If your read my post about our problems getting a birth Certificate for "Carl" you may wonder what happened...

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So far we haven't heard any more from the document researcher who found and sent a copy of the birth certificate. She was very upset about the German cops showing up at her door but either they haven't followed up or she got it straightened out on her own.

After the Certificate got to the New York City post office we waited and checked regularly for it to show up. It didn't.

Doug (darling hubby) finally called the post office to find out what the problem is. It turns out that although the letter seems (from all indications) to be stuck at the post office, when he called the phone number listed for the IPS station (sounds like the International Postal Service, right?) he got a customs facility.

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Customs is allowed to hold mail for 45 days (1-1/2 months!) for processing and another 45 days if they have any questions about it. Last month I ordered some Christmas chocolates from England. They arrived at customs in a totally thrashed box (the sticker said 'received in aged condition'), the return address was a private person (not a business), and still it went through customs like a charm and I picked it up in my post office 2 weeks from when I ordered it!

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...and a German birth certificate!

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What makes a German legal document likely to be held in customs?
Did the researcher do something to make the envelope look suspect?
It may take us 3 months to find out.

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If you would like to read the first half of this story:
We May Be About To Learn Some New German Curse Words

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