Wine and Passports

I spent a few hours this morning figuring out how I'm suppose to get my criminal history report Apostille-ized... I received the report a few weeks ago but it was just a printout and I wasn't sure what to do with it.  So I e-mailed visa-immigration@doj.ca.gov asking what the next steps were. I received a response saying a new letter would be issued with a state seal and then I would have to contact the California Secretary of State.   I got the new letter (not sure if it would have just been sent automatically if I hadn't asked) and then put it off for a couple weeks then went back and tried to figure out what to do. I printed out the DS-4194 from the U.S. state department website and started filling it out this morning when I read this:   Note:  The U.S. Department of State will not issue an Apostille for state-issued documents.   Above this it stated: State issued documents destined for use in Hague Apostille countries may be authenticated by the Competent Authority in the state where the document was executed. A list of these authorities can be found on the Hague website. I clicked the link for the Hague website and found my way to this page http://www.sos.ca.gov/notary/authentication/   It included a list of required items to submit, one of which was "A cover letter stating the country in which the document will be used". No forms or anything to print out. What exactly is this cover letter supposed to say is unclear. Do I just write SPAIN in big Continue Reading

I started making some decent progress on the visa stuff about 2 weeks ago. I had printed out the live scan request form (https://oag.ca.gov/fingerprints/visaimmigration) several weeks ago for obtaining my criminal history but that was it, the next step was to get fingerprints. I looked at the website to find the locations. One of them happened to be conveniently less than a block away from my office, and where I applied for TSA Precheck several months ago. There was no info on hours or anything, but I sent them an email and they emailed me back a couple days later, and told me the best walk-in times. So Thursday the 13th I walked in around 4pm and got that done. I had to bring my ID and the live scan form. It cost $57 and for some reason I wasn't thinking and didn't bring my entire wallet so I had to run back to the office to grab it.   I got something in the mail that said there was some sort of delay but then I got my criminal history print out the following week so it was a pretty quick turnaround. The next step is to get the "Apostille of the Hague Convention" which I still need to figure out. Plus it needs to be translated into Spanish by a certified translator. The criminal history report also can't be older than 3 months from the visa application date, and in turn when I get approved for a visa it will only be valid for 90 days until I go to Spain and register for a Spanish ID card which will allow me to stay for the remainder of the time (up to 1 year), so I need Continue Reading

Hello! Welcome to my blog. I came up with the name of this blog when I started traveling a lot for work this past year and using the hashtag #wineandpassports on some of my Instagram posts. But the ultimate travel experience is yet to come. (If you just want to get to the Visa requirements, click here)   Last December, I talked to a guy at Crossfit who was dropping into one of our classes. It turned out he was originally from Madrid. Talking to him reignited a dream I've had since my early 20's to live in Spain for awhile and learn Spanish. I've toyed with the idea on and off (mostly off). I remember talking to my sister about the Crossfit guy a few days later (never saw him again, unfortunately) and telling her how I wanted move to Madrid and learn Spanish. Her response was "do it already, you've been talking about it forever". A couple of months later I was on vacation in Singapore and met an Australian expat who had just moved to Singapore 2 weeks earlier on a 3 year contract. A friend of mine had moved to Europe a few months prior. Both of these things helped to fuel my inspiration. I started to realize my sister had a point. I should just do it. Even though I was about to turn 37 years old, I realized it is never too late to follow your dreams. Also, being where I am in life actually had some advantages such as accumulating a decent amount of work experience and skills and more importantly a savings account. Not to mention social media accounts for communicating Continue Reading