The Emigration Art Of Digging Up Documents - Part 3

After a fairly easygoing compilation of documents locally, it was time to turn our sights overseas. The next lot of document search became a bit more complex.

*Original birth certificates* - Not the kids', but ours. Hubby and I were both born in the Philippines. I thought this was gonna prove challenging but after a quick search through the Net, I was impressed that Filipinos all over the world can now actually request for this kind of information online via e-Census. I was a little worried about the journey the important documents were gonna take from Asia to Africa so I thought it best to authorise my relative in the Philippines to request and fetch the birth certificates on our behalf.

*Proof of relationship with Canadian relatives* - Canada works on a point-system to work out the eligibility of prospective applicants. One of the criteria you earn points on is if you have a relative in Canada and you are able to prove your relationship with them. Hubby has a sister in Montreal and so we also ordered a certified copy of her birth certificate with ours (as above). Further, she had to prove her Canadian citizenship so we asked her to have her Canadian passport notarised and mailed to us.

*NBI clearance* - Police clearances were required for all the countries that we stayed in for more than 2 months since we were 18. I didn't need this as I had been in South Africa since I was 16. However, hubby was in Philippines before he came over to South Africa when he was 27 so we had to get him his NBI clearance. Luckily, hubby was scheduled to visit the Philippines at the time, so he killed two birds in one stone. He applied to get his NBI clearance while on the holiday. The clearance was valid for a year. By the way, you are also able to apply/re-apply for the NBI clearance online.

There were more documents required but it was not just paperwork but basically new things that needed to be added with the application, like the language test (coming right up next in future posts). For the digging up part, I think we had it okay as we didn't have anything major to go through. I know other applicants had issues with obtaining police clearances overseas and some had employers that couldn't be found anymore.

Incidentally, I also kept a filing system for the family's important documents from years ago (I'm a hoarder what can I say?) I have all sorts like baptismal certificates to first payslips to letters of recommendation. I suppose this practice paid me well when it came to digging up the important stuff.