Dummies

[nephthys224]

Just got a call from the IND saying that they were attempting to make a decision on my residence permit (finally!), but that we had not submitted the necessary copy of Rick's passport. Which is rubbish-- not only did we bring our own copies, but we gave both our passports to the interviewer in June and watched her make extracopies of them, then put

Comments

[wavebreaker]

Welcome to Dutch bureaucracy... I sometimes wonder how they do it, I think some government officials really make an effort to screw everything up.

[yarahu]

They haven't really lost anything. It's all part of their instructions to make life hell for foreigners every step of the way.

By the way, when you do finally get your permit (I optimistically assume you will), pay no attention to their claim they will notify you in time when you have to renew it. They won't. Buy a 2005 agenda, pick a day at least two months before your permit expires and mark it in blood.

[sparkofcreation]

If it makes you feel any better at all, I know someone who entered the US on a fiancé visa in June and immediately applied for a fiancé-based work permit. On September 1, the USCIS (US Citizenship & Immigration Services) started requiring full-frontal (passport-style) pics with all applications instead of ¾-view (green-card-style) which they'd used until then. The press release specifically stated that any application submitted between August 1 and September 1 could have either style, and any application submitted on or before August 30 could have the ¾-view ones. In mid-September, USCIS issued her a Request for Further Evidence on the grounds thad she'd submitted the wrong style of photograph (remember, she'd applied in June, and the change was announced August 1). She sent in the new pics rather than argue with them. Last week she was denied the work permit on the grounds that, as she'd been married in the interim, she's no longer eligible for a fiancé-based work permit but instead needs to apply for one based on her pending

*full-frontal

[sparkofcreation]

should be "full-facial"

[cakeinoz]

(sorry, just purusing through your LJ. I saw you on the expat community!)

I wanted to add to this entry, though I'm not sure that you'll want to hear it at this point, that if your bf is Dutch, then you should have only had to pay around 35 euro for that permit. (er, yes, I looked at your user info to get that bit of information. Sorry!)

for example: My husband is German, and we moved to Holland from Germany 5 months ago. The usual headaches with bureaucracy took place. I had to do the research on my own, but I found that the 400 euro permit is mainly for people claiming asylum, or coming over on their own in some other fashion. If you are the registered partner of a European (yes, Dutch included in that), then you are eligible for the much cheaper 35(ish) euro residence visa. Yes, it is a full visa, I have work permits and everything with it

[nephthys224]

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh! I am somehow not surprised, but I am definitely pissed that I didn't find out about this sooner. The info on the IND website clearly states that residence permit granted on the basis of partner- or family reunification costs 430 euros, and never even makes mention of the cheaper fee. Neither did any of the (many) people I spoke to over the telephone say anything about it. Bastards.

Thanks anyway, though, hehe. :)