Australian documents

[ndcj]

Hi All,

A couple of really quick questions, hopefully someone has some recent experience.

My wife, who is an Argentine citizen, me and our three children are moving to Argentina. The kids and I are all Australian citizens. So far as I've figured out, the kids are entitled to "ciudadania por opcion" by virtue of one parent being an Argentine citizen and I'm entitled to permanent residency based on either being married to a citizen or being the parent of soon-to-be resident citizens.

I think I understand mostly the process for me from reading through posts on here, but I was wondering if anyone had any recent experience with Australian documents with migraciones.

I know they need to be translated in Argentina by a certified translator. Did you need the Argentine Consulate in Sydney to authenticate the documents (NSW birth certificate, NSW marriage certificate, police clearance certificate) or was an Apostille from the Australian Dept of Foreign Affairs what was needed? The consulate charges $AUD44 and DFAT charges $60, but I bet DFAT is much less painful to deal with.

Also, did you need the full, more expensive, fingerprint criminal history check or just the name/DOB one?

As for citizenship for the kids, does anyone have any experience in doing that? I can't even figure out where to start on that.

If location makes any difference to the process, we'll be in La Plata.

Thanks for any advice! I've been trying to soak up as much info and advice from this forum as possible

 

[random.striker]

Ah, sorry I didn't see this before mate... just in case you haven't done this already... here's what I've done in this regard. Hope that it helps you and if not, maybe it can help some other aussies in a similar situation:

> Did you need the Argentine Consulate in Sydney to authenticate the documents (NSW
> birth certificate, NSW marriage certificate, police clearance certificate) or was an
> Apostille from the Australian Dept of Foreign Affairs what was needed?

Don't worry at all to contact the Argentine consulate in Sydney, they are completely hopeless and in most cases will give you misleading or incomplete information.

However, if you are moving with all your gear your wife will need to get a letter from them saying that she has lived in Australia for longer than a year so you can import all your stuff without paying for custom duties. This I think costs about $40 AUD and you need to go to the Consulate and present two bills that have her name on it and your current address. For some reason, it takes them a week to do this! So take this into account. Also you can't pay this with credit card, you need to pay it cash at their bank! And then bring the receipt back to them! Very bizarre.

In theory, you should be able to do all the permanent residency of your kids in the consulate in Sydney, but when I tried that they said that it would take really long for them to do this in Sydney and I was better off doing them in Buenos Aires. I even spoke with the General Consular official there and I've got the feeling that they didn't wanted to do it there and my best option was to do it in BA once we arrived.

*Everything* must have an apostille from the DFAT. I had to get:

* Birth certificates
* Our marriage certificate
* Police criminal history for everyone over 18 (and yes, you need the full fingerprint expensive one)

I was told (ARG Consulate) to get two copies of each the Birth certificates and the marriage certificates as they were keeping one copy... but at the end they gave them back after I insisted that I want them back. Yes, you had to put apostilles in the second copies too!

As for the Australian Police criminal history, you need to send it to the Argentine consulate as Australian Federal Police must send it to the authorities of the country that you are going... you can't send it to yourself. Then you need to pick it up from their consulate open it and take it to DFAT to get the apostille for it.

Your best bet is to get all the necessary papers in Australia *before* you get here. Make sure though that you get the police clearance as closer to your departure from Australia (as it has a 3 months validity-I think). Also get *all* the apostilles *before* you get here... I know they can add up really quickly to a small fortune but you'll need them anyway.

Yes, you can get them thru Consulate here in BA but they will take longer. In DFAT in Sydney it takes them 24 to 48 hours and I know they can do them on the day if you are on a hurry and if ask nicely. They can post them to you if you want for the same fee.

Once you get here, the paperwork at immigrations is quite annoying and tedious... so the best option -if you can afforded, is to get some local help. I used an immigration lawyer (Gustavo Celano, he's contact details are here in the forums). He and his fellows know the system inside out and will make it really easy for you. Otherwise you will need to:

* Get police residency certificates
* Get a local police criminal record certificate (this is quite easy to get though).
* Get a certified translator to translate all your docos
* Take them to the translator's board to get the certified (I know this sound ridiculous, but hey, that's the way it is)
* Go to immigrations and spend quite some time figuring the process out. Expect a lot of frustration and pointless waiting while the immigration employs do f**kall behind the counters.

I didn't do the citizenship, just the permanent residency as I thought it was easier and we will be here for just a few years. If your kids want the citizenship, they can apply for it before they are 18, I believe.

Sorry I don't know how to do this in La Plata.

It's a long and tedious process even before you leave Australia! So when we've got here we decided to get the immigration lawyers as I was already feed up with all the paperwork BS. It makes live a lot easier, really. So it is definitely worth considering.

Hope this helps..

PS: Ah, if you are bringing a dog, send me a private message and I can give you the tips... it's impossibly complicated! Even more than with people

Have a safe resettling in ARG!

 

[random.striker]

Ah, sorry I didn't see this before mate... just in case you haven't done this already... here's what I've done in this regard. Hope that it helps you and if not, maybe it can help some other aussies in a similar situation:

> Did you need the Argentine Consulate in Sydney to authenticate the documents (NSW
> birth certificate, NSW marriage certificate, police clearance certificate) or was an
> Apostille from the Australian Dept of Foreign Affairs what was needed?

Don't worry at all to contact the Argentine consulate in Sydney, they are completely hopeless and in most cases will give you misleading or incomplete information.

However, if you are moving with all your gear your wife will need to get a letter from them saying that she has lived in Australia for longer than a year so you can import all your stuff without paying for custom duties. This I think costs about $40 AUD and you need to go to the Consulate and present two bills that have her name on it and your current address. For some reason, it takes them a week to do this! So take this into account. Also you can't pay this with credit card, you need to pay it cash at their bank! And then bring the receipt back to them! Very bizarre.

In theory, you should be able to do all the permanent residency of your kids in the consulate in Sydney, but when I tried that they said that it would take really long for them to do this in Sydney and I was better off doing them in Buenos Aires. I even spoke with the General Consular official there and I've got the feeling that they didn't wanted to do it there and my best option was to do it in BA once we arrived.

*Everything* must have an apostille from the DFAT. I had to get:

* Birth certificates
* Our marriage certificate
* Police criminal history for everyone over 18 (and yes, you need the full fingerprint expensive one)

I was told (ARG Consulate) to get two copies of each the Birth certificates and the marriage certificates as they were keeping one copy... but at the end they gave them back after I insisted that I want them back. Yes, you had to put apostilles in the second copies too!

As for the Australian Police criminal history, you need to send it to the Argentine consulate as Australian Federal Police must send it to the authorities of the country that you are going... you can't send it to yourself. Then you need to pick it up from their consulate open it and take it to DFAT to get the apostille for it.

Your best bet is to get all the necessary papers in Australia *before* you get here. Make sure though that you get the police clearance as closer to your departure from Australia (as it has a 3 months validity-I think). Also get *all* the apostilles *before* you get here... I know they can add up really quickly to a small fortune but you'll need them anyway.

Yes, you can get them thru Consulate here in BA but they will take longer. In DFAT in Sydney it takes them 24 to 48 hours and I know they can do them on the day if you are on a hurry and if ask nicely. They can post them to you if you want for the same fee.

Once you get here, the paperwork at immigrations is quite annoying and tedious... so the best option -if you can afforded, is to get some local help. I used an immigration lawyer (Gustavo Celano, he's contact details are here in the forums). He and his fellows know the system inside out and will make it really easy for you. Otherwise you will need to:

* Get police residency certificates
* Get a local police criminal record certificate (this is quite easy to get though).
* Get a certified translator to translate all your docos
* Take them to the translator's board to get the certified (I know this sound ridiculous, but hey, that's the way it is)
* Go to immigrations and spend quite some time figuring the process out. Expect a lot of frustration and pointless waiting while the immigration employs do f**kall behind the counters.

I didn't do the citizenship, just the permanent residency as I thought it was easier and we will be here for just a few years. If your kids want the citizenship, they can apply for it before they are 18, I believe.

Sorry I don't know how to do this in La Plata.

It's a long and tedious process even before you leave Australia! So when we've got here we decided to get the immigration lawyers as I was already feed up with all the paperwork BS. It makes live a lot easier, really. So it is definitely worth considering.

Hope this helps..

PS: Ah, if you are bringing a dog, send me a private message and I can give you the tips... it's impossibly complicated! Even more than with people

Have a safe resettling in ARG!

 

[Johnno]

I'm in a different situation to you guys - I'm coming down on a tourist visa and then marrying my lady in a few months from now - at this stage I'm thinking the best way to go is to have all my documents I need with me and then to get started once we are married (?)

Anyway - I'll be down next month and I guess I'll figure it all out then

John.

 

[L_K_P]

johnno is a very aussie name !

 

[ndcj]

Ah, sorry I didn't see this before mate... just in case you haven't done this already... here's what I've done in this regard. Hope that it helps you and if not, maybe it can help some other aussies in a similar situation:

Thanks very much for the info! It's great to get a confirmation that we've got all the right documents!