Moving to and living in...Argentina

Buenos Aires is struggling right now with goods...nothing new

The Washington Post ran an article highlighting the scarcity of goods such as natural gas and milk, in Buenos Aires, Argentina. This is nothing new in a country that has a roller coaster economy. If you are considering moving to Buenos Aires, then it's a very important thing to be aware of. During the Argentine summer it was common to have power cuts during certain times of the day to conserve electricity so having natural gas caps to keep it for the heating sector is not much different. Anyway, here is the article the Post ran:

Scarcity of Goods Sows Frustration Among Argentines

As Vote Nears, Price Controls Questioned

By Monte Reel

Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, June 22, 2007;  Page A16

 

BUENOS AIRES -- At the height of rush hour, Luis Ibáñez parked his taxi in the middle of the busiest intersection of this city, got out of the car and stood cross-armed in the street as traffic jammed around him.

Dozens of other cabdrivers joined him Friday, protesting a national shortage of compressed natural gas -- the primary fuel for the vast majority of taxis here. As winter approached in the Southern Hemisphere, the Argentine government cut natural gas supplies to service stations and industrial users last week. It was a temporary measure to ensure that there would be sufficient fuel available to heat Argentine homes over the weekend.

To read the full article, click here

Registering a foreign born U.S. Citizen CROBA

This past week was a busy week with visits to the Registro Civil here in Buenos Aires to pick up Caitlyn's Acta de Nacimiento, another trip to Mater Dei to get more of my hospital records for the U.S. Consulate appointment to register a foreign birth abroad, and then finally - the actual appointment at the consulate to apply for her American passport and the CROBA or "consular report of birth abroad."

Caitlyn will have dual citizenship once the consular record of a birth abroad is approved, but that means two passports and understanding how that affects her when traveling to the US or to Argentina.

So, if you plan to travel to the U.S. and will be registering their foreign birth abroad  you must have the baby's Argentine passport to leave the country (this is my next post) and their American passport to enter the States. So you need to also do the Argentine passport as soon as possible.
By US laws, even if your children also hold foreign nationality, they are required to enter and depart the United States on a valid US passport at all times. They should not enter the United States on a foreign passport or on US visa waiver program.

One other thing to be aware of that is very important:
if your baby is born here in Argentina then they will forever have "born in Argentina" in their American passport. If they want to travel to Argentina later in life they should enter and exit Argentina on a current Argentine passport because they are still considered as being governed by Argentine laws once they set foot in the country and without the passport they will not be allowed to leave the country if someone sees the born in Argentina in their American passport.

 

NOW FOR THE PROCESS

You should really do this as soon as possible after your baby is born in Argentina. Here is what you need to know based on our experience (which was a positive one as her applications were all approved!)

1. Contact the U.S. Consulate in Buenos Aires for to request the information package "How to Register a Child Born Abroad" by email at BuenosAires-ACS@state.gov or by mail: Consular Section , United States Embassy, Av. Colombia 4300, C1425GMN Buenos Aires.
The package will contain all your instructions, the form for the consular birth record of birth abroad, a passport application, an affadavit detailing the time in and out of country, and a social security application (which you won't need to fill out because now you can't apply for one until you get your passport.) p.s. while you're waiting for the packet, visit the U.S. Department of State's page on "documentation of U.S. Citizens born abroad" for a lot of great information.

2. Once you have the packet, call or email to make an appointment - if you want to call them then best to do early in the day. They will give you an appointment with the time and the window number (in reality you'll be going to one of two windows that are set up for passports). You'll need to go with the baby's father and the baby.

3. Prepare all of your paperwork (read the backs of the forms carefully to make sure you fill in the information the way they like it). You'll need your major documentation in originals (ie. marriage certificate etc.) and preferably certified but you won't need to bring them any copies - I think they copy what they need.
*You need to provide them with proof that you lived in the U.S. for at least five years of your life as a US born citizen (if not born in US then read the packet to see the differences). In our case I provided them with my unofficial school transcripts as well as a file of bills from my pets over the years that I had dragged along in my records since I didn't have anything else that covered enough time.

4. The day of your appointment make sure you give yourself some additional time as you have to go through a security check which takes a bit of extra time.
Once at appointment, take a number and sit down to wait to be called by number or name whichever comes first. The person at the first window will go through your papers with you to make sure everything is in order.
Next you'll be sent to pay the fees for the  CROBA which is 65.00 US and the passport which is 82.00 US (you can also pay by credit card or in pesos).
After you finish paying and have your receipt you head back to the person processing your paperwork, give them the receipt and wait to be called up again for the final processing.
When called up again, they confirm all your paperwork, ask some questions, ask to see the child, and have you sign and do a swearing in that everything is true. If everything is fine...all is approved. Passport should take around 10-14 days to get to your Argentine address by DHL.

5. Final step, take the receipt they give you and go to the DHL window on the way out, pay the DHL fee in pesos and give the address you want the passport sent to.

All in all, it wasn't too difficult, particularly as it was only one of us who is a U.S. citizen with the other one still considered a French citizen till naturalized.

One last thing, if you ever need a certified copy of a "consular record of foreign birth abroad" they you'll need it from the Department of State. They have all the information you'll need right on their website.

Acta de nacimiento and DNI for Argentine born baby

This post is coming just a bit before some other posts that I really want to get out about how everything went with the medical care for Caitlyn's delivery. But since I am now a human pacifier and spend most of my day literally with Caitlyn attached to me, I'm going to get to these posts as I can, and in this case it won't be in exactly the order I hoped!

I wanted to cover our experience at the Registro Civil and the process of getting Caitlyn's Acta de Nacimiento or birth certificate and her Argentine DNI.

Normally, you can register your child's birth at the hospital where they were born, however in our case, and probably the case of some of you who might be reading this, we weren't married here in Argentina and thus to register the birth at the hospitalo we would need our marriage certificate apostilled, and then translated here in Argentina by a translator certified by the National College of Translators, and then the translation would have to be certified as well.

The other option and really the easiest for foreigners - whether here legally or illegally, is for both parents to go to the Registro Civ il, with the: passports of both parents, a photocopy of each passportl, and the Certificado de Nacimiento from the place of birth (ie hospital, birthing clinic, etc).

** Beware of one thing with the certification of the birth. In our case the partera or midwife that assisted my obstetrician was the person who certified the birth on the paperwork. Unfortunately she missed my middle initial on my passport name and this caused us to make two trips to the Registro, because the passports needed to match EXACTLY, with no misspellings or omissions. Also, if you plan to apply for permanent residency through your child, you will want to make sure you take a copy of your birth certificate so as to save the hassle later of having to go and get extra certifications or paperwork about the differences.

Once at the Registro, you head to the nice lady at the window for the nacimientos, she looks over your passports and certificado de nacimiento and then gives you a number, sends you off to fill in the personal information on the certificado as well as giving you an Informe Estadestico de Nacido Vivo to fill out as well - this last form essentially asks how many children are born to you at this time, how many you had before, info on your newborn, etc and if you can't comfortably read Spanish, you'll want to take someone with you to make sure you understand the questions, although with basic Spanish you should get by fine.

Eventually, your number will be called and you will go back to the window again, now with your forms filled out for the clerk to review all the information. MAKE SURE YOU PRINT CLEARLY SO THERE ARE NO MISSPELLINGS! Once the information is reviewed then you wait again until the person who registers the birth and prepares the baby's DNI is finished. Once they're ready they call you back up and you then sign the birth registry, again making sure everything is correct, and if the DNI is in stock you get it right then. The official birth certificate takes about a week and requires a trip back to pick up by one of the parents or an authorized person. Something I found interesting by the way, only the father signs their name in the babies DNI book, not the mother...hmphhh.

So there you have it, registering your child born in Argentina, and oh yes, in case you didn't figure it out already, your newborn with automatic Argentine citizenship just gave you the chance to have permanent residency if you so desire.

More to come, including registering the foreign birth of a U.S. and French citizen.

Sandra Bullock to Kiss & Tango in Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires is just becoming hotter and hotter it seems, and I'm not just talking about our summer weather! According to a story in The Hollywood Reporter, "Sandra Bullock has set her sights on the world of tango and Argentina. Through her Fortis Films, the actress-producer is set to produce a film version of Marina Palmer's memoir "Kiss & Tango" with an eye to star for Fox 2000 Pictures."

I wonder if one day my simple little relocation ebook Moving to and Living in Buenos Aires, Argentina could get picked up by a production house? nah ;-)

I see more and more interest in Buenos Aires on a daily basis, and this will be another fan for the flames!

Baby has arrived!

The Santa Stork brought us a wonderful gift on December 26, 2006 with the arrival of our daughter Caitlyn Elizabeth.  

Mommy, daddy and new little bundle of joy are doing great and adjusting to a completely new experience for all of us. Because she was born by caesarian it will take me a bit more time to recover fully, but I'm off to a great start.

I will be posting much more information about what the birth was like, the hospital care, the overall experience and what it will be like to have to declare a foreign birth abroad, as well as her birth here with parents who are foreigners in the country. If you want to read more about this then visit my other blog Pregnant in Buenos Aires.

I will also be getting back to blogging here in my regular blog as much as possible but in a fuzzy sleep deprived state!

Finally - plátano (plantains) in Buenos Aires

After months of searching I finally found plátano or plaintains, although they're not called plátano here in Argentina, they're called barraganete. Now I understand why no one seemed to understand when I asked for plátanos for cooking because here in Argentina that's the name for your average garden variety eating banana. But, head towards Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela or into the Caribbean and plátano gets you a very starchy banana that needs to be cooked first.

Plátano verde or green plátanos When they're green they're great fried getting nice and crunchy, and when they're ripe maduro, they're sweet and soft and do well with deep frying or baking.

Either way I was missing them so much during my pregnancy. Just one of those cravings that I wasn't able to get my hands on. But there they were at the Jumbo in Martinez. So I guess I will get one last craving done before the baby comes next week. Santa must have heard my wish list! 

Crazy weather and electricity in Buenos Aires

It's been a crazy week here in Buenos Aires. Although summer isn't due to officially begin until this coming Friday, December 22nd, it started getting horribly hot again last week. Actually this past winter and spring have been strange with some really warm days in winter and some really up and down temperatures in spring.

This past Saturday the "st" temperature or sensacion termica was 40.5 celsius in the Capital. That would be  around 104.9 in fahrenheit.  Ridiculously hot and heavy and major draws on electricity, which here in Buenos Aires, means temporary shutoffs of electricity in various barrios to conserve power.

So on Saturday night, a cool front came through, merged with the hot air, and created some pretty impressive storms. I can only compare them to the tropical storms we would get in Miami and from what I understand it's pretty unusual at this time of year. But then again this is a year that has seen tornados and several storms with hail as big as golf balls. So go figure. I keep saying that we brought Miami's weather with us when we came here.

Saturday night's storm had really heavy winds, our neighborhood was full of fallen tree limbs, smaller branches, and leaves littering the streets. Plants in our backyard were blown over and even some of the outside chairs, so you can just imagine how strong the winds were. The lightning in the initial part of the storm was lime green and acid yellow, showing just how strong and bizarre this storm was. And, of course, the rain which came down in bucketfuls, including right into a one of the hallways of our cool, but old house. Something about pushing water out the door at 2 am is just not fun and definately reminded me of Miami's nasty downpours.

After all the crazy weather Saturday night, Sunday was considerably cooler, and only started to warm up slightly on Monday. So it was with great surprise that as we were sitting working at our computers, all of a sudden the music shut off, the internet connection died, and the neighborhood became remarkably quiet. We had no power it seemed. First thought, gee did I forget to pay the bill. But no, that wasn't the problem. We called a friend who was out and about in San Isidro and he confirmed that there was in fact no electricity. I wanted to know why. Oh, well it's summer and even though this is a privatized electric company, they can't keep up with the demand and routinely shut off power to different neighborhoods for several hours. He said that in Martinez where he lived, he had been without power for about 6 hours just the week before, warning, "get used to it because it won't be the last time." And this was all on a cooler day!

I know there are issues here with the electricity, and it's no wonder. Just today, one day after, our electric bill showed up. It was a whopping 16.80 pesos. Now we aren't major energy hogs even though we work from home, but we have been using the AC units more often lately and I wasn't expecting the equivalent of like 6.00 dollars. In Miami we could expect bills of 150 to 200 dollars in the summer months. Even if it were higher it still wouldn't be expected to go above maybe 70 or 80 pesos. So although we aren't paying much for electricity, we also never can know now whether we'll HAVE electricity. Just one of the tradeoffs of living here I guess.

Of course for a pregnant woman in her last week or two, not having AC is not a fun thing to look forward to. I'm just happy that our baby will be here just as summer starts!

Update on blog and pregnancy

I've received so many encouraging emails from all of you which I really appreciate so much. I never in my wildest dreams ever thought my blog would be so popular and that I would also make so many new friends. It's been worth every last bit of my time and I'm thrilled that so many of you have gotten good information from it.   

On that note, I just wanted to let everyone know that I promise to start posting lots of information again very soon. Unfortunately, lately between finishing my ebook and the impending birth of our little girl who is due right around Christmas), I haven't had much time to devote to the blog, but I haven't gone away! I'll be back!!

So, as I go down to the the last four weeks of my pregnancy, keep an eye out for at least a few posts I promise.

Gay Pride 2006 in Buenos Aires

It never ceases to amaze me how much is happening here in Buenos Aires. Not only are there tons of things to do for families, retirees, students, young couples and singles, but there is an active gay community here as well. And on November 25, 2006, the biggest gay event in Argentina, the Argentina Gay Pride Parade 2006 will begin at 6 pm commencing from the Plaza de Mayo in downtown Buenos Aires. If you are looking for information on the event then check out their official website here.

Relying upon the kindness of strangers

Being an expat is sometimes not very easy, particularly when you're pregnant. You're far away from home without a support group and things that you may need. In our case it's made even more tricky because my in-laws are in France and my parents passed away several years ago. So I don't have those family members to rely on to bring me things that I can't find here.

But, I can rely upon the kindness of strangers. I have met some great people through the expat groups here, and it never ceases to amaze me how someone I've simply helped by answering questions for through forums, blogs, or emails, are willing to go out of their way not just to make space in their already overflowing suitcases, but actually offer to go to the store and pick up the things you are so desperately looking for.  Although I try not to tax their kindness by having things shipped to them to bring, every so often it's not possible and people actually go out of their way to make a special trip to a store to buy the items.

Of course I feel compelled to mention that the kindness of strangers wouldn't even be a major issue except that having things shipped here is a major pain in the butt. Unless you are independently wealthy and can utilize DHL or Fedx to ship your goodies here, then it requires that requisite and annoying trip to the post office downtown and the subsequent waiting and then arbitrary customs duties. It tops the list of my favorite things to do...NOT!

So, thanks to all the big hearts who make living as an expat, especially a pregnant one, just a little bit easier.