Today was the day we officially got our visas to live in Israel. We had spent weeks obtaining, preparing and mailing all our documents for the process. To apply for the visas we had to first get a new copy of our birth certificates and marriage license. The documents need to be issued within the past year. That involved contacting all the states we were born and married to get them…Colorado, Virginia, Louisiana and Florida. After that, we had to go through a process to get an Apostile of all the documents. This is a specialized certificate, issued by the Secretary of State in each of the states. The Apostille is attached to your original document to verify it is legitimate and authentic so it will be accepted in another country.
After receiving the documents, we had to mail them away again to get the Apostille. It was a long process and quite expensive because we had a time frame to do it. We had to overnight each of the documents to the various states with another overnight return label to get them back in time. We learned there are companies that do this for you, but they are very expensive and can’t get them back any faster than if you do it yourself. It all depends on how fast the state agency gets to them. For the record, Louisiana was the last to mail our documents back.
We all woke up early because we had to be out of the house and at the government building by 9. I took a taxi with the kids (remember all 5 of us can’t fit in a taxi) and Jim jumped on his scooter with all of our documents. We passed other morning commuters on their scooters along the way.
The government building had a metal detector outside and 2 armed guards.
Once inside we went up to the 3rd floor where we had to go through another metal detector before reaching the area where we would get our visas. The lawyer we hired to assist with the process met us and asked for our documents. Jim handed him our documents and realized we were missing the additional forms we were given to fill out the day before. They were at home on the table! We quickly got copies and tried to fill them out again, but this had taken a lot of time the previous night and the appointment was starting NOW! The attorney took the documents we had into a meeting while we waited outside. He came back within 15 minutes with visas for everyone. The additional documents were not needed after all. In addition, I was happy to learn I was granted the same visa as Jim allowing me now work in Israel. I’m excited I have the opportunity to do that once we all get settled.
From here we all headed over to Jim’s new office which happened to be across the street. He was excited to show us his new space located on the top floor of a large skyscraper with amazing views of the city.
The space was beautiful and we alll got a bite to eat at the cafe located on the top floor.
Notifyai office
I decided to try something new a pastry filled with a vegetable I didn’t recognize. It was good and reminded me a a cross between spinach and kale.
Today was also a big day for Josh. His 15th BIRTHDAY!
We wanted to try to make it special even though he was missing his friends in Boulder. Josh decided he wanted to go shopping at a nearby mall for some new clothes for school in Israel.
Although it’s hot in Colorado, Josh loves to wear sweatpants and sweatshirts in any temperature. He realized quickly his primary wardrobe was not going to work in the oppressively hot and humid Israeli weather. He also needed some key items for special dinners and events at his new school. We walked to a nearby mall that resembled a typical American mall with many of the same stores.
We were able to get a babysitter for the girls and take Josh out alone for his birthday dinner.
I was starting to feel sad he would be leaving in a few days to go to boarding school. Even though it was just 20 minutes away…he was still going to live at school instead of home.
