A Brazilian judge has released an Oceanside teenager after she was barred from leaving the south American country for weeks due to what was deemed paperwork issues.
A judge called the situation "absurd," according to the girl's father, Paul Wisniewski, who told NBC 7 the decision to release 17-year-old Bella Wisniewski was made Thursday morning in Brazil. The teen will be reunited with her family in Mexico, although the time frame is unknown.
Bella Wisniewski, an Oceanside-born U.S. citizen with dual citizenship in Brazil, was barred from leaving the country by federal police, who said she didn’t have the right paperwork to leave the country with her mother and younger sister. Brazil, which is the native country of Bella Wisniewski's mother, has strict laws concerning children who are traveling with one, but not both parents.
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Bella, along with her sister Luna and their mother, Dina Wisniewski, were visiting the girls’ grandmother in Brazil. Three weeks later, as they were trying to board a flight from Sao Paolo to Mexico, they were told Bella could not leave the country.
The three were stranded without the help or the funds they needed to get home for 15 days.
Home is the family’s 42-foot catamaran, now docked near Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. Paul Wisniewski told NBC 7 the boat will stay in port until hurricane season is over.
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The Wisniewskis sold their home in Carlsbad, California, seven years ago to embark on a new lifestyle, traveling the world aboard the SV Bella Luna.
“It’s a beautiful life, except when things like this happen,” said Paul Wisniewski.
Since his daughter was ordered to stay in Brazil, he had called, texted and e-mailed people to try to reunite his family, even reaching out to the U.S. Embassy in Brazil.
Wisniewski said that he and his wife had drawn up and notarized authorization documents in both English and Spanish to allow Bella to travel into and out of Brazil.
The U.S. Embassy website in Brazil may have the answer to the family’s dilemma. It reads in bold type: “Authorizations written in English or executed before a U.S. (or any non-Brazilian) notary public are not accepted by the Brazilian Federal Police.”
The U.S. state department at the time said they "stand ready to provide all appropriate consular assistance."
