They were closed for an “archival day” but she had a connection and got us in to have a lady check our documents. The lady studied the one page document for a full minute, holding it close to her squinting face.

“The problem is this: it needs to be translated and the translation needs to be certified,” she said. She sort of leaned back in her chair, relieved, no doubt, that she wouldn’t be required to do any actual work this moment.

I looked at her with such a dead expression that she asked whether I understood Ukrainian. I told her it was translated. Every other line was in Ukrainian. We argued briefly about whether or not it was translated. Eventually, she realized it was.

To her great relief, however, she found a problem with the translation of my passport. It needed to show the page with my last entrance stamp to Ukraine. I needed to have it re-translated and re-notarized.