Oh, I'm just having a snit fit. I'll get the stuff, it's just a pain in the tush.
This is not terribly urgent, but I need to get it done before we send the Daughter's citizenship application in, as a copy of my Irish passport needs to go in with her application. My current one expires at the end of the summer, so now's the best time to get it taken care of. I don't want to send a copy of my passport in her application that has a different name associated with it when they finally get around to processing her application and checking that doc in six months. (That just gives an opportunity for things to get muddled.) I had correspondence with someone in the Irish bureaucracy back in August about trying to get citizenship for her that was extremely encouraging. I hope that window hasn't closed - it may well have, given the time lag between the "do this" instructions and our finally doing them. Darn it, anyway! I was ready to go with her stuff back in last September, but she back-burnered it for reasons unknown to me and only last month got the necessary signatures. The Daughter has a really unattractive tendency to procrastinate. We should be all done with that stuff now, not starting it.
So I'm doing my stuff now and she can wait a bit longer. Because I managed to PDF all my important docs before leaving the USA, rather than keeping hardcopies (I thought I had set back a couple of bills, but they are nowhere to be found), I have had to wait until after the "two years since" date on the first reliable proof-of-use documents to submit my renewal in the new name request. That date has just now passed. Delays for either process are not a terribly important issue right now (unless the very elderly witness on her paperwork dies!), I guess. Just frustrating.
It's just that I want to get this done and over with, and things that should not be complicated, that seem straightforward, just...aren't. Like the guy sending me a print out of the PDF after I explained why I had to contact him both by phone and via email (
because I couldn't use a print out of the PDF) and then him sending it in a plastic-window envelope, rather than a solid paper one that would have at least had my name and the postal franking date on it. That kind of thing. It's people
not listening that makes me crazy. (Or in this case, having the reading comprehension of a banana slug.)
Yeah, I got a new Tesco card. It didn't come with a date on anything, unfortunately. Does have the name and address, though. And it's reassuring to see the correct name on the piece of plastic.
I have a print-out of my Tesco shop from last week with name, address, and date, but I'm not sure that qualifies for what they want. Even stretching the "correspondence from public/private org" bit. I would feel better with a utility bill, bank account statement, or something from my GP that wasn't asking me to come in for a procedure. (I've sent them word that my name is changed at N.I.). I also have a "you owe money to the post office for customs" slip from a couple of weeks ago, but it only has the last name on it, although it's dated. Had thought about throwing that one in, too. My experience with dealing with the Irish bureaucracy is that it's a tad bit like going into an asylum to visit your old auntie who has gone 'round the bend. She usually makes sense, but now and then she wants you to pet the neon-colored unicorn that's standing next to her.
What it says online is:
Two documents that show you are using your new name, such as your driver's licence, college identification card, school report, social welfare receipts, pay slip, utility bills, bank statements or official correspondence from a public or private sector organisation.But when I wrote the Embassy in London they want two documents
per year since my name changed, and they have to go back at least until two years from the date I send in my renewal application.
Fortunately, I have my USA passport, which is dated 13 April 2016, and a letter from the SSA acknowledging my application for change of name on the same date. I'm a little concerned with that one, as I think it may be a photocopy, but I can't tell for sure. (Hopefully, they won't either.) The wayward duplicate utility bill would solve that dilemma. And getting something for this year. It's just the matter of waiting another couple of weeks, rather than sending it in "as is" and hoping the administrator on the other end isn't too strict.
Eh, it'll all sort out. I'm just venting.
