#160 - The Great Passport Hunt
It is just now the end of May. Despite my anxiety and general lack of interest in everything, it turned out to be an extraordinarily productive month. Well, at least we shall see if it was.
I think 2022 will be the year of the great passport hunt for me. That is my mission for the year.
I spent the last 28 days putting together my entire package for my St. Kitts and Nevis package for the citizenship application. And I managed. The agent told me that was probably the fastest she had ever seen a client pull together the paperwork. Sometimes there are benefits to being organized. 😊
It really wasn’t that tough. The most difficult thing was the hoops I had to jump through to make sure that I showed the funds were coming from a legitimate source. And finding a copy of my divorce decree. But things are really easier than they were years ago. My Argentinian police clearance, FBI clearance, Birth certificate, Divorce decree. All pretty easy to get online. And within 5 – 10 days for each.
So, the way I understand it works now is, the agency will work with St. Kitts to process the paperwork and hopefully, in about three months or so, I should get the go-ahead that it was approved, and I can wire transfer the contribution to the St. Kitts government fund. And at that point it will be 2 – 3 months until I actually have the passport in hand. I really hope that it goes well. It would certainly ease my mind a bit to have at least one additional passport.
In addition, in the middle of May, Argentina came back on a front burner. My lawyer, as always, refuses to commit but he says there are no issues so far, and it may be complete in about 6 months. I will meet him in Buenos Aires the 15th of July for about 3 weeks to do some paperwork and then we shall see. Not to count my chickens, etc., but by January of 2023 I could have both my Argentinian and St. Kitts passports. **One slightly funny thing. 😊 I asked my lawyer when I would have to take the Spanish test at court for the citizenship. But the Supreme Court of Argentina last year ruled it was no longer necessary. … All that work and worry. I’m very pleased that I can add Spanish to my list of languages but humorous that it turned out to be totally unnecessary. **
I will be starting my travels starting next week (it was supposed to be Sunday, but I threw my back out last Saturday and it crippled me… I’m still recovering although much better today). Due to Covid basically, some of the original routings Qatar airlines flew to BA are no longer available. I was really taken aback by the route that I would have to follow in order to be able to get to Argentina. I would’ve had to have gone from here to Doha to Madrid and then the final leg to Buenos Aires by Iberian airlines. It would’ve worked out to be almost a 50 hour trip. I am just not up for that anymore. So, I’m going to go to Varna, meet my friend Jakob and check out our new apartment, then Medellin for a couple of weeks, and from Columbia to Buenos Aires is only a five and a half hour flight. That sounds much better to me. Then back the same way.
Makes me tired just looking at it
I haven’t had an episode with my back for at least a couple of years, at least not this bad. I had forgotten what it was like to be constant pain. And almost unable to walk. Thankfully, one week after the initial seizure, I seem to be 75% recovered. It certainly does wonders for my attitude. I find myself in the position now, that, I have one week until I leave, and almost everything that I need to do is done. It’s a good feeling.
Probably the biggest thing that I must do in the next week is to configure a backup phone. This relates to my will, and a document that I have that details to my executors exactly how to access all of my accounts (financial and other). I was going through the document with one of my executors, and in about five minutes realized that there was a gaping hole in my plan. Most of the access to my digital life and financial accounts revolves around my phone. And he asked a very simple question “What happens if we can’t get to your phone, or if you’re in another country when something happens to you?”. That was a huge ‘DUH!’ for me. So, I have bought a couple of backup phones, and I have cloned one and will be leaving it with a backup SIM of my Philippine number in my vault. And I’ll carry a cloned copy with me as well. That should fix the problem more or less. But it was just a case in point that when you do things within the echo chamber of your own brain, sometimes you miss the truly obvious. It is good to have friends. 😊
Clones are good