***!

[nephthys224]

The day before I left for the US, I finally got my lovely residence permit, which, according to the IB-groep website, entitles me to receive a bit of money from the gov't every month, as well as free public transportation during the week for the duration of my study. Which is a Really Good Thing, since I live in the middle of nowhere, and the train

Comments

[ghewgill]

Heh, bootstrapping yourself in another country is always fun. I remember doing that as a Canadian moving to the US - drivers license, insurance, SSN, bank account, a place to live... not necessarily in that order. You seem to have a good bit more bureaucracy involved! Sounds like the end of the tunnel is near, though.

[ivo]

Yeah I so recall my first week in Austin.

Go to the SSA office on 8th street (my first time downtown), apply for a SSN with my passport, wait 10 days, open bank account, get paycheck deposited, get car insurance, etc. etc.

*sigh*

[hederaivy]

OOh, yes, isn't it fun?
I'm still dancing on the end of the IND's strings. At least you're on the bottom of a new pile, eh?
I spendt several days last year being told I needed to open a bank account, attempting to obtain the SoFinummer for same, being told I needed my residency permit first..and THEN, some DORK told me I needed a SoFi number to obtain the residency permit. Wait...I need to get A in order to get B, but I need B to get A? Just give me a wall and let me bang my head against it a while, it will be less painful.
Question: were they going to let you come back into the Netherlands without your residency permit? In March, they told me that if I left without one, because I was in the midst of permit-garnering, I would have to remain out of the country for 3 months.

Re: *sigh*

[nephthys224]

were they going to let you come back into the Netherlands without your residency permit?

Well, in the end it wound up not being a problem since I got the permit just before I left. But of course I didn't know that would happen, so I made several different phone calls to the IND with that question, and got (surprise, surprise) several different answers. One guy told me what you heard-- that I'd be stuck in the US for 3 months. Another person told me I could leave the country whenever I felt like it, as long as I didn't go to my country of origin, and that if I did, I couldn't come back-- ever. I freaked out when I heard that, and called back the next day, only to hear that "I must have misunderstood" (I hadn't) and that it was perfectly fine to leave the Netherlands for any destination, even without a residence permit. I have no idea what the official stance is on this whole issue, but I have since heard that there is some sort of document you can request that allows you to return to your country of origin before the permit is

Re: *sigh*

[hederaivy]

even if it's only good for another 5 months before I have to get it renewed.

WHAT?? It's not good for a whole year? Is that because it's a student permit?

Re: *sigh*

[yarahu]

Nope. It's good for one year, but the year begins on the day you apply for your permit. Given that it takes forever and a day to process your application, your permit will be valid for one year minus forever and a day, which amounts to, give or take, five months.

Furthermore, given that the process for renewal lasts about as long as the original application, you should apply for renewal at least three months or so before the first permit expires.

[68024]

tell me about it- I hate all those kind of red-tape things. I once had something similar with the Ziekenfonds; and you try to explain the situation but you might as well talk to a wall. It took me writing some letters to higher-up people to avoid the desk monkeys programmed responses...

Sofinummer

[anonymous]

Bummer that you have to have a sofinummer now to open a bank account. I wonder when that was changed? I never had one, and I opened a PostBank account, sometime after getting my verblijfsvergunning

[hederaivy]

two questions for you:
1)where've you been?
2)I finally got my acceptgiro to pay for my expired-although-not-yet-approved verblijfsvergunning. I would like to just pay for it over the 'net from my husband's account, since I haven't been able to open one of my own yet. Do you know if they'll accept that, or am I going to have to go into alkmaar and fight with the TGPpeople there to get an account opened?
I've gotten the idea that "your own account" is more of a necessity for them to put money IN rather than taking money OUT because of taxes, but I'm not quite sure. Do you know?