June 7, 2009 3:30:56 AM CEST
monsterpants (Jun 6 2009, 10:32 PM) said: > original post
Thanks for clarifying that.
Any suggestions what I should do about the MA Vital Records not being able to provide me with any Negative Statement for the 2009 year? (I explained details further above.)
My document came from Seattle yesterday in the mail, and sure enough it's good through "present"... Unfortunately I don't live in Seattle any longer, so it won't be sufficient for the IND.
I don't think it's so much of a problem, the IND's policy only requires that the statement itself be less than 6 months old. If it's not possible for MA to issue a statement with regard to 2009, then there's nothing more to be done about it-- if you're concerned about that, though, ask Vital Records to expressly say on the negative statement that it was only possible for them to search until the end of 2008.
It's all a bit of a silly formality, anyways, since a negative statement like this doesn't prove that you're not married in any of the other 49 states or DC; and the IND knows that there's a big difference between the bureaucratic/legal cultures of Continental Europe and the Anglo-Saxon countries, where the latter don't keep constant tabs on the address or marital status of their citizens in the same way, so they just give Americans an 'A for effort', so to speak, for getting a negative statement from the state you last lived in.
monsterpants (Jun 4 2009, 11:53 PM) said: > original post
(Wait- is "LLM" some kind of signifier of lawyer-lihood? I know Esq. is, but I don't know exactly what LLM means...)
It's a master of laws, which as mvn pointed out is an advanced law degree in the US (something you get after the JD), but in the Netherlands it's the minimum degree you need for admission to the bar, on top of an LLB (bachelor of laws, what they used to give out instead of JDs in the US) in Dutch law. In Dutch I put mr. (meester in de rechten) in front of my name, which would mean nothing special to English-speakers or would look just plain odd if I were a woman! It's funny-- not all doctors in the Netherlands have the title dr. (general practitioners usually only have a masters-level degree in medicine), but all lawyers get the title mr.
ratkat (Jun 5 2009, 01:10 PM) said: > original post
Not sure if there are mechanisms for foreign lawyers to get local credentials here...anyone know?
Only if you are an attorney in another EU country. Then you can do a 1-year training to get up to speed on Dutch law and join the Dutch bar. For non-EU lawyers there's no accelerated procedure-- you would just have to do the 4 years of Dutch law school, and then practice under an established attorney for 3 years.
But for a lot of kinds of legal work, especially advisory work, it's not necessary to join the Dutch bar. If you're a foreign lawyer who's being brought in to advise on your area of expertise (i.e., the law of your home country), then there's no need to get Dutch credentials. In fact, I think only something like 20-25% of Dutch law school graduates become attorneys and join the bar-- the rest work for government, in business, or as researchers and independent legal advisors/representatives (like me, the last two).
Jeremy Bierbach, LLM
immigrate.nl
