Months and months ago I reported that the only thing holding up my permanent residency here in Uruguay was the legalization of my FBI report. Well, it’s still outstanding. The people I had helping me with my visa didn’t have any luck (I’m trying to be nice here) getting it legalized so I requested all of my papers back from them.

Here’s the scoop. You can either get the FBI report done yourself in the USA before you leave like I did or wait until you get to Uruguay and go to Interpol in Montevideo.

Option 1) Do it yourself — go to your local police department and tell them you need fingerprints taken to request an FBI report for yourself. They’ll charge you a few dollars, get your hands all dirty, and you walk out of there with a card covered in fingerprint ink. You then send that to the FBI office in West Virginia with a check (I think it was US$18). If you have a crime-free background they’ll mail the same card back to you with a “No Arrest Record” stamp on the back. Before you leave the US you have to have it legalized by sending the card to the Uruguayan consulate that serves your state of residency along with a certified check for US$42 and a return postage paid envelope (they prefer DHL). This is the step I didn’t do which has held everything up for me. The last step after you received the legalized card back is to have it translated by an official translator here in Uruguay.

If you check the FBI Web site they say how many weeks it can take to process your request. They also say that if you have a time deadline because of travel or whatever to write that on the outside of the envelope and they’ll do their best to process before your requested date. They were true to their word when I did mine. I only had about five weeks before I left Seattle and they got it back to me before the date I wrote on the envelope.

Option 2) Interpol Montevideo — You can go to Interpol here in Montevideo where they’ll take your fingerprints. [I haven’t done this so I’m piecing it together from what I’ve heard so if anybody has more accurate information please post it here.] They’ll give you an envelope already addressed to the FBI. You have to include the FBI’s fee in the envelope. I’m not sure how much Interpol charges for this service nor am I sure if you have to pay the round-trip postage or DHL expense additionally.

Some people have said that the Interpol route doesn’t take too long. JP just called the UY consulate in NYC and they said that doing it through Interpol could take up to six months whereas sending it yourself to an Uruguayan consulate is just a matter of days.

One advantage I’ve heard of the Interpol route is that you don’t have to have the report translated and the return envelope goes directly to immigration here in MVD. Translation costs about UY$68 (less than three dollars).

If anybody has any experience with the Interpol method please share it since I’m not sure how accurate what I wrote is. Doing it in the US myself was pretty painless. I just wish I had had it legalized before leaving the US. I didn’t know about that requirement or I would have. When I sent my birth certificate to the UY consulate in NYC to be legalized the got it back to me very quickly so I believe them when they say they’ll process it within a day of receiving the request.

Also, don’t be afraid to call the consulates in the US. Everyone I’ve spoken with (NYC) or dealt with in person (in Miami) has been extremely helpful, polite, and courteous. JP just hung up the phone with both the NYC consulate and the Los Angeles consulate and both were very informative and helpful.

We’re off to DHL now to send the FBI report to Los Angeles. Hopeful next week I’ll report here on the blog that it came back without issue — I’m the eternal optimist!!

Some people have asked me for an update on my visa situation. Nothing much to report. I’m here legally (thankfully) and am waiting on two things. The first was the civil registry wouldn’t accept the copy of my birth certificate since it did not list my parents’ names. I sent for another official copy from the mother land and that has arrived so we just have to have it translated and submit it to the civil registry so they can issue my Uruguayan birth certificate.

The second paperwork we’re waiting on is my FBI statement of no criminal record. I had it done before I left the motherland (went to the local Seattle police, got fingerprinted, and sent the request to the FBI). What I didn’t do was have the Uruguayan consulate legalize it before leaving the USA. That’s being done now. Once these two minor issues are taken care of I will receive my official cedula, or national ID card.

I posted the following as a reply to a comment on one of my earlier posts. I’m including it here since others may be interested.

Sorry for taking so long to respond to your comment. There is a different class of visa for investors (anyone who invests over US$100,000 either in real estate or by opening an account at the Bank of the Republic). I believe there are benefits to that class of visa but I’m not sure what they are exactly. One thing I’ve heard is that you’re able to import a car tax free which with my type of visa, rentista, (income from outside of the country) I’d have to pay some huge tax on the import of a car. Plus with the investor’s visa there are restrictions on what you can do with that $100,000 for x number of years. The rentista visa process here isn’t really too complicated and the government doesn’t deny visas arbitrarily. They do want all of the paperwork to be in order which is why I used a visa consultant (highly recommended if you are not fluent in Spanish).

As of yesterday, December 22, 2006, I am no longer a tourist in Uruguay. Which is cool since I haven’t really been doing much touring. So far I haven’t left the city of Montevideo.

My current status here is “Residencia En Tramite” which means that I’ve applied for a resident’s visa and I am waiting. Though the requirements and process for obtaining residency in Uruguay is easier than many other countries it’s still a lot of work.

As for the residency process itself, there are several types of visas. The one I’m applying for requires showing a minimum income of US$500 coming into Uruguay each month (they’re not very strict on showing proof upfront but I’ve heard that they may request proof that you’ve been bringing the money into UY before renewing the visa after the first year). In addition to proof of income I had to provide a legalized copy of my birth certificate, an FBI report showing that I don’t have a criminal record, a certificate of health, a copy of my passport, two photos, and I had to surrender my tourist visa.

Everything is done except the FBI report has to be sent to the Uruguay consulate in New York to be legalized. Also, we had problem registering my birth certificate with the local registry. The copy of my birth certificate that I have does not list my parents’ names and they require their names in order to issue me an Uruguayan birth certificate. Luckily I brought a copy of my baptismal record which lists their names and we’re hoping that the registry will accept that. If not I’ve already ordered another copy of my birth certificate which will need to be certified again by a consulate in the US. These are just minor details. Once all of the paperwork is to the immigration department’s satisfaction I’ll receive my visa and national ID card (cedula).

In order to bring my shipment of furniture and household junk into the country I needed to provide a legalized statement that I’ve lived outside of UY for the last ten years (note: this is not correct see this entry), a legalized copy of the inventory of items I’m receiving (in Spanish of course), and they require that I deposit in the national bank enough money to cover any taxes I would have to pay on the shipment if for any reason my residency visa isn’t approved. When I have my final visa the money is released to me.

My shipment from Seattle was scheduled to arrive in the Port of Montevideo yesterday so we got all of the paperwork done just in time. One of the pieces of paper immigration gave me yesterday must be provided to the customs office in order to receive my shipment. Having all of this done is a major stress reducer. Once I have my furniture in the house I’ll really be able to breath a sigh of relief.

Yesterday was the summer solstice and it was Bamm-Bamm’s third birthday. No, I’m not one of those people who throws birthday parties for their dogs but I did give both Barney and Bamm-Bamm some special dog food that they sell in the refrigerated section at the supermarket. I don’t want to know what’s in it but the dogs loved it so that’s all that matters.

As the very strenuous year of 2006 comes to an end I’m really starting to feel at home in my new country. I’m looking forward to what 2007 brings.