Dawn

Dawn

Thursday, January 20, 2005

Today my daughter and I took on the challenge of getting her a Social Security number and card here in Pontevedra. These turned out to be two different things. If not ten. She had tried to do this in Madrid but, having consummately failed, had retired hurt.

The very good news is that, whilst it took us most of the morning, we may well have succeeded.

The other thing that needs stressing is that all the offices we went to were well appointed, all the clerks pleasant and helpful and the process in each place virtually immediate and relatively quick. Plus all the offices were within walking distance of each other and the weather perfect for undertaking the task of meandering through a bureaucratic labyrinth.

For those who may face this challenge themselves, the day’s glitches included:- 1. Insufficient photocopies of every imaginable proof of identity; 2. the inability of Spanish bureaucrats to understand that in other countries people don’t have two surnames; 3. the need for my daughter to be registered in the same municipality as me, which is not where the Social Security offices are; 4. the need to have something instead of the Book of the Family which is a fixture of Spanish life and which proves family connections; and, finally, the need to ensure that, when someone is trying to find you on a computer, they use your surname and not one of your forenames. This is really a variant of No. 2 but what the hell; it was a separate problem from the issue of a provisional card [Step 1] with all my daughter’s names transposed.

But – as I say – we may have cracked it. At least we have a number, a provisional card and a host of supporting documents to go with the form we will submit tomorrow to try to get a real card and, in due course, an appointment with a real doctor. We’re concerned that name confusion means that my daughter is called different things on different forms but are hoping that we can blag our way through this. We think we will be assisted by the fact that the doctor we want to see is our next-door neighbour. In Spain, this sort of thing counts a lot.

Looking back, it has all been not so much an obstacle course or an initiative test but a mixture of both of these, played out on a snakes and ladders board. With a touch of orienteering thrown in.

But, as they say, tomorrow is another day. Fortune favours the foolhardy and obstinate.

No comments: