Gained in translation

It has been an eventful two weeks, with ups and downs, pleasant surprises and not so pleasent proverbial spanners thrown into the works of our wedding preperations.

As an example, we thought we had our paperwork in order for the German wedding, but unfortunately, that was not the case. The office in Poland had refused to issue a paper valid for more than 3 months, even though according to various sources, these papers exist on an EU basis for a validity of 6 months.

That was not a problem though, or so we thought, given that Kasia could pick it up 3 month before the date (we are talking about the Polish version of the Ehefaehigkeitszeugnis or Certificate of Marriagability here). Well, werent we in for a treat, when it turned out that the paper was issued on March 7th and thereby, according to German law, no longer valid after June 6th. Our wedding was to be on June 7th.

Well, even that should not have proven a problem, was it not for the Polish office refusing to reissue, claiming it was valid on the 7th, too, whilst the German office refused to accept it, claiming it expired on the 6th. At this stage Kasia's father got involved, forcing the Polish office to reply with an official statement certifying the validity including the 7th. They however replied that the document was valid 3 month and refused to confirm if this meant the 6th or the 7th.

To cut a long story short, our court translator in Germany, the very helpful Danuta Treder from Pfalzdorf, Goch, called the office in Germany, explained the situation, then contacted the office in Poland via telephone, got their official statement, got back to the German office, negotiating a resolution that consisted of her remark on the official translation stating that the document was vaild on the 7th of June. With her official seal on the document including this note, the Standesamt in Goch now finally accepted the validity and has now confirmed the date of the 7th, albeit with the caveat that the ceremony is to be held at 10, not 1030.

I have to point out that Mrs Treder did all of this on her own initiative, without us even asking her for this wonderful assistance. We certainly feel a great deal of gratitude towards her and will have to make sure to express this (there is a bottle of finest Irish whiskey inbound at least).