Good news

[nephthys224]

I just got off the phone with the morons at the IND, which always leaves me in a bad mood (and shaking with the effort of talking about all this legal crud in Dutch). This time was no exception. I'm normally a very polite, meek person, especially over the phone, but this time I decided I had had enough of being told to just "wait patiently" for my

Comments

[ex_ladyvox549]

WHOOHOO!! *takes you by the hands and makes a circle dance* I am very happy for you girl!

[nephthys224]

Hehe, thanks! I'm gonna be a legal resident soon! Yippieeee! :)

And nice icon, by the way. :)

[nephthys224]

I got somebody who transfered me to another department- where I spoke to someone who wanted to transfer me back to the person I had just been talking to

I know how that goes! I get the feeling that no one actually knows the answers to any of these questions and that all they want is to get you off the phone. Let someone else take care of your problem. It drives me crazy! But hopefully things will go smoothly tomorrow when I pick up the paper...

The thing that REALLY pisses me off, though, is that I paid for a one-year residence permit, but it's only good from now until the date that I applied for it, which was in June. Which means that it's really only a five-month permit. Bastards.

But oh well, bureaucracy sucks no matter where you are, so I will just try to be cheerful and focus on all of life's blessings. Like the fact that in three days I'll be in a place where it doesn't get dark at 4:30pm... ;-)

[yarahu]

I'm a little surprised you have to go to Den Helder. I don't remember where we went to pick up joy_joy's, but I'm pretty sure it was a lot closer to civilization. It could have been worse, though. It could have been Schiermonnikoog :)

[bezigebij]

Gefeliciteerd! Vergeet al de frustratie en geniet gewoon even van jullie overwinningen.

More money, a SOFI #, the ability to work and get an OV, no more dealings (for now) with the vreemdelingpolitie...oh there is much to celebrate in your world.

[nephthys224]

Thanks! :) There is indeed much to celebrate! In addition to all the good stuff that comes with having a residence permit, I have a tank full of adorable baby fish, my aquarium plants are growing like crazy now that I changed around the lighting, I finally baked an apple pie yesterday that came out right, things are going great with Rick, and this Friday I fly back to the US to see my family again for the first time in a looong time. Life is good. :)

[inner_storm]

wow, finally, huh :) I'm happy for you! And congrats to Rick for such a salary rise!

[amscapecait]

Apple pie... mmm..... I want some... with vanilla ice cream, now that's heaven right there.
Yay for good days!
Vreemdelingpolitie... ah, they're so much fun! Or not. I actually didn't have any trouble getting my verblijfsvergunning but I had my Frisian host mom with me so that surely influenced things.
Anyway, go good news!

[nephthys224]

I think part of the problem is that this no longer goes through the Vreemdelingenpolitie-- a while back (a year or two?) they thought it would be brilliant to let the Immigratie- en Naturalisatiedienst handle everything, so they divided the IND into regional centers that handle all the cases for a particular area. Which means that no one knows what the hell is going on anymore, half the info I've gotten is out-of-date and refers me to something that doesn't exist anymore (namely, the Vreemdelingenpolitie), and the whole system is backlogged. And someone thought it was a great idea to put the headquarters for all of North Holland in Den Helder, which is as far away from everywhere as you can get before you run out of land and fall into the ocean. *shakes head* It's really messed up...

[nephthys224]

Actually, I misspoke myself there-- the Vreemdelingenpolitie does still exist; it just doesn't handle the residence permit process anymore. But you get the idea. :)

[amscapecait]

Aha, I get it now...
Fun stuff.
Den Helder! That's a hike. What were they thinking!?