with).

After I got my papers copied, I went back and sat on the edge of a fence and wrote the request placing the paper on my knees. Yes, right in the street there, because there was no other place for me to do that. Then, I went back to the secretary. In the room there were 2 others, while the initial one was gone. Those two others were chatting one sitting at her desk and gluing pictures of the fresh graduates on their diplomas, while the other one just stood in front of the desk. Again, they were ignoring me completely, as I stood there and looked at them chatting. When I could seize the moment (since the first secretary wasn't coming), I told the one sitting what I was there for. To this, she turns to the other one and says: "See?? Why do they all decided tp come only now?? They decided that they want to go out the country just now! I have another one who came exactly for the first thing, etc, etc".

She received my documents, though, but told me she's very busy. To that I said I can come back in another day (which is true, I wasn't doing her any favors or anything), mainly because I was in a hurry, and my mind was only on the 2 hours program they have at the other place, for my Uni diploma. So I told her I'll come in a different day to pick that paper and out I was.

I stopped only at that department that put the stamps on my Uni diploma. There... in the big entry hallway, there were couple of other guys waiting. It was long past opening hours for that department, but we were told that they hadn't start their activity yet, for the day. So we waited a bit, until we were told to go inside to the room where they put those stamps. At that room, two other people waiting for their turn too. When the first person got in, the girl that was the one checking the documents and applying the stamps stood up and left. Just like that. She came back, after 10 minutes or so, but that first person really got pissed off about this and she started to make some scandal. But, in the end it went pretty fast (mind you they ask to what country are you going, what are you doing there, as in what school you intend to go to there - but since I don't know yet, and I need it mainly to get employed, I was told that those stamps are put "only for academic reasons") and at least half of the problem is solved. I'm waiting for that paper in order to get my high-school diploma stamped, which, I assume it will be another adventure.

Labels: apostille, bureaucracy, diploma, institution, ministry of education, official, Romania, stamp