Immigrations in Buenos Aires (Av Antartida).
Tuesday With the translation of my documents already taken care of, today is dedicated to sorting out my police certificate within Argentina. Having spent the morning on the internet gathering information about what needs to be done, no sooner have I left the building than I am inside a photocopy shop getting every page of my passport photocopied. Twice. Next stop is a small store along the main road who advertised passport photos on a sign outside. The first store in which I stopped also advertised the same thing, but no longer offered it. This store did, and within moments I was seated on a stool in a crowded corner with a four-eyed camera pointed at me. "Snap!" and it was all over. A few minutes later and $17 pesos lighter and I had four neatly cut out photos ready to hand over to Migrations as required. Heading to Town From here it is time to head to town and the easiest way is on the "Subte" or subway. Other than a few unusual hours of the day, this train system is now very overloaded with people, and I considered myself lucky to have been able to get inside the carriage as I allowed myself to be pushed against other people inside the train by those still on the outside trying to get in. Memories of Japan's white-gloved "pushers" make me smile even in the midst of the uncomfortableness. At least we are not THAT jammed together. Once in town I have only one hour before the Migrations office is closed, but risk the time to make a purchase on behalf of a friend. It is 1.30pm by the time I reach the end of the centre district and time is fast running out. Even though it is close, I hail a taxi and ask him to take me to the Migrations office. The driver has no idea where we are going, although only tells me at the end when he is dropping me off at the main courthouse, far away from the place I wanted to be. Walking the remaining distance takes about ten minutes and I still get in with time to spare. At the information desk I ask for directions as to where I can get my police certificate. The lady points over her head to a line outside the windows behind her. "That is the line," she says. I wander over and look down the line. There are about one hundred people standing there, not moving at all. A much smaller line appears to be moving with nobody else joining it. I approach the person on the end who tells me that it is the line for the police certificates, but you must have a form filled out. He waved the form before me and then continued on explaining the they had run out of forms and everybody else was sitting around waiting for them to photocopy new ones. I too did not have a form.
Looking down the line of people hanging around for a form.
Alternative Means
It looked like a very long wait, so I returned to the information desk and asked them if I had to go here, or if I could go to a police station in the city. Their first reaction was that the other main police station was swamped with work and had started sending people over here to get their police checks done, but when I mentioned another station much closer by, they remembered a different place that I could use. Getting the directions, I headed off to the other police station. Surely it could not be as full as this place.
Arriving at the intersection of the two streets I had been given, the police department was easy to spot as there was a large line out the door and down the street. I walked right in and asked at the information desk which, although the whole place was full of people, was itself free of enquirers. The huge line which I had passed by to get inside, they informed me, was to get to the telephone to get an appointment time. It was possible also to simply call a freecall number from any telephone, and so I moved outside and made the call.
With the mobile phone, there is no indication that my credit is about to expire. So when I made the call to get an appointment time, it just seemed like I could not hear the lady on the other end at first. After a little while of silence though, it dawned upon me that I had been cut off... and so close to the end of the process too. A local kiosk provides me with the credit needed to make the call a second time and complete the process. 3.30pm today I would be able to apply for my police certificate. It was already 2.30pm and I was now ravenous, so I ducked into a small street stall and found a quiet table to enjoy a late lunch and wait out the remaining time before my appointment.
Back for my appointment
Being the first time that I have ever had an "appointment" I had mistakenly assumed that this time was specifically for me, and so wandering back into the police building with ten minutes to spare seemed more than enough to ensure I was not late. There was a line of over 40 people in the room waiting to talk with the only lady at the information desk, but I managed to squeak in a quick question. The answer however was not what I was wanting to hear. That line of people was the line for everybody that had been given a "3.30pm appointment. Walking despondently to the end of the line I note the myriad of others that are seated and standing idly around the place. It looked like I was in for a long wait.
In front of me were a couple who, somewhere down the line, I discovered to be Bolivian doctors also in line to get their police certificate as part of the requirements to get residency here in Argentina. It was great meeting them as we chatted away our waiting time with stories about Australia and Bolivia, about telephones (they were about to purchase one and had all of the brochures) and iPhones, about migrations and politics, and many other interesting topics. Before long we had reached the information desk who gave us a ticket with a number on it and the cost we were to pay.
The police certificate is all done electronically now, and can be received in the normal period of 5 days for $27.50 pesos, or for those in a hurry, 24 hours costs $40 and for $50 you can get it done in 8 hours. I chose the 24 hour wait which meant that it would be ready for me at the very end of the work day tomorrow. The process was painless, providing electronic copies of all fingerprints, a photocopy of the main passport information page, and basic personal details. It took all of three minutes to be processed before I was out of there.
The "National Registry of Criminal History" in Piedras Street, Buenos Aires.
Finishing off the Translation
Saying good-bye to my new Bolivian friends, I headed straight for the train station and squeezed in amongst the many others for a hot and smelly ride to pick up my documents that had now been translated. The massive array of buttons were no longer such a challenge as I located and pressed the corresponding one in order to announce my presence. Picking up the documents and checking them over to ensure that the translation was accurate, I pay the outstanding amount and head back down in the painfully slow lift. It was now 5.15pm and although the documents were translated, they needed to be authorised before they were usable.
Translation of documents in Argentina must be done from within Argentina by "Public Translators." These are people who have been trained in the art of legal translation of one or more languages. Each one is registered and accredited and once they have translated a document, the translation of which is stapled and sealed to the original, that translation needs to be checked by the College of Translators to ensure that it was translated by an authorised person. Without this authorisation from the College the translation was unusable.
It was four blocks down the road to reach the College of Translators, and I was there in plenty of time to get the documents authorised. In fact, when I arrived there was nobody else there, so my documents were authorised within 15 minutes of arriving. This was the fastest of all of the processes that I have experienced to date.
Walking out of the College I now had my documents translated and authorised, and my police certificate was being processed. Once I pick up the police certificate, what with my photos and photocopies also in hand, I will have everything needed to start the residency process.