Setbacks - small and large

After a week in Minnesota, we've established new residency in South Dakota and have half of the apostilled documents that we need.  Two documents to go: Emily's birth certificate and criminal background checks.

For the background checks, we checked the FBI website and read that we could get this done at the regional FBI office in Brooklyn Center, MN.  The visit to the site, however, proved the website false.  The only way to get the background checks was to submit an application by mail to the CJIS division (Criminal Justice Information Service) of the FBI in West Virginia.  Can we do it in person?  Is there an expedited process?  No and no.  We filled out the forms, included our fingerprint records and sent the form to West Virginia.  We're told that the process shouldn't take longer than six weeks - gulp!  Now we wait...

A reminder about our deadline: apostilled documents are valid for 90 days from the date of issue.  Since our marriage certificate was apostilled on April 11th, we have a deadline of July 9th.  That means that we have to have all of our documents completed, go to Ecuador and have them translated and notarized.  Only then can we apply for our residency visa.  We're a little concerned at this point.

The last document was Emily's birth certificate.  Since she was born in Wisconsin, we drove to Madison, WI to get the cert and get it apostilled.  Getting the certificate was no problem: five minutes in the registrar's office.  We then went to the Secretary of State's office at 12:10p to get it apostilled where we experienced our own Blues Brother's moment.  If you've seen the end of the movie, you'll understand:

(crickets)

It was only a temporary setback, however.  After lunch, we came back to the office and had what we needed in about an hour and a half.

Before leaving Madison, we thought we'd try our luck at the local FBI office.  Although they couldn't help us with the CJIS background check, we did get official fingerprint registration and were able to include them in the application that I mentioned earlier.  A five hour drive back towards Minnesota finished our day.

Residency, and efficiency!

April 24th and 25th were demonstrations of how government should operate.  We had two goals for this Wednesday and Thursday: get my birth certificate apostilled and establish residency in South Dakota.

Getting my birth certificate was a piece of cake.  We went to the MN Department of Health and got three copies for $30 in five minutes.  A ten minute drive to the MN Secretary of State and we had the documents apostilled in another 15 minutes.  Forty-five minutes in Saint Paul and we had another check mark off of our list.  On to South Dakota!

South Dakota residency is a critical step in our migration process.  It will be our permanent US residence once we're in Ecuador, and that state (along with Texas, Nevada, Florida, et al.) does not charge personal income tax on income earned.  Offshore earnings are exempt up to $90,000, and we want guard against any amounts above that.

One difference between South Dakota and the other states mentioned is that residency can be established in a single day; Texas, on the other hand, requires that you live in the state for six months to be considered a resident.  Nothing against the fine folks in Texas, but it's not my cup of tea.

On Wednesday, we checked into a Super 8 in Sioux Falls (cost effective - no luxury).  On checking in, we told the manager that we needed both of our names on the receipt.  "Oh, this is for the DMV", he said.  Apparently, we aren't the first people to do this.

The DMV opened at 7:00a the next morning and we showed up at 7:10a.  After giving the clerks our current CA id's, the hotel receipt and the residency application, the only test we needed to take was a vision test.  (Currently licensed drivers do not need to take a written or driving test.)  We walked out ten minutes later with freshly printed driver licenses.

Fifteen minutes later, we were at the county registrar's office to change the registration on the truck and to change voter registration.  We were told that these needed to be changed in the county where our "home" address was.  Since we're using a mailbox forwarding service, this meant driving to Lake county and our "residence" in Madison, SD - about an hour away.  Once there, things couldn't have gone faster.

(This is the Lake county courthouse.)

The county treasurer for Lake county took our old registration and application form.  She entered the form into to PC and printed new registration forms for the truck.  She then reached into her desk drawer and pulled out two new license plates for the truck - no waiting eight weeks for them to arrive in the mail!  Ten minutes later, we were done.

Down the hall to voter registration.  Five minutes to complete the form and we were done there.

In both cases (truck and voter registration), the clerks mentioned that when renewal notices were to be sent that they would be sent to our current address.  From there, "Terri will forward them to us".  Terri Lund runs the mailbox forwarding service "My Dakota Address", so the clerks at the county in Madison are also familiar with people doing what we're doing.  I think that's part of what makes the process so efficient.

Here is a picture of "My Dakota Address", our new "home":

Even with the one hour detour to Madison, we had South Dakota residency and new registration for the truck before 10:00a.  That's how government should work!

Last note: on the way back to Minneapolis, we stopped at Lange's restaurant in Pipestone, MN.  If you're in the area, eat here; they have an excellent cream of bacon soup!  (Don't doubt it until you try it!)

Minneapolis - the last step to the Midwest

We were able to leave Mason City the following morning.  Clear skies and fresh snow made for a pleasant drive, and we arrived at around 2:00p.  (Had to have a leisurely lunch along the way!)

We unloaded the trailer at my mother's house (mothers are the best!) and dropped off the trailer at U-Haul.  No issues with the trailer - we were even credited with three days because of the weather delays.  In the next two weeks, we need to distribute the trailer items to family members and get the rest of our documentation.