correcting documents in mexico

My papers are still not in order. My vaccination papers, that is.

Last week, I told you I was shocked -- shocked -- that gambling was going on in here.

Wait. That is the wrong line for this play. Even though I can do a dead-on Claude Rains impression.

No, what shocked me last week was the discovery the vaccination documents that I had received certifying both of my doses was not adequate proof that the Shroud of Turin now covered me from the wiles of The Virus (are your papers in order?). At least, as far as the milk monitors at transportation hubs are concerned. I am going to need proof of vaccination to board a cruise out of Puerto Rico in January and to board an airplane to Argentina in February.

Even though the official regulations refer to confirmable and non-confirmable vaccination records (the difference being that a confirmable record contains one of those QR codes that make the folks crazy who have rather eccentric interpretations of the Book of Revelations), the good folks at airline ticket counters who have the additional duty of checking the ever-growing list of documents that allow travel will only accept the those with the QR code. With a bit of help from another full-time resident, I eventually was able to print off my official coded "Certificado de Vacunación Contra La Covid-19."

According to the websites, I was ready to travel. Then, I noticed a potential problem. The certificate includes the dates and type of vaccine for each of my two doses. But the dates are incorrect. Both of them. The effect is that it appears the two doses were administered with only a 15-day gap.

The travel websites put only one time restriction on the "fully vaccinated" requirement. Travel can commence no earlier than 14 days after the second dose. For me, that would be late April of this year -- or mid-May according to my official certificate. So, even with the incorrect dates, I should be able to travel on the certificate.

An acquaintance in Melaque is not so certain. He points out that the World Health Organization (WHO?) recommends an interval of 8 to 12 weeks between the AstraZeneca doses we have both received. His concern is that some overly-officious immigration officer will deny him entry to Canada because the dates on his certificate are similar to mine -- too close together.

Even though Canada is on my travel agenda (in September), I do not share his concern. That may be because I have not had to deal with Canadian officialdom during the Virus's various runs and re-runs.

When I posted my first essay on Facebook, Joey Merrifield (who I do not believe I have yet met) provided a very helpful link to the Mexican government's website that would allow me to request a correction of my certificate.*

Even though I am happy with my certificate, I used the site to submit a correction in the dates on my current record. The site is incredibly easy to use -- unlike the certificate request page. All of the required information that needs to be keyed in is on my certificate. The only thing I needed to add was a copy of my original vaccination record. When I submitted my request, the site chirpily responded that my request would be acted upon momentarily.

Well, moments have passed, a full week of them, and I have heard nothing more from the Great Administrators in The Cloud. No message. No email. No change on my certificate.

If I were a betting man, I would be placing all of my roulette chips on "00" because that is about the odds of obtaining a corrected certificate. That is, if my anecdotal sources are correct. I know or know of over a dozen people who have submitted their requests for a corrected certificate (the rumors are that over half of the official certificates contain incorrect information) long before I did. The number of  those who have received a corrected certificate is zero. Those who are still waiting number over a dozen. (Finally, that double-entry accounting course I took at university has had some life application.)

I suspect I will remain in the unanswered crowd. But that is not going to stop me from setting off on my 2022 journeys. The prospect of traveling on what amounts to forged documents simply adds a bit of excitement to my upcoming trips.

Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote "Letter from Birmingham Jail." For some reason "Missive from Travel Holding Cell" does not quite have the same moral weight.
 

 

* -- For those of you who are interested in that site, it is: https://cvcovid.salud.gob.mx/correccionDatos.html