A trip to the German embassy

I've always been told that Germany and anything German stands for efficacy (or efficiency and maybe order as well). Today I was shown the exception to that rule: the German consulate in Singapore.

Wolfram already mentioned that we had to wait until today to get an appointment to register the birth of Oskar (only 3 weeks after birth... what's the hurry?).

After a last minute diaper change, we were in the taxi on our way there. Wolfram has warned me the German embassy was nothing compare to the French one. And he was right. 

We arrived into a place packed with people queuing for visa and other consulate matter. After passing security and announcing ourselves to the lady at the counter we were told to take a seat and wait.

Good one: what seat? the place was packed and the few chairs available were long gone.

Yet we started to wait standing in the hallway.

That is not what I had in mind for a German embassy. It felt more like a third world country embassy than Germany. This said the Chinese embassy was much better organized...

Anyhow, after 15min of wait it was our turn. I will not elaborate on the angry German who told us that he was next in line and didn't appreciate that we would cut the line, even with an appointment, especially given he had been waiting for two hours.

We entered a tiny booth where a consulate representative was waiting for us, behind a glass window. My first impression was that I was at the customs and not an embassy. Luckily for me, Oskar started to cry so the lady had me sign all the documents needed and offered that I took the baby out. 

I spent the next 30min in the hallway walking back and forth. 30min (or maybe longer as it felt like eternity) that's how long it took Wolfram to complete the paperwork for the birth certificate and ask for a passport. 30min!!! not really talking highly of the German efficiency here... but to be fair she had to go through the millions of documents and their copies that we had to provide. I'm still surprised that they haven't asked for my DNA.

Birth certificate will be ready in 3 months up to 2 years as it has to be done in Berlin. Yes it can take up to two years to make a birth certificate. 

Children passport will be available later this week. That's pretty fast but also limited as it is not a bio metric passport. This means until Oskar has a proper German birth certificate and a bio metric passport, he won't be able to enter certain countries that require a bio metric passport, e.g. the US.... unless he travels with his French passport :)

To summarize, Oskar now has a French passport and will get a German one later this week. Next step, the dependant pass for Singapore. Given how efficient immigration in Singapore is, I suspect it will be easy and fast. Let's see.