A bit of a snag...

Date:  10/18/2010
          -4 days

So, as I enunciated in an earlier post, there seems to be endless paperwork when trying to get ready to go to a foreign country...and today I found out the paperwork is always devious.  (Yes, I know I just made a sheet of paper sound menacing.  But truly, they are maniacal and twisted).  Let me explain:

For those going to teach in South Korea, one has to get a criminal background check (from here on out: read CBC).  As of two months ago, one could get a state-wide CBC.  Since I was moving from South Carolina back go Indiana, I ended up getting 2 CBCs, one for each state.  And each CBC need to be "apostilled" -- an international notification done by the Secretary of State.  (Read: more paperwork).  This process (apostille-ing) (is that a word?) takes about 1 week. 

Well, two months ago, the policy changed to a national FBI background check.  No big deal.  The national one is actually cheaper--go figure, right?!  Well...I went to get my FBI CBC (which took 5 weeks to receive) apostilled today at the Indiana Secretary of State.  PROBLEM:  The FBI CBC is a national document.  Indiana Secretary of State: well, that's local.  The helpful lady at the IN SoS told me Homeland Security sent out a notice that they can't apostille national documents.  They have to mailed to Washington DC so that they can apostille them.  That takes 7-10 days. 

I'm leaving in 4 days.  You do the math.

So, its created quiet a bit of a sna-foo in my gears.  So, I emailed my wonderful recruiter (Miss Cindy Songh at JJ Recruiting--if anyone needs a recommendation for a great South Korean recruiter--I so highly recommend Cindy.  She has been awesome, answers all your questions, is an absolute ease to work with.  Highest compliments) and I await "further directions." 

Going abroad is never really easy, per se.  When I was thinking this morning, when I got up, that I'd just pop on down to Indianapolis, get my CBC apostilled, and have that checked off my "list of things to do before I leave,"  well, it really did sound just too easy.  Guess what?  I was right.