Monday was a major score in my knightly quest to land a visa.

You may remember in April my ignorance led me to take a trip to the US Embassy in Warsaw, hoping to get a Power of Attorney notarized and then get a document called an Apostille. Came away with nothing in hand, but lots of new knowledge.

Here is the dealio with an Apostille.

Whenever you sign a contract or other important document, you must have the signing of the document "notarized". Research tells me that notarization by an impartial (and governmental-ly sanctioned) person is legal assurance that the signature is genuine and that the signer was acting without duress.

This single step of notarization is enough for contracts within your own country. However when sending said important documents across borders, there is an extra step of certifying that the person doing the notarization is legitimate (and therefore, by extension, the signing of the document was legal in the country in which it was signed). For this purpose we use an Apostille.

The Apostille is issued by the Secretary of State (of the geographical place where you are at the time of the notarization) and is attached to your notarized document (in my case it was stapled). It attests to the document's validity and basically states that the notary is authorized to notarize right here right now. The Apostille is accepted (and required!) in 116 countries around the world for contracts crossing borders.

Why couldn't I get it done in Warsaw, you may ask... So, I could have gotten an American notarization at the Embassy in Warsaw, but I couldn't get an American Secretary of State Apostille issued in Warsaw... And you cannot take that contract notarized in X-country to a different country for Apostille.

I contacted 6 different notaries in Poland via email, not one responded. That would have been the easiest route, but the level of service just wasn't there.

Finally, had I been able to get a document notarized by an Italian notary (even in Poland) I would not have needed the Apostille. I sent emails to the Italian Embassy in Warsaw, explaining my situation and asking if I could come there for the notarization.... but apparently the Embassy Notaries are only available to Italian citizens.

And so, after over 8 weeks of trying, I finally got the Apostille in my hot little hands and sent it off to my immigration attorney. Score! Woot! Woot!

Adventures in getting an Italian visa!!! More to come I'm sure!