Mei-mei, so now I have a passport, then what?!

In just another 11 days, it would be exactly 3 years since the Expat Daddy and 2 girls relocated to back to the Philippines so that the Expat Daddy could wait out the 2-year working visa ban that had been imposed on him since he resigned from his old job. Of course those of you fellow expats here in Qatar would know by now that it is not easy to change employers here as your working visas are sponsored by your employer and it is their prerogative to give you a release paper to transfer to another employer or not. Unfortunately for us, the Expat Daddy had not been lucky enough to get his release papers after several successful attempts of landing a better job... so when he had eventually got fed up and decided to resign, we do not have a choice but to pack our bags and move back to the Philippines. Well, all was not lost for us though, the company I was working for worked out my working visa so I could come back to the country. So anyway, to cut the long story short, we made a very hard decision to live separately for a while. The Expat Daddy in the Philippines with the elder girls, while I stay behind with the youngest who is just about 2 weeks old by then (but this is one sob story altogether, so maybe next time :)).

So anyway, it was July 4 2008 when they relocated. The part of returning to Qatar was tricky, since both girls are in school we had to wait until the school year closes before they could come back to Qatar. We decided that Jong would leave ahead so at least he could get a job before they arrive, and we'd be a bit stable with our finances (well the last 3 years had been a roller coaster ride for us! A lot of exciting and trying moments!). Then finally the time had come! The school closed for the summer and it is time process the girls' documents for their travel back to the land of their birth! Yahoo! See, it was really so easy, I mean the qualifications to bring your family to reside in Qatar is quite straightforward and just 2 major requirements, first your are job qualified (you are a professional with a minimum salary of QR7,500 ($2,000++)), and second, you are bringing your "real family" hahaha! By real I mean true-blooded legal family, because I tell you, specially for Filipinos the authentication process is really discouraging! Well fortunately, we qualify for both so ok, passport copies, check! birth certificates, check! When Bam! I just suddenly realize, our Lyian is 5 years old and since she was born in Qatar then her passport is of the same age! --- which means, expired!!!!! Then all hell broke loose! You can check out the first part of Lyian's passport saga which I had posted earlier.

Now we go to book 2, yes dear friends, Harry Potter series would pale in comparison to the little girl's travel epic. LOL!

Since both the Expat Daddy and I are in Qatar, my mom followed through the process of finalizing her trave; documents after my dad had earlier managed to get the extension stamp /on the passport. We actually thought it had ended there, but whoever said that things are easy with the Philippine government must be the President's daughter! hahaha! Ok so the Dept. of Foreign Affairs stamped the extension, we learned that the Qatar Embassy requires the extension stamp to be authenticated. Well that's fine with me, logic tells me that since it was the DFA who had stamped the extension and it is also the DFA who are the attesting agency, then 1+1=2 right?! No way! in the Philippines, it's 1+1=5! See my understanding is that since it was their office who had stamped it, then automatically they could also attest it and it would just be step 1 then step 2, done! I was in for a surprise.. when my mom asked for the attestation of the stamp, the staff at the Provincial office advised her that the attestation is being done at the head office in Manila. Ok, understandable, maybe there was no signing authority in the province. So off to Manila, my mom and Lyian's nanny went... Upon reaching the head office of the DFA, they were told that they could not attest it without the certification from the provincial office where the passport was extended then some kind of notarial something from the courts in the province! Hello! Nobody said anything about that when the passport was extended! 

Just imagine all this happening in June when you have to brave the rainy season. So there, from Manila they went back directly to the Batangas office of the DFA. When they went back to the officer, they were told that all they do there is the stamp, and they do not know anything else required after that! Sigh... can you imagine me being in Doha not able to do anything to help and just waiting for news and updates on the process? Thank God I do not have hypertension! Then they were asked to go to the Hall of Justice (I'm guessing the court) and ask about it. So off to the court! There they were given a certification, i guess of the authenticity of the stamp, after that they again brought it back to the DFA head office, where they were told that still that was not enough, it needs some other stamp, so my mom told them they could no longer go back to Batangas for another stam, well for Pete's sake it is 2 hours away! Oh, they suddenly remembered there was another way! They could just go to the Regional Trial Court in Pasay City to process these attestation. I don't know if I would laugh or cry at this stage of the story now! Well, just so you know, the Regional Trial Court of Pasay City is just walking distance away from the DFA head office! (ok ok, i know! by now, you would have seen about a hundred exclamation points in this post, hahaha! well, I'm ranting :)) See, all these could have been done in Manila and they were told to go back to Batangas???????? How's that for consideration?!

On to the RTC, they were told it was late and they could not process the documents that day and they should just come back the next day. Hahahaha! I was just listening to the story and I am getting hysterical. What more for my 60 year old mom? But, I know my mom, she won't stop until she gets things done. She managed to talk to one of the officers not to let them go home to Batangas and come back again to Manila the next day --- in all that rain! So the lady agreed, but still it won't be finished and released the same day. It was a good thing there was a dhl counter which accepts to collect the documents when released and deliver it to you. And my mom just availed of the service, instead of going back to collect them. The document arrived on a Saturday, 3 days after it was submitted.

Finally! the passport saga ends, but the epic is not finished. We'll do the visa saga on book 3 :)