Ever wondered how the diplomatic ties between the country of your birth and that of your residence make a difference? I wouldn't know until I tried the Croatian system.
To those that do not know much about this either, let me tell you that Singapore and Croatia do not have direct diplomatic ties. It's complicated to explain and I shall not attempt to since I'm not a law graduate of any sort. Anyway, this put a heavy toil on us, the Singaporean-Croatian pair who tried to get married.
In simple terms, all the documents required for marriage or visa application (issued by Singapore authorities) have to be legalised in order to be recognised in Croatian law. And getting it legalised is not as easy as making my way to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Singapore or a Singapore embassy (obviously there are no Singapore embassies or anything close to that in Croatia). It means we have to get all my documents stamped as true and original in a third country where both embassies (Singapore and Croatia) exist. Well yeah.. complicated? The story's not completed.
If only someone would have told us to go this route in the first place, we wouldn't have to run around from Zagreb ministries and Rijeka wedding registrar to seek advices. Due to the "bizarreness" (as the Croatian wedding office puts it), they didn't exactly know what to do. So they directed our queries from department to department, making us run around like mad ants for 6 months till we finally got a kind soul at the Croatian Foreign ministry who told us the answer we needed. But while we were waiting and running around for answers, my documents that were required to file for marriage in Croatia ... EXPIRED. And of course, no one was willing to bend the rule to accept my documents and we had to start the whole process all over again.
Why do I put this up on the blog? I hope some authorities will one day read it and heaven knows some future Singaporean-Croatian couple who seek the same untrodden path like we do get some sort assistance from the authorities concerned. In the meantime, we will continue to run around like crazy ants again till we get the paperwork done and finally get married after years of running...
9 comments:
Geeze.. that sucks big time!
My sister and her Australian hubby got married her.
government ties do not come into the picture, sher in this country.
It's all about how much are you willing to spend on a bribe and knowing who to give it to.
Sad, but true.
Ah well Piebuko.
But there is such thing as True Love that kept us going..
hooray for true love!!!!
Cheers Clare!
I think I know what you mean about the diplomatic ties because you can see it when you're abroad. I think SG still has to catch up in establishing diplomatic ties with the East European nations. Elsewhere in Europe and America, SG is largely well-known so there's not too much hassle involved. For example, here in Netherlands, you don't have to even re-take driving tests to get your licences. You just convert your Singaporean driving licences to Dutch ones. Now, if only I knew that back then!
>>MA Janssen.
I think Singapore government would bother if Croatia is in EU. Or in that case, SG will do business directly with EU.
But look at Croatia and the rest of the southern (yeah not eastern as they are already in EU) european (ex-Yugoslavia) countries, I don't think anyone will be bothered too much with their mere existence.
Just do it the Singapore way...
sorry am a bit late to this post, just found yr blog and am liking what i read. i had basically the same problems here in Milan, Italy when i got married 13 years ago... ok, tt sounds like a donkey years ago but i don't think things have improved since then. especially when there's a foreign language involved, things get more complicated...
Hi Anonymous!
Thanks for sharing. What to do..love got me on the wrong side of the world! :P
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