I’m in agreement with aritz in that it seems like the document they sent you fulfills #2, but i’m not sure. It doesn’t fulfill #3.

Just to further clarify on #1, “certificado literal” in Spain means the “in extensa”/long form birth certificate here. So, make sure you ask for the “in extensa”. They’re basically saying that the extract isn’t good enough.

The requirements seem pretty clear in so far as they want your mom’s birth certificate and marriage certificate in the long form. Remember, that they’d also need to be apostilled to be usable in Spain.

Thanks for the replies guys. I know i’m constantly saying it but I appreciate the time you take to respond. I tried sending an email to the consulate in Miami but no response. I will be driving down in August so I’ll swing by and ask them in person.

Also, in September i will be going to the Dominican with my dad. I’m going to try to figure it out I can pick up documents 1 and 3 over there.

Allrighty, i’ll keep you posted on what happens.

If you’re coming here to pick up the documents, you can get your mom’s birth and marriage certificates by following these steps:

1) Obtaining a new birth/marriage certificate - Go to one of the centers listed here:

http://web.archive.org/web/20090627193614/http://www.jce.do/web/NOSOTROS/CentrosdeServicio/tabid/506/Default.aspx

which offer the “Duplicados e Impresiones” service. Bring whatever documents you think are necessary (old copies of your mom’s c?dula, birth certificate, marriage certificate, etc). They will scan the barcode on them (if available) and find the data in their system. Whatever you have will make this a lot quicker and easier for them. Then, they’ll find the original certificate in their system, print a long form birth/marriage certificate with the words “Para Fines de Consulta” over it, and you can proceed to purchase a new certificate. You take this document to one of the nearby windows, pay for either a birth/marriage certificate extract (“extracto” - currently RD$100) or a long form birth/marriage certificate (“inextensa” - currently RD$200), and take the document with the receipt(s) stapled to it to an employee nearby who will print you a new birth/marraige certificate. These certificates are not emitted in an already legalized (certified) form. Why this office cannot emit an already legalized (certified) document is outside the realm of my logical comprehension;

2) Certifying a new birth/marriage certificate - Bring your new birth/marriage certificate to one of the payment windows (yes, you have to do the line again) and pay for the legalization of the birth certificate - currently RD$200. Take the receipt with your birth/marriage certificate to one of employees who print these documents. They will place a small sticker on the back of it with a bar code and two signatures;

3) Apostilling a certified birth/marriage certificate - The Ministry of Foreign relations is on Robert Schombourg, between Av. Independencia and the Malec?n. It is the first entrance (if coming from the Malec?n) or the second entrance (if coming from Av. Independencia). The cost for the apostille/authentication is currently RD$620 and is paid in Ban Reservas, which is the first door of the building. Take the receipt to the second door and present it to one of the employees behind the window. You will get a ticket. Then, wait and play Dominican bingo. When your number is called, they will take your ticket and you get your document back with the apostille/authentication (same document);

Wow perejil,
Thank you so much for your detailed explanation! I’m sure with the current document I have in my possesion along with the 2 mentioned in your post, i’ll finally be able to send the final package for my Spanish citizenship. :D

Update: I went to the Dominican Republic and went to the offices that had 1)My mom’s birth certificate and 2)My mom and dad’s marriage certificate. Apparently their is a misspelling between the last names of my mother. We sent the documents to a lawyer to correct these and should take about 2 months.

Until then I need to just wait I guess. This process is taking a long time (just as I suspected) =/ AND I haven’t even sent these documents yet. I finish my last semester of school (Air Traffic Control) in April and have to wait around 2 years before getting picked up for an Air Traffic job. I would love to take advantage of this time and live in Spain until then, working any entry-level job because the truth is, if everything goes good and I get that Air Traffic Job, my dreams of moving to Spain will have to wait until retirement =(

Hi,
I notice you have twp posts running at the moment and they both relate to working in Spain. Best bet of course would be to combine the two situations and contact AENA the Spanish National Air Traffic authority.

You need to be aware however that within Europe, particularly among the Lo Cost airline crews, Spanish ATC is not very popular. There was an ATC strike last year (not really a strike more a Union supported work to rule), which stifled Air Traffic movements within Spain for a few days before the government sent the troops in and forced a return to work, some folks lost their jobs as a result and were very heavily fined and literally lost everything. The atmosphere between AENA and the ATC officers is still smoldering. The Spanish government / AENA is trying to sell off the Air Traffic business so who knows what will happen if this is successful.

I would suggest you check out ATC issues in http://pprune.org/. There are bitter arguments going on all the time.

Spain is not the happiest of places for anyone 18-25 years old; unemployment is running at 45% in this age group. For your chosen profession you would need to be totally fluent in Spanish but English shouldn’t be a problem to you.

However once qualified you could try talking to Eurocontrol; the primary language is English and this could prove to be a stepping stone for you. There is one thing though… I’m not sure about the validity of American FAA ATC Licences within Europe; you might find yourself having to do some kind of conversion course.

If I can make another suggestion, if you are not already a subscriber to pprune you join the forum and start asking questions now…

Hope this helps…

fb

Hey FB, thank you for the very thorough response. Very much appreciated. Just to clarify the other post was geared more towards entry level jobs for minimum wage. In the 2 years of waiting for ATC here in the US, I wanted to take advantage of the “free” time and spend some time in Spain. I would be living with my grandparents over there so room and board would be taken care of. I would just look for a basic job to get some weekend spending money and help my grandparents out a bit. Of course, if this entry-level job was in anyway related to aviation, it would make it that much more interesting =)

- I remember reading about that strike. A part of it had to do with the government wanting to do something about the wages ATC were getting. The average is about 200,000 euros which I think is ridiculous.

- I have been a member of PPRUNE for quite some time =) Some good information here and there but way too much bickering =P

- I speak spanish in my household and last time I went to spain, I had no trouble whatsoever communicating. Of course, I still need to study my grammar and what not.

- I also think there is some sort of conversion needed between here and there for ATC. I am going to look into this but I realize that the odds of actually getting a job in ATC in Spain are slim. This gives me more of a reason to go now when I finish classes. I can enjoy my time over there for a couple of years, and then come back to the States to start ATC. Who knows, maybe when I retire I move to Spain. It’s way to early to tell.

- I remember reading about that strike. A part of it had to do with the government wanting to do something about the wages ATC were getting. The average is about 200,000 euros which I think is ridiculous.

Media Hype!

The average take home pay for an ATCO was and is around 45000-55000 Euros pa around 70K USD. Yes there were controllers who supposedly achieved around 900,000 Euros; as memory recalls there were just two such controllers and in order to reach these heady figures they were working around 120 hours per week every week. After the first 40 hrs payment was at an AENA and Union agreed premium rate. So of course the controllers made lots of money; it was a natural effect of the conditions imposed by management.

The need for the extra hours came about because AENA consistently understated and undermanned the requirement. Not one new controller was taken on in a six year period despite the service being undermanned and disregarding totally natural attrition due to retirement and people leaving because they were unable to cope. Air Traffic manning levels in Spain are set at the Winter requirement level which is only about 1/3 of that required during the Summer. Overtime and rest day working was made mandatory on pain of suspension or sacking if the controllers failed to turn up. Taking time off through sickness was also not permitted…

The decision to send the troops in was not discussed at parliamentary level it was taken by P.M. Zapatero and his hitmen Rubalcaba and Blanco and a request was forwarded to the King for a Royal Decree which was of course granted. Admittedly the politicians didn’t have a lot of choice; Spain’s ATC was at a standstill and Spanish airspace was closed but if AENA had maintained the right manning levels the situation would not have reached the crisis point that it did.

And then the whole sorry business was hyped up by the media driven by Jose Blanco the Minister responsible for, among other things, ATC Services. Let us also not forget that the whole thing attracted worldwide attention because of the interests of a certain ex-Spanish Prime Minister who just happens to be on the board of Richard Murdoch’s News Corporation and hence Fox News and other International media sources. Something of a clash of interests if ever their was one… all Joe Public got to hear about were the supposed highly inflated salaries earned by ATC controllers; the ATC side was never publicised in the media.

A new contract has been agreed which does give controllers 200K Euros pa but the conditions were take it or leave it and get out, and as before, compulsory overtime and rest day working, no time off for sickness and lots of other nasty little gotchs’a that AENA got written into the contract. I have seen some of the rotas involved and frankly they are unworkable. From what i can see little has changed except the noose around the controllers necks has been pulled a little tighter.

My experience in aviation is not ATC related but with aircraft maintenance, working 12 hour shifts 4 on 4 off and compulsory overtime as required. I did this for over thirty years, the last 15 with the same employer, but when push came to shove and redundancies were needed guess who was top of the sh*t list?  That’s right, the old guys, the ones with all the experience, the ones that were as a result paid a little more than the new guys who took twice as long to do the job…

Mike, I wish you every success with your future career. Zap did to the Spanish controllers what Reagan did to the American controllers… but you may be a little young to remember that!

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It’s amazing how much control the media has on society! Very glad to hear the other side of the story. From the way you were talking I knew you had to be involved in the aviation industry somehow. Even with the heavy demand from your employers, did you enjoy aircraft maintenance?

Honestly, it sounds like ATC here in the States is a lot better. I never really did plan on pursuing that in Spain but glad to hear about how things are over there. I want to talk to an actual controller over there and hear about the day to day operations (similarities and differences compared to here). Would you happen to know if tours of the tower are possible?

Doesn’t stop me from wanting to spend a couple of years in Madrid though. This citizenship process needs to happen soon because as soon as April comes around I want to pack and go! =P

Oh, and about Regan and the Controllers…the PATCO strike! I wasn’t born when it happened but I learned about it in class.

There’s a new process in place to amend vital records in the DR. Before, it was necessary to get a lawyer and it took a long time, being costly as well. I don’t think that you need to do this anymore. Next time, just ask how it’s done at the JCE and maybe you’ll find an employee who can tell you. I had my partner’s birth certificate amended and we’re not even married. It took all of about five minutes, showing them the old docs and watching them compare them to the originals in their system.