I remember the framer asking me whether or not I wanted to glue my enormous graduation certificate to the frame. Never even considering the possibility of ever using it, I of course said yes. Once happily installed as decoration on my bedroom wall, it was never thought about again. That is until I came to Chile.
Last year I taught English to a lawyer, the head lawyer in the company in fact, and he had said something very interesting that I haven't forgotten. In preparation for a business venture with an American company, he was in the middle of drawing up contracts but was having a difficult time because of the contrasting legal systems in each country. He told me that Chilean society is one that doesn't trust anyone and expects to be cheated.
At first I didn't see it but soon it became apparent as to how true his words were. 'Word of honour' just does not exist here or at least, there is little evidence of it. Every document must be made official by a notary: a lawyer or person licensed by the state to perform acts in legal affairs. If it isn't legalised, it is considered an unofficial document or fraud. In my blatant cultural ignorance, I had never even heard of a notary until I became involved with Chile.
When I signed my first work contract, I had to get it also signed by a notary. When I handed in my letter of resignation, I had to get it signed by a notary and most surprising of all, for the requirement of my next job at a university, I had to get my graduation certificate signed by a notary.
Now this wasn't an easy procedure, especially with my original copy hanging peacefully on my bedroom wall far across the Pacific Ocean. If I ripped it out of the frame, it would surely be destroyed. So I called my university only to find that they didn’t make copies. All I could ask for (ie. pay for) was a testimonial that I had indeed completed my undergraduate degree. I had it sent to my parent’s address. My mother had two photocopies of the document signed by an Australian Justice of the Peace (again something I had seldom heard of before my involvement with Chile) and she then sent them to me.
Two weeks later, we discovered she had sent the two photocopies and not the original. A legalised photocopy by anyone other than a Chilean notary is not recognised by the state so I had to wait another 2 weeks for the original to arrive. My patience grew thin as my work hounded me for a Chilean notarised copy of the document. They could neither put me into the system, so I couldn't even mark the absentees for my student or give them grades, nor pay me for my services.
When the time came, I took the original to first be stamped by the Australian embassy. As there is an abundance of universities in Chile (most of which are uncertified because basically anyone can open an university if they want to - just like opening a business really), I had to get the Australian embassy to prove that not only did I complete a 'real' degree but also that I did it from a 'real' university. Luckily the embassy had an electronic record of all the university registrars in Australia and if my testimonial was signed by one of them, they could easily legalise the document.
But this wasn't the case. In a country where you can simply write on your CV that you have a degree and employers will believe it, a referee had been used instead. The receptionist at the embassy came back and informed me that they could legalise the university seal and stamp but not the signature. I paid $10,000 pesos (more than an hour's pay) and got back my document which now had a giant 'Embajada de Australia' stamp of basically a paragraph of legal jargon. On the third line, the tiny writing "DO HEREBY CERTIFY that the signature" had been crossed out. It was so small you couldn't even tell.
With this, I travelled across town to the Ministry of Foreign Relations and had it legalised. Amazingly, there was no line and I didn't have to pay. The Oficial de Legalizaciones didn't even flip the paper over; he just saw the embassy’s approval and merely stamped and signed away.
The final step was to then take it to a notary, where I paid a little sum to get another 3 more stamps and two certified copies, one of which I gave to my work who then put me into the system. Yet by this time, I had missed the cut-off date for the first payment (which was already 2 months delayed) so I would have to wait another month to get paid - a 3 month wait in total. The incredible thing though was that once the original had arrived, I was unexpectedly able to get my extra 5 stamps in just one morning.
So if you're ever in Santiago, you will soon come to realise that there is a notary on almost every corner. Now how's that for red tape!
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