I hate bureacracies

I do not like those bureaucrats
I do not like their "this-and-thats"

I do not like the way they fuss
I do not want them on my bus

I do not want them at the fair
I do not want them anywhere.

- "Dr. Snus"

In order to get my visa to come to Norway I had to prove two things:  That my wife, Alice, had died, and that I was otherwise free to marry (that I had not remarried).  I presented the Norwegian Embassy with a death certificate and a certificate from the Orange County Recorder Registrar that I had not remarried.

Now, the latter certificate is nothing more than a meaningless piece of paper created by bureaucrats for bureaucrats.  It doesn't prove anything other than I have not remarried in Orange County, California.  There is no federal registry of birth, deaths, or marriages, so county-level is the best we can do.  The Norwegians aren't idiots -- they know the paper is worthless.  Yet, because a regulation states that this paper must be presented, it must be presented.

The Norwegian government, pleased with the documents I submitted, granted me a 6 month visa to come here and get married, based on the fact that I proved that I was free to marry.  Good.

Tove and I went to the Folk Register here in Trondheim to apply for a marriage license.  We received a letter from the Folk Register a couple of weeks ago that said they could not grant the license until I could prove two things . . . . . . you guessed it!  That my wife, Alice, had died and that I was free to marry.

"But I already proved both of those things.  That's how I got my Visa."
"The document that you are free to marry must be less than 4 months old.  And now that you are here in Norway, it must be issued by the US Embassy and notarized."
"OK, but if I get this document from the US Embassy, and this document says that I am free to marry, then you don't need another death certificate, do you?"
"Yes.  We do."
"Why?"
"Because the letter that you are holding in your hand says so."
And so went the conversation down at the Folk Register office.
"Make sure that the death certificate has an apostille."

Here is what my research, after telephone calls, emails and internet searches determined:

The Hague Convention Abolishing the Requirement for Legalisation for Foreign Public Documents, the Apostille convention or the Apostille treaty is an international treaty drafted by the Hague Conference on Private International Law. It specifies the modalities through which a document issued in one of the signatory countries can be certified for legal purposes in all the other signatory states. Such a certification is called an apostille (French: certification). It is an international certification comparable to a notarisation in domestic law.

I knew that already, because I once had to get an apostille on a document for my brother when he lived in France.  I figured that I could order the death certificate and have the US Embassy apply the apostille when I went to Oslo for the notarized proof that I am free to marry.  No no no.

The Embassy does not "do" apostilles.  The Sec. of State for the State of California has to apply the apostille to the death certificate.  The embassy will prepare a notarized document that I am free to marry (In essence my affidavit wherein I so declare that I am free to marry), but I must go online to make a reservation to meet with the notary to do that.  OK, then, I will take care of THAT later.

I called the Orange County Recorder Registrar.  They do not send the death certificate to Sacramento for the apostille.  I must do it, or get someone to do it for me.  There is a service that will do it.  I call the service.  They can do it, but before they can do it, I must have physical possession of the certificate and read some things that are on it to them over the phone.  Otherwise, no can do.

Oh, and to get the certificate I must send in a NOTARIZED application showing that I am entitled to request the certificate.  So I download the application, fill it out, then go downtown to the city hall.  Luckily, the city hall has a notary public service, and it is free!  I don't hate ALL bureaucracies.

I remembered that I took my brother's document to the Sec. of State office in L.A. and got the Apostille there.  So I devised and implemented the following plan:

1.  Send the application and 3 checks to Christine at Digital Streams (my office in Irvine);
2.  Have Christine send the application and one check to the Registrar with a stamped return envelope to ME, but listing my Digital Streams address.
3.  Once the Registrar issued the certificate and mailed it to Digital Streams, then Christine would have our assistant, Stephen, take the cert to L.A. with check #2 to pay the Sec of State for the apostille.
4.  Then Christine would mail the cert with apostille to me and use #3 check to pay Stephen for his time.

So far, 1 and 2 have been done.  You, my readers, know that I got all of my stuff via Moroccan truck drivers last weekend.  There was an original death certificate in there!  Not trusting that the Orange County Registrar would act quickly on my application, I sent the death certificate to Christine two days ago.

Once I get the death cert then I'm headed for Oslo to get the affidavit proving I'm free to marry.

If that doesn't work, we are going to Vegas.