Part 2: Having a baby in Muscat- Paperwork

We went through our first round of the "paperwork" monster yesterday.  Having a baby outside the US makes for more paperwork and forms than you would ever see back home.  I guess they want to confirm that we are who we say we are, what our citizenship is, if we are truly the baby's parents, and if they will give us certificate of birth so we can get said baby a passport. 

Yesterday, we went to the consulate at the US Embassy to get a copy of our official marriage certificate notarized here in Oman.  It's a darn good thing we had our actual marriage certificate here and didn't have to have someone back home track it down and mail it!  $50 bucks for a copy notarized.  Ouch.  It was also our first introduction to how serious going inside the US Embassy is.  I think half the contents of my purse was emptied out and left at the front desk for security (hand sanitizer, lotion, tide bleach stick, toothpicks, etc..).   I'm not sure what they thought I could do with those items to destroy national security, but I wasn't going to ask.

Now that we have our marriage certificate copy notarized, here is the remainder of what we need to do in order to get to a birth certificate and passport for Baby Girl.  (copied from an email we received from another teacher at our school who recently had a baby)

"Once you have the kiddo, ask the attendant at the nurses station to issue a Notification of Birth. You will need both of your passports, residence cards, and official marriage license. They will make the copies for you and have the form ready about half a day to a day after that. 

Next, you can send a driver with your passports, residence cards, and notarized copy of your marriage license to get the Foreign Affairs stamp from Qurum.

Once you have this, go to the Directorate of Civil Status at Seeb (where you got your residence cards).  They open at 7:00 so you could get this done before school.  Bring your passports, both residence cards, your stamped and notarized marriage license, official copy of your marriage license, original Notification of Birth from Muscat Private and a couple of copies of each of these just in case. You'll get your birth certificate in English and Arabic (yeah, it's cool).  You will both be officially marked as Christian, too.

Make an appointment to go to the U.S. Embassy.  Colin, Kelsey, and your newborn, will all need to be present (if one of you isn't, you'll have to do more paperwork).  Bring the typed U.S. Passport Form, Social Security form, and Consular Report of Birth.  Bring all those goodies you love toting around-Passports, residence cards, marriage license copy, Notification of birth copy, and your cool certificate of birth you procured from the nice gentlemen in Seeb. You can have them expedite the passport for no charge to get it in about 10 business days."

I have to say I am not jazzed about the prospect of doing all this, especially when we need to have a   newborn in tow as things here in Oman government aren't done with any sense of urgency or quickness.   However, the upside is that Baby Girl will arrive within 3 weeks so we'll have plenty of time to get this all done before coming home in June and not be rushed and stressed.  We'll certainly be tired, but at least not stressed on top of it.  Let's hope.  

I'll admit that despite having lived in Oman now for almost 2 years, this whole paperwork thing surprised me.  It shouldn't have, but it did.  I'm not sure what I expected, but it wasn't all this.  Maybe I figured the US Embassy would just be efficient and do it all for us..... hahahahahahahaha.  We all know how efficient government offices are.  Ah, sigh.

Cheers!  Here's to bringing a new US citizen into the world overseas!