Three Months, Seven Days, Half Way There

Half way where, the unknowing might ask. Well, dear readers, tomorrow is the day that my air shipment will be delivered to my house, a mere three months and seven days after being packed up back in September. Why so slow, you might ask. Well, it mostly has to do with administration (as this is a public forum, I hesitate to use the word bureaucracy) on the Brazilian side. While diplomatic shipments to and from other countries take a matter of weeks, shipments to and from Brazil can easily take three to four months. The actual shipping of goods from Canada to Brazil by air only takes a week or so. In fact, my air shipment landed in Sao Paulo back on November 11th. However, the goods are not allowed to be cleared until a diplomat has all of their official accreditations and residency papers in order, and this is what takes months. In the case of one of my colleagues, his shipment arrived in the country several months prior to his arrival (due to a cross-posting and time off for language training in Ottawa). However, even though his stuff arrived before him, he was still not able to claim it for three months after his arrival while waiting for his papers to clear the system. His boxes arrived in June, he arrived in September, and his stuff was released in December just days before Christmas.

As is often the case, many of the processes run in sequence rather than in parallel, making for the long wait. I received my diplomatic accreditation back in November and since then my residency cards have been grinding their way through the system (well at least I hope they are....).

Life in Brazil revolves around the residency card or RG. Without it a Brazilian citizen cannot work (formally), go to school, go to the doctor, get on a bus or plane, or do pretty much anything else. Because of the vitalness of the RG, life for children who are not officially registered at birth is pretty difficult. The irony of my long wait is that I haven’t actually received my residency papers yet. I think that the timing around Christmas and New Years led to some seasonal cheer on the Brazilian side and the early liberation of my air shipment.

I look forward to seeing what will arrive tomorrow (hopefully no bags of refuse or other unintended items)! As the shipment was split into air and sea shipments after being packed up and sent to the holding warehouse, I don’t have any clue what went into which shipment. Bets are now open for when the sea shipment will be delivered! Unfortunately there is no way around the residency papers for this one.