My 16 year old step-daughter went to Cali in November. She decided not to get on the plane when it was time to return (LONG STORY).
Anyway her father and mother have decided she needs to return here. The problem we have is that you need a permission letter for anyone younger than 18 to leave Columbia. Her father completed his document. We didn't need one for her mother before because she was traveling with her mother.
I did some research and downloaded the letter and filled in the blanks from the Columbian Embassy web site. The letter is and must either be in Spanish or translated to Spanish.
The problem is that if it is not notarized in Columbia it has to be notarized here in Dallas, then go to the Secretary of State for Texas, then to the Columbian Embassy for authentication.
We are sending the signed document which includes a finger print, along with copies of her mother's passport and Columbian ID card to my wife's mother in Cali.
If we can find a Notary in Cali willing to notarize it we can avoid the other route which I am told is expensive and takes 6 weeks or longer. If we have to do this it would effectively stop her from returning to the states for the total future and she has missed so much school that the school said if she is not back on the 8th of January she would not be able to complete this year and complete high school here. She is 16 and they put her in the 9th grade because of her English skills. They told us that it would not be possible for a 17 year old to start out next year in the 9th grade here. If she stay in Cali she will not complete school at all as her father has refused to pay for her to go back to school (ANOTHER LONG STORY).
If anyone knows someone that can help us (obviously for a reasonable notary fee, please email me at gene_webb@msn.com).
Thanks all