Damn!
I sent mine in a week ago. I still have to finish the lawyer contract, open a bank account, and pick some funds!! I almost hope it isnāt done that fast!
Quick question: Does the copy of our passport need to be apostilled for the golden visa application? Iām just applying for myself (no spouse or children) and Iām getting ready to get my background check and send it for apostille and just wasnāt sure if the passport copy was also needed (or anything else?)
my lawyer hasnāt requested it.
presumably SEF will see the actual document when they biometricize you. 
and they have systems to verify them already.
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Does Monument provide a tracking number on their side . Or is it just send it them and keep fingers crossed?
They donāt give you any tracking numbers until they mail the apostilles back to you. So yeah, after you send them the FBI documents, you just keep your fingers crossed
We used Monument and were extremely happy with them in their communications every step of the way. That is correct, they donāt give a tracking number for when they send your background check to the DOS but they do send you an email immediately when it goes out, and you can call and speak to a human any time. (We talked to them multiple times before, during, and after the process for various reasons/questions and never once felt concerned that we were just ācrossing our fingersā)
In our case, we took advantage of their online system for submitting our criminal records within minutes of receiving them from the FBI (we also used the FBIās online application process to get the record). We got the report back just before the mailing cutoff on Monumentās end and they still sent out the documents the same day and then contacted us immediately letting us know it went.
As for our turnaround experience, we just got our Apostilles, and it took 30 days to the day! March 10, 2021 to April 9, 2021) Monument had said that during the pandemic, things were taking 5 to 12 weeks and that longer was the norm so we were quite surprised at the speed as well. We were very concerned about the record expiring (90 days from the date of the record NOT the Apostille date) and fortunately it looks like things are starting to move faster.
Thatās a good thing because SEF is still backed up/shut down so our record and Apostille is going to have to be redone for our biometrics appointment as it will have expired unfortunately.
@halekao I am about to do mine too! I thought State Department doesnāt allow in-person (expedited) services yetā¦ but sounds like you still used Monument to submit?
I wonder if you only needed 30 days before of that (vs. mailing it in directly to State Department)ā¦
So much paperwork and patience tested : >
BTW, I am curious if some of you may share what āTax IDā proof you used and apostille? (i.e., our SS #) ā I rarely have any docs that have my full SS # spelled out (vs. just last 4 digits these days, for obvious privacy reason). And donāt want to send in my SS Card (which is āgoneā if itās for apostille).
Hi Ted,
Yes, we still decided to use Monument even though they count not do their counter services right now, for a couple of reasons:
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The application form for the Visa was a bit confusing and we didnāt want to take the chance of getting it wrong and rejected due to the very short shelf life of the FBI report and then having to start over again.
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We would have lost a lot of transit time in the process and it would have cost us more money as well.
We are on the west coast of the US and would have had to pay overnight charges (UPS quoted about $55 with our discount, FedEx was even more) to send the report and Apostille request directly to the DOS. It would have cost about 1-2 days in transit if everything went exactly right, but there was no guarantee from UPS/FedEx that they would actually deliver it overnight due to the pandemic.
Next, because the DOS will not mail our documents internationally, they would then have to send the Apostille back to us via snail mail (they will not allow you to give them a return overnight label and they are required as a federal agency to use USPS), which based on a recent snail mailing of something from PA took about 10 days.
Once we receive it back from DOS, we would then have to overnight it to our lawyer (which actually takes about 4 business days to be received by our lawyer) at a cost of about $110.
By using Monument, even without counter service our savings (both time and money) was:
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Uploaded the emailed version of the report to them the same day as we received it (remember that starts the 90 day clock ticking on its shelf life). Savings of at least 2-4 days depending on how quickly we would be able to get the form completed and it to UPS to ship and saving the overnight $55 fee to send it. (And did jot run the risk of messing up the form)
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They stayed on top of the process, and the same day they received the Apostilles back from DOS, they were able to overnight (again took a couple of business days) them directly to our lawyer for an extra $60. This not only saved at least 10 days due to it getting it to us and then us sending it to PT. In addition, Monumentās international shipping fees were less than ours would have been. So even with their processing fee and shipping it was less cost in total.
So once we did the math on the time it would take (irrespective of DOSās time to process), plus the cost of them handling it all, it was a no brainer for us, even if they werenāt walking in to get it processed. Of course if you are generally close to DOS like Monument is, your situation could be different.
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Thanks and make sense; I might follow you steps!!!
Looking forward to hearing how your journey goes!
For us, neither the bank or our lawyer asked for apostille of SS card. We just scanned and emailed our tax return to our lawyer.
They didnāt ask for our tax return specifically. We chose to give them our tax return in lieu of SS card only because I already have a PDF copy of it on my laptop (it was just pure convenience for me)
Maybe everyone does it a little differently. The lawyer is standing in your stead via POA so itās whatever it takes for the lawyer to be comfortable, I suppose? dunno.
Wow. Monument Visa got my apostille turned around in 26 days! woo hoo!
(isnāt that sad? 26 days and we have to count that as a winā¦)
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congrats. you are halfway there!
Itās good that they are somewhat consistent with about 4 week turnaround time. That will be helpful when planning the next FBI background check before we have to go to our biometric appointment.
Well, itās nice that itās been consistent, but itās not under their control eitherā¦
We just submitted our FBI background report to the US Department of State (through an agency) and were told it is a 10-12 week turnaround. So I made a copy of the FBI report, drafted an affidavit swearing it was a true and correct copy of the FBI report, had that notarized, and sent the notarized affidavit attached to the FBI report to the stateās SOS for state apostille. I will submit that to our PT lawyers when it is returned, and will submit the US State Dept apostilled doc when it arrives (hopefully sooner than the estimated timeframe). As was said elsewhere, this may or may not work, but with that long of a turnaround, you gotta get creative!