Get your legal documents before moving overseas
When you apply for residency, you’ll need some documents from your home country.
Almost every country I’m aware of wants a copy of your birth certificate and any marriage or divorce records (if you’re married or divorced).
For people in many countries, with nationalized records, getting these documents is fairly simple. However, in the US, those records are usually filed with the county or state. With 50 states, and around 3600 counties, getting these documents isn’t as simple for US citizens. It doesn’t help that we can easily be living thousands of miles from where we were born.
When I needed my birth certificate, I used the website https://www.vitalchek.com/. I was busy enough with everything else I needed to do for my move. So, I didn’t want to spend time dealing with a county records department a thousand miles away.
When ordering your birth certificate, you’ll need to provide enough information for them to know it’s really you – not some stranger.
You’ll need to give your full name, date of birth, city of birth, parents’ full names, etc. But you can get through this online process in a couple of minutes.
You can also order multiple copies of your documents. I suggest you do this. It’s always good to have a backup copy, in case you send one off for legalization and it gets lost. I ordered the maximum amount I could (five copies).
A few days after ordering my birth certificates, they arrived.
The fee to use VitalChek was only ten dollars, and it was worth it to me.
For me, it was an easy way to get the documents I needed. Instead of making long distance phone calls, in the middle of the workday, I was able to place my order late at night, when I had some free time.
Once I received my birth certificates, I sent off the ones needed for legalization. I kept one to bring with me (in my carry-on bag). I also left one in a sealed envelope with a trusted friend, in case I needed it FedEx’ed to me later on.
Getting your documents ready is a vital step for moving overseas. You may need to wait to have them legalized, in case the Immigration Department of your new country only accepts recently legalized documents. However, the sooner you get them in your hands, and ready to go, the sooner you can check off one more task on your moving overseas checklist.
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