Consular comedy

Yesterday I went to the Greek consulate in NY to get a certified copy of my degree. The level of absurdity seems to increase each time I visit them.

I brought in color photocopies and, of course, the original (a big thing, with raised seals etc, in a leather case). The officer helping me suggested I instead ask for a “true copy” from CMU, which they will notarize and subsequently send to Harrisburg for an APOSTILLE stamp from the PA government. Then he added that “if I were [a government office in Greece], I wouldn’t accept this copy [that I’m giving you]”. Anyway, since I was there, I decided to get a copy certified by the consulate. When I asked him where the copies from the consulate are legally acceptable, he just shrugged and added “come on, you’re CS, you know that anyone can make a degree like this with Photoshop”, waving the photocopy I gave him!!

Anyway, I finally got the photocopies stamped and was done in 15 minutes (that’s amazingly fast, by the way), so all ended well this time. However, let me translate for you what the consular officer seems to have told me: the consulate can put an “accurate copy” stamp but (i) he doesn’t know why anyone would want that, (ii) he himself wouldn’t trust it, and (iii) he’d be happy to approve any random Photoshop job!! Can’t help but wonder why they don’t just disband the NYC consulate…