A bad morning

The 1st bad morning in Panama City we never forget, ha ha ha... and the story goes like this: we have a lawyer taking care of our work visa for Panama and for that, he, of course, needs one thousand five hundred and sixty four documents. But before I go any further, let me remind you that we left HK with the idea that we were going to Angola, where we were not opening any bank accounts, we were not buying any cars and we were not buying any property. The company there would be applying on our behalf for a work visa. However, the winds changed and we're now in Panama, where yes, we will have a bank account, yes, we will buy a car and yes, we are buying a flat, so... all of a sudden, we needed an avalanche of documents to be couriered from different institutions in HK, which were done with no problems and life was beautiful until yesterday morning.... ayahhh!!!

Before leaving HK, the company in Angola asked us to take a "No Criminal Records" document, issued by the HK Police because this would be one of the required documents for the visa in Angola and so we did. Well, as it happens in most countries, this police document is a common requirement for work visas and here in Panama it's no different. However, for some bureaucratic reason, it had to be authenticated, which sounded like something very doable.

Panama does not have a Chinese Embassy but instead it has a "China Office for Commercial Development" (we think its because Taiwan has an Embassy here so China did not bring its diplomacy into Panama) and this office is also responsible for doing consulate stuff. We called them in advance and asked if they also represented HK to which they said yes, so off goes Joel with both our "No Criminal Records" ORIGINAL documents issued by the HK Police into town.

About an hour later, Joel calls me totally fuming, totally smoking through his vents, totally completely furious... oh man... it has been a while since I last saw Joel so upset!!

The Chinese lady told him, looking straight into his face that although he is a HK permanent resident, she could not help him, BECAUSE HE IS NOT A CHINESE CITIZEN and walked away, leaving him talking to the air!

For our process of applying for a visa here in Panama it's not much of a problem, because we can get the same document from the Brazilian Police, but in our minds, it's not accurate as we have been out of Brazil for the past 12 years.