How to join COARPE

Notes compiled by Bruce Owen as of January 2006

No guarantee implied!

This is the process for US citizens holding US degrees as I currently understand it, as of January 2006. It assumes that one intends to have one's degree revalidated by the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú (PUCP), in Lima. Procedures through other universities may differ. I am only midway through this process, so I cannot guarantee that the following is complete or correct, and everything is subject to change. I suggest confirming each step with the relevant US or Peruvian authorities in person or by phone or email in advance. Brian Billman has successfully joined COARPE, so it is possible.

Background:

Membership in COARPE is required in order to hold a permit for fieldwork or to export samples. Current, paid-up (activo or habilitado) members receive one certificado document for each trimester (?) of paid-up membership (I am not certain of the number and period). These certificados expire in a few months. Additional ones may be purchased for S/ 50 each. Each permit request to the INC must be in the name of a currently habilitado member of COARPE, who must submit a valid original COARPE certificado along with the solicitud. A person may hold only one fieldwork permit at a time. The permit holder is released to request another permit when a final report to the INC is accepted.

COARPE requires members to have a licensiado degree in archaeology, or its equivalent as certified by a Peruvian university that issues licensiado degrees. This is a matter of the Peruvian law that regulates all professional colegios, not a policy specific to COARPE. Nor can COARPE accept an MA or Ph.D. in its place, by an explicit decision of the Rectores de Peru. But a Peruvian university may do whatever it likes to recognize a degree as equivalent to their licensiado, because universities are legally autonomous. Thus some universities could opt to recognize some US masters degrees, for example, as equivalent to a licensiado. PUCP does not do so. Because a licensiado includes practical, professional training that is often not implied by a masters degree, PUCP will recognize only a Ph.D. as covering all the aspects of their licensiado. Degrees in anthropology or perhaps even other related fields may qualify. The process of recognizing a foreign degree is called "revalidación" or "covalidación".

Overview of procedure to join COARPE with PUCP revalidation:

1. Collect and legalize the necessary documents in the US (45-60 days, minimum, assuming that you take each step immediately on receipt of the results of the previous one)

2. Take the Spanish test in Lima (in my case, 14 days between the test and picking up the constancia)

3. Submit documents to PUCP

4. Retrieve revalidated Ph.D. diploma from PUCP (estimated 3 months)

5. Submit form, attachments, and fee to COARPE

6. Retrieve membership information from COARPE (theoretically just 2-3 days)

This process will take at least five months in total, or longer with realistic delays between steps. As of January 2006, fees would total around US$ 825, plus a fee to the Peruvian Minsterio de Relaciones Exteriores that I do not yet know, US$ 50-100 in postage, courier services, photos, and large envelopes, an annual fee of US$ 44, for a total of around US$ 970 plus the cost of any additional travel to Peru and time in Lima to take the Spanish test,.

Procedure details for PUCP:

· The appropriate method for COARPE purposes is to revalidate a foreign Ph.D. as equivalent to a Peruvian licensiado (“revalidar el Doctorado por el titulo profesional de Licensiado en arqueología”)

· For details, get the handout from information desk at the entrance to PUCP and talk to Sra. Teresa Suchero, of the Secretaría General, 9:00 AM – 1:00 PM and 3:30 – 5:00 PM. The information below is condensed from that handout and clarifying comments by Sra. Suchero. I can supply a copy of this document as of summer 2005, if needed, but it might be best to get a current one directly from PUCP. At the moment, it is not available online.

· Required documents:

o The revalidation request form (formato de la solicitud).

§ Provided free by the Secretaría General.

§ This is where you indicate that you want the PhD revalidated “por el titulo profesional de Licensiado en arqueología”.

§ It must be signed by the holder of the degree, or someone with a power of attorney for the degree holder.

o Original birth certificate.

§ Additional legalization of the birth certificate is not required.

§ When you present it to Secretaría General with the request form, they will verify it, photocopy it, and return the original right then.

§ If you don't have an original birth certificate, it can be reissued by the county in which you were born

· I did this in person; it took perhaps 45 minutes. It may also be done by mail.

· In my case, the fee was $18.

o Original official transcripts of graduate studies (certificados oficiales de los estudios realizados), with seals and signatures from

§ US Department of State (Washington, DC). Note that Peru is not a signatory to the Hague Convention, so authentication for Peru may not be an "Apostile", but rather must be a "Certification". In order to get this certification, you must get, in order:

1. An official copy of the transcript, certified by the notary in the Registrar's Office. UCLA has a notary who does this routinely; I don't know the procedure at other schools.

o I did this by mail; it took 12 days

o Fee: $26.00 (for both transcript and diploma)

2. Certification of the notary's signature and seal by the County Clerk's office of the county in which the University notary is located.

o I did this by mail; it took 5 days

o Fee: $18 (for both transcript and diploma)

3. Certification of the County Clerk's signature and seal by the appropriate officer of the Secretary of State of the state in which the University notary is located.

o I did this in person; it took perhaps 45 minutes. By mail, they estimate 15 days.

o Fee: $46.00 (for both transcript and diploma)

4. Certification of the Secretary of State's signature and seal by the US Department of State, Washington, DC.

o I did this by mail; it took 13 days

o Fee: $12.00 (for both transcript and diploma)

5. See www.state.gov/m/a/auth for details and links on State Department authentication, including some to previous levels of authentication.

§ Peruvian Consulado General in Washington, DC: certification of the above certifications.

· Peruvian Consulates in San Francisco and Los Angeles insisted that only the DC Consulate could certify a Federal Department of State certification, and the DC Consul General agreed.

o I did this by mail; it took 11 days

o Fee: US$ 60.00 ($30 each for transcript and diploma)

· See http://www.consuladoperu.com/districtofcolumbia/index.htm

§ Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores del Perú (Jr. Ucayali No. 318, Lima): certification of the above.

· I do not know the details of this yet, especially whether or not official translations will be required.

§ Like the birth certificate, the transcripts will be verified, copied, and returned on the spot when the request is submitted.

o Original PhD diploma, with the same series of seals and signatures as above.

§ This, too, will be verified, copied, and returned on the spot.

§ The notary at your University must certify that the original diploma is authentic. The UCLA notary was accustomed to certifying photocopies, not the original, so you must be explicit about this. You must mail or hand deliver your original diploma to the registrar for this process, since the certification will be attached to it. You then continue to mail or hand deliver the original diploma and its accumulating certifications for each subsequent step.

§ If you want to keep your original diploma intact, your University may issue duplicate diplomas. UCLA will do so for $60, but it takes months, and the document differs from the original. It will have the signatures of current office holders rather than those in office when your degree was issued. I don't know what other differences there might be, since I did not pursue this option.

§ You will end up with your diploma covered in other documents, stapled and even grommetted over the front of the diploma; these documents are valid only as long as they remain attached to the diploma. Later, PUCP will affix a seal and signatures to the back of the diploma as the official record of revalidación. Don't plan on slipping your diploma into a frame after this.

o Letter (constancia) from the PUCP Centro de Idiomas (Jr. Camaná 956, in downtown Lima) saying that you are competent in Spanish.

§ This involves a multiple-choice, fill-in-the-blank, and brief essay section that takes on the order of an hour, and an oral conversation section that takes 30 to 45 minutes.

§ The test must be taken at this location, in person.

§ The test costs S/ 60 (~US$ 17.00), and the constancia costs S/ 40 (~US$ 12.00).

§ You have to make an appointment in advance to take the test. In my case, the first opportunity was two working days after my first visit to the Centro de Idiomas.

§ The constancia is available some days or weeks later. In my case, I collected it two weeks after taking the test.

§ The general secretary of the Centro is Sra. Lucy de Vidal (423-8078).

§ Passing the test requires a fairly large vocabulary, passable but not perfect grammar (my use of the subjunctive mode is terrible, for example, but I still passed), and reasonable fluency in conversation. Most people with significant field experience with Peruvians can probably pass, but some whose Spanish is shaky may not.

o Receipt for the revalidation fee (S/ 1480 as of 27 July, 2005; ~ US$ 430.00).

§ If the revalidation is denied, 80% of the fee will be returned.

o Additional supporting documents are not required, but might help your case if anyone on any of the various committees has doubts. Suggestions:

§ Curriculum vitae

§ Copies of BA and MA degrees. State legalization is not necessary, but it probably would be wise to have them legalized by a notary public.

§ Publications, informes, theses, etc. Sra. Suchero thought that theses on CD, rather than bound volumes, would probably be fine.

§ Anything else that might support your case for having qualifications equivalent to a Licensiado.

o If the documents are in English, they DO NOT need any translation for the PUCP.

· Once all the documents are submitted, the payment made, and the form signed, the revalidation process is supposed to take about 3 months.

· When the revalidation is approved, you or a third party brings your original, legalized Ph.D. diploma back to the Secretaría General and leaves it for a day or so. They will mark the revalidation on the back of the diploma. This step is required, and the revalidation is not legal until it has been done.

· There is no additional language requirement beyond the constancia from the Centro de Idiomas. The PUCP handout could be read as requiring coursework, but it does not.

Procedure details for COARPE:

· Until mid-January 2006, details for inscription in COARPE were available on the COARPE website:

http://www.coarpe.org/

As of late January 2006, the website has been modified to eliminate the menu section and the details available through it. If the old menus are restored in the future, click on Información y Servicios, Trámite documentario, Ficha de inscripción to see the inscription form. Scroll down for details and fees.

· The one-page application form used in early January appears to be simple, requiring basic information, especially about the degree granted and its revalidation.

· I assume that the revalidated diploma must be presented.

· There is a space for a small photo, about 1" wide and 1.5" high, presumably "carnet" size. I suggest having at least two in hand.

· Inscription costs S/ 640, ~US$ 186.00. This amount was set to apply through January 15, 2006. Now that that date has passed, it may rise.

· One must also pay an annual fee in order to remain "activo" or "habilitado". The fee is S/ 150, ~US$ 44.00. Again, these fees are subject to change.

· I was told that COARPE processes these applications in just a day or two, but that would refer to Peruvian applicants.

Good luck!

Bruce Owen

bruce.owen@sonoma.edu