Worldly Chatter

Well, a few months back we filled out all the proper paper work for yet another permit for me to say in the Netherlands. We waited and waited but heard nothing about it. A little nerve racking I assure you! All we had to do was show the IND that nothing had changed; Dutchie still had her job and was making the proper about of money. We also had to show that I was in fact insured as well as all the housing and other paper work we needed the first time around. A bit had changed since last we sent stuff over to the IND but pleasantly in our favor. Not only did Dutchie have the same job but now she made more than was required. I had more insurance than I knew what to do with as well as being employed. The government loves seeing immigrants working once they arrive so my contract with the agency was sent over too.

All was in order so we sent it over via the town hall here in Hilversum and waited until the IND received it and billed us for it. We paid them gleefully and waited for my one piece of paper that stated I could pick it up, again. I truly hate the waiting game! You see, Dutchie and I learned from our experiences with the IND when we first applied that if there is a discrepancy with something, they are all over it. They won’t wait to inform you that there is something amiss and they are ever so quick to deny you for the smallest thing! So when we didn’t hear anything the first month we drew a nice sigh of relief because if there was anything wrong, we would have heard about it by now. Forewarning for those who apply for permits in other countries, most governments are like this. They make you wait if you are approved and deny you if your letter is an afternoon late.

Once again my permit was sitting in Hilversum collecting dust before they bothered to send word out that they had it! My first permit as well as my approval to marry Dutchie sat comfortably in their filing cabinets for weeks before I heard anything about it! Oh, and the reason I know this is because the first two times I was all over the INDs bottom, demanding to know where stuff was and they kindly informed that Hilversum has had it for some time now. They are pleasant as punch while I have flames coming out of my ears, desperate to find information after months of waiting. To say the least I felt bad about calling all steamed. We have come to learn that the IND isn’t always the problem, in our case, never been a problem just doing their jobs. It has always been Hilversum but I digress.

My five year permit is here! Just one more step now to permanent residence here in the Netherlands! It is definitely easier than we thought and we both know how blessed we are for it! We have it now and the only thing left to do to gain full residence is gain a level to in the Dutch language and wait out my five year permit! A lovely day indeed, despite the fact that my mug shot isn’t!

 Previous posts for: The waiting game and My first residence permit

Dutch Residence Permits, Worldly Chatter, Living Abroad, American Expats, IND, Immigration

I had my appointment with the Sociale Zaken this afternoon; a mandatory appointment so I had to take the afternoon off for work to do this. I have to take the inburgering exam and it must be completed within five years because I am an American, apparently if someone comes from other countries not on a list they have to have it done in three and a half. This list applies for other conditions as well when it comes to the IND and staying in the Netherlands. I was able to bypass taking courses in my home country and waiting approximately 2 years before I would be accepted or denied my stay in the Netherlands. I was able to wait it out in the Netherlands once I applied, some countries listed you have to wait in your home country. Interesting stuff, I tell you but anyway. I was accepted on the 21 of February this year and received my permit in March so my five years starts from February.

If I finish my inburgering and pass the exam with a level two within 3 years then I can get 70% of what I put in financially into my inburgering or up to 3,000 euro. In addition, if I finish and passed with a level two then I can apply for my residence permit independently or even apply for my citizenship in three years time. That means that Dutchie would no longer be responsible for me under the law, I would be my own person responsible to myself and the burden of the IND would be off Dutchies shoulders. In five years time I would also be able to go for my permanent residence on my own if I pass with a level two. Now, if I do NOT pass my exam with a level two within 5 years time I can ask for an extension of two years. If I refuse to take it in five years time they can fine me for not following the law which was put into effect January of this year. This also means I would still be bound to Dutchie and Dutchie would remain my caregiver and have to deal with the IND indefinitely. However, there is a catch to me getting my money back at the end of all this. I have to do to a school the Dutch government as granted permission to certify someone in Dutch. I can go independently or self teach but I would see no money back, though the exam would still count. The person I had the appointment with gave me the current list of institutions and schools under this program with the government and currently there is only one in Hilversum under it.

Therefore, I called the school today to find out what I would have to do to get this jump-started. I would have my assessment meeting with them first with an exam to see how much Dutch I know as well as how much of Holland I know. This exam is 270 euro and would have to lay it out on that meeting. If I stick with them and attend classes there, I get the money back. Still hurts that I have to lay it out!

Now about our wedding plans! I called the IND to see what the holdup was. I had to ask permission to marry Dutchie and did so through the IND as instructed. Its been six weeks and there hadn’t been any word on their answer. After waiting twenty minutes on the phone I get told that on the sixteenth they sent the form I filed with them back to the town hall in Hilversum with the answer of yes. That is ten days after we originally put in the request. Now another three and a half weeks later it seems that Hilversum had this form all along and have yet to let us know! They were supposed to get back to us the moment they received an answer from the IND! We could have had a date already! So now Dutchie is calling town hall tomorrow because they are only open until one in the afternoon and I can’t call them from work. If we don’t get somewhere with that we are going to the town hall on Thursday to get some answers. Thursday is shopping night here in Hilversum so everything is open later. We can get married! The IND said yes! Now all we have to do is figure out where out papers went! Big fat OY!

IND Netherlands, expats, inburgerings examen, worldly chatter, integration, Dutch languages, Dutch language classes

When they tell you they want you to integrate into your new society they neglect to tell you that the help they offer comes at a snail’s pace! I would love to lay out €500 – 1000 or more for Dutch language classes so that I would actually have a better shot of getting a job but here we are. I looking for work and getting rejections because of my Dutch and the government saying integrate with no integration in sight! You just have to love how governments work.
By going through the town of Hilversum for my integration I can have it cost me nothing or close to nothing for my classes. That also means I will be certified in my new language and a certificate to prove as much. This would greatly improve my chances of work. The government is so good at saying we have to do this and we have to do that as expats yet are, for some reason, unable to give us that which they say we need! Why is that? Now I know it does not matter that this is the Dutch government, this could be the US government or anyone else and it would still take just as long. Why, because that is the way it works, I suppose. Just because you were granted your permit and sofi-number doesn’t mean the waiting and hell is over. Just means it is a new form of hell out there for you to experience. Being as this is my first time gaining residence in another country, I was truly unprepared for the ins and outs one can experience. There is no way to truly prepare for the hair pulling and waiting that goes on.
I search and apply for work, I have even gone on a couple of interviews but nothing as of yet and I am watching the bills pile with no hope of helping in paying them. Frustration is setting in more than I want to admit. Uselessness fills my head and I am really beginning to see why some expats get depressed. The waiting, the wondering and the uselessness you feel can really consume you if you let it. I will look every day until I have something and I will be as patient as I can be until I get somewhere with the integration people. I will try to keep my happy mentality and think positively on the whole thing but for the moment I am frustrated and want to bury myself in a whole. Tomorrow will be better… Tomorrow will be better.

Integration, Adaptation, American Expat, Netherlands

While watching the news today something got Dutchie infuriated and I cannot fault her either. It was the new immigration plan to allow undocumented workers in the US prior to January 2007 immediate authorization to work. They would have to pay a five thousand dollar penalty plus the costs of paperwork and processing. There are stipulations about leaving and coming back. There is a process where they work for two years, leave for a year, come back for two years and do it twice more, a points merit system. Heads of households have to go back to their native country within eight years with guarantees of coming back. There are a few different ways to enter according to new policy. It is a 380-page plan so the details are far from all here but there would be a way to make these illegal’s, legal despite the hardships of leaving and paying the fine, which can be paid over time according to CNN.

I, as you are aware, took the legal way to gaining residence to the Netherlands. Rules that I had abide by just so that the IND would give me a pink card. I had to pay the process fees that ended up costing over € 1000, had to make sure I had more than adequate insurance coverage and a place to stay. Dutchie had to make sure that she had a contract with a company either one year or permanent. She had to make a certain amount of money to sponsor me and prove that she could take care of me without government aide. I never took a job from any Dutch person, never asked for money or assistance from the government or any other agency. I landed, let myself be known to the IND and once I got my permit I went and got my tax number, a bank card, I made the appropriate calls to get integration underway and am currently looking for employment. It was a struggle at times to come up with the money; it took a lot of hard work on Dutchies part to gain that permanent contract and financial means to sponsor me. Yet we did it and did it legally. I cannot help but feel that these illegals are being handed something sweet for breaking the law.

There are no legal means for me to bring Dutchie to America legally. There is no job awaiting her and this is not a heterosexual relationship therefore there isn’t a way. Yet people who break the law and hide now given a chance to stay. How is this right? I fully understand that there are people who feel that my relationship is wrong somehow given squat. Whether I like the attitudes and judgments placed upon me and my relationship, I understand they are there. However, even with the judgments and less than equal treatments, I have not done anything wrong. I have not broken the law done absolutely nothing to merit this treatment. I must move away from my home to be happy. Yet someone breaking the law, hiding and taking jobs from Americans are going to be granted access to the country I cannot bring my partner into! Dutchie has done nothing wrong; she has broken no laws and done nothing to be denied the right to enter into the country that screams land of opportunities.

If you break the law, you should be punished, not rewarded. If this goes through it is saying what they did is fine, come on in anyway. Telling them they have to pay a penalty and have to go back now and again is the only punishment I can see and it is a slap on the wrist as far as I am concerned. Every single illegal would be granted rights and privileges allowed under the American law.

Illegals are given this opportunity. This is going to clean up the illegals and bring them from the shadows and into the light according to President Bush, into society and out of hiding and shame. Where is my opportunity? I would be able to care for her, provide for her and without the aid of the government. Where is the opportunity for people who want to come to America the legal way?
If it sounds like I am complaining it is because I am. It is the only way to make enough noise sometimes. It is the only way to be heard. I had to leave my country and if the country were as equal, fair and everything else I was told as a child then I would not have had to leave it. I am an American and I am pissed off because it feels as though being an American gets you squat. People breaking the law are being granted something I would do the legal way. Do not break the law and then expect people to bend over backwards for you to let you stay but that is what is going on. Politicians finding a way to appease the American public and the illegal’s in the country with little success. They are only appeasing the illegal’s. I don’t get it, I simply do not get it. Saying it is ok to be illegal, break the law, we will reward you! I don’t understand, I don’t see any of this working.

Immigration policies, American illegals, American immigration policies, gay rights, illegal immigrant rights, granting access to America

It started Saturday morning when Dutchie got the mail. There it was! The Hilversum seal on a white envelope with my name on it! Dutchie ran upstairs screaming it’s here, it’s here! Are you kidding me? Don’t play with me was the first thing out of my mouth. I grabbed the envelope and read the contents. I was picking up my permit on Monday! We jumped around our kitchen like a bunch of school girls! The wait was finally coming to an end! My Dutch residence permit just two days away from my finger tips! Well, two days can be a really long time! Dutchie is sick so we didn’t do much this weekend which made the weekend go by just a tad slower. Not an issue mind you, tending to Dutchie is never something I mind doing. We raced the weekend away with Burnout Revenge and watched movies while Dutchie attempted to get better.
Now Monday morning and Dutchie is getting ready for work while I tend to a few things around the house. My nerves are killing me! The suspense was so much; like an intense movie that has you on the edge of your seat the entire time! Dutchie leaves and it is only 20 minutes to 8. The office doesn’t open until 8:30. I get in the shower and get dressed. Soak the dishes, take out the trash and start a load of laundry. It’s now 8:35. Time to go!
The walk there was filled with Evanescence screaming in my ear and a cigarette I had steamed at some point. Just a ten minute walk and I was there. That’s when you take a number and wait your turn. They ding a number and direct you to a booth, ding after ding. You wait, and wait, listening for the ding that means you are up. It seems like an hour but really it has only been minutes. Then while looking at the screen that reads off numbers and tells you what you can do in Hilversum my number pops up! Booth four, it’s the moment Dutchie and I have been waiting for months now. I walk up and hand her the letter I received on Saturday. She looks my name up, checks my passport and tells me to sign here. I sign and she hands me my permit. Have a good day ma’am. That was it! The suspense, the waiting, the dings and that was it!
I now sit here looking at my permit. The permit I applied for in October, the permit Dutchie have been wanting since my first trip to Holland and the decision was made that I would live here. The entire walk home I kept thinking ‘Oh my God’ with not much else getting in my brain. Oh my God was all I could come up with. Once I hit my street I thought about making a cup of coffee and turning on the scanner but the ‘Oh my God’ kept running in my head like a broken record.
What does this mean to me, to Dutchie? This means I have a resume (CV) to write, applications to fill out and wait for them to send me information on my integration courses. I can finally work! I can finally contribute to the house and our family! I will now be a contributing member of society once again! The feeling is overwhelming and surreal. It has finally happened and I sit here excited, a little scared and silent as I process all this in my brain and try to push out the ‘Oh my God’.
I know it will be a different process than when I was in the US. I am a little scared and nerved at the process before me but also I am excited, I feel liberated somehow. I have so much ahead of me now and I look forward to all of it, even if I am a little scared, it is worth it all. The wait has been worth it. I have my permit finally! Holland here I come!

Dutch Residence Permits, living abroad, Netherlands, Expats, Immigration, Integration, Nederland

I sit here this morning after checking my mail a little dejected and impatient. February 21^st was the day I received a letter stating I was granted residence in the Netherlands. From there I was going to have to wait four to six weeks to actually receive the permit that would allow me to go out into the work force and do all the things that other Dutchies do. This is week six and my lack of patience is getting the better of me I fear.
When Dutchie and I applied for my residence permit back in October we were informed it had to be within three months of me landing in the Netherlands. We then spent nearly two hours in the office filling out paperwork and handing in nearly nine hundred euro for this. After that we were informed I did not have the proper paper work stating my single status in the US and was denied. Big scare at that moment; finding out they were denying my request because the paper work was in the mail and not quite at their desk, really scary. We objected to the decision because they did receive the one piece of paper that proved I was never married it just got there the day after they sent the rejection. I believe it was three weeks that Dutchie and I held our breaths and threw up prayers that the Dutch government would see what had happened and give me my permit.
The sweet sound of jubilation! February 21^st was such a happy day! I called Dutchie to read the letter and then called up my parents and emailed everyone I could think of. I was getting my permit, my objection was valid! I cried to Dutchie and I cried to my father, I think I simply fell down and cried on the floor. Three weeks after they said I wouldn’t be able to stay with Dutchie I was granted my permit! Hip, hip hurray! We waited while they processed me, we waited for all the paper work to come in and be accepted and waited while they reviewed my objection. Now we wait for it to actually get here.
I know they have to make a new sofi number for me, the same as a social security number, plus there has to be a file for me when it comes to taxes and all that but I never thought four to six weeks would take so long! I had patience and happy thoughts throughout the entire process that Dutchie and I went through, I even tried to think positive when we were rejected thinking that if we just object they will see. And they did see. But now I have this itch to get into society already, get a job and do all the things I once did in America. I cannot do much of anything without a sofi number and so I wait. Maybe it is because I KNOW its coming and therefore the patience I once had has completely flown out of the window for spring break.
I imagine that the process would be just as frustrating if it were taking place in America or anywhere else for that matter so there isn’t any need to curse the Dutch government, they are doing their job and have their hands full with a lot of people just like me and others who are in worse situations. I get that. My impatience is talking when I gripe about time and waiting… like I am doing now.
I will call them on Tuesday to see what is up if I don’t get it this week. Best I can do. Patience; I need to find patience.

Dutch IND, residence permits, American Expat, Dutch permits

In Tilburg Netherlands Mayor Ruud Vreeman has been quoted as saying that imam Ahmed Salam ‘doesn’t belong here’. Imam Ahmed Salam, originally from Syria, has a reputation for being controversial in his sermons, telling the congregation to not pay taxes and other such things to bring aggravation to the Dutch state. While there isn’t much that can be done since the Netherlands hold the right of religious freedom in such high regard the Mayor has had police keeping a close eye on the family as well as the mosque, social services and tax authorities have been informed of the statement and are also keeping close watch.
He is just one of several conservative imams who have been under investigation with the government and several of them have been deported. It is why conservative (VVD) MP Henk Kamp is proposing that hindering integration deliberately be made a criminal offence. With religious freedoms as they are now there isn’t much to do on talk alone. While Imam Ahmed Salam hasn’t done anything wrong other than aggravate he is starting to cross a line and what MP Kemp would like is to see that if imams hinder with the integration process by such sermons should be punished. Have their nationality stripped and/or have the mosque shut down.
In recent months there has been talk about Wilders and his issue with dual nationality, his stance on Islam and integration are well known throughout Holland. It has been seen in the streets how people are reacting to all the news with more glares to Muslim men and women; it can be heard in how people are feeling. The tension between the two cultures is real and growing. Should there be this certain amount of adaptation or should they be left to their own devices once coming here?
While it is all over Europe the countries that seem to be most affected by the issue are here in Holland, England and France. Why? What is it about these particular nations that immigration and integration have made it to center stage time and time again? Is it pride, arrogance or simply the fear of being lost in a sea of identities that comes in? Making it a crime for an individual or organization to hinder the integration of another is just another step being attempted in order to assure integration into society already stretching thin. People crave the very borders they hate. Holland is a country of tolerance and acceptance. It tries to uphold the true meaning of freedom and expression by bending backwards for everyone and sometimes falling in the process. Is there a way to appease everyone? While they mean well it seems that many feel it goes on too far. Yet what is too far is up in the air and in the newspapers weekly.
Will MP Kemp get the law passed through and will it help with the process of integration they seek to protect? Tensions are rising and soon the water will boil. There has to be a place where tension eases and people can stop wondering about immigration and integration during their morning coffee. With talks of dual nationality and loyalty, allowing applicants to apply only once for a residence and now a law to make it a crime to discourage integration is on everyone’s mind and yet hating it all the same. MP Kemp hopes it will be a step in the right direction to easing all this unrest; a direction in which to follow or maybe simply a balance to stand on for now.

Articles can be found here, and here.

integration, immigration, MP Henk Kemp, Netherlands, thwarting integration, expats

The act of adapting; it’s a hard concept to grasp for many and it is an issue no matter where you are. Expats have a reputation for being unable to adapt to the surroundings they find themselves in. Immigration and integration are issues so many countries face and have found the very topic in main stream news. In the US President Bush wanted to put into practice the Guest Worker Program enabling immigrants to stay in the country legally while also contributing to society. However much as I or anyone else likes the idea of slowing the influx of illegal’s into the country with this program it doesn’t solve the underlying issues that most Americans have. It isn’t just the fact that they are illegal, it is that they will not adapt to the country and its people they find themselves in.
I can recall while living in America the increase of Spanish all around me. While the country is English speaking I still had to press one or press two on the telephone if I wanted English when making a phone call to a company. Pamphlets at the doctors were becoming bilingual just as menus and job requirements. It was becoming increasingly necessary for you as the applicant to speak both to work in certain areas of the country or particular jobs.
It boils down to the country in question not wanting to lose its identity to a class of people coming in. It can be the language that identifies its people, music, food, dance, literature and the list can go on. If something is being compromised then it becomes an issue to the native as they feel their culture is being compromised or ‘tainted’. It isn’t any different in the EU. Some European nations have constant arguments over immigrants coming over aren’t adapting to their culture but expect the native to find room in their lives to have the immigrant comfortable. In recent months in the UK and the Netherlands the Islamic burqa and veils covering the face have come under considerable fire and a ‘burqa ban’ has been desired in both countries. Several reasons for the ban on the burqa range from security to rudeness and the simple fact that in western cultures it is not done and it is felt that by moving to the country you must adapt to a certain extent. It isn’t the religion itself that is being banned however European countries are at constant struggles with its citizens and the Muslims that come into the country. They simply want to see the face they speak with, have an ability to see expressions and get to know the person and not a piece of cloth.
Arabic channels are becoming more popular just as Spanish channels are more available in America. The networks feel that they should give these stations to appease the immigrants coming in and adapting to their needs. Many individuals see this as a sign that the people coming into their country won’t accept the language and culture they move to and instead want to bring their country to their new home. Recently in Expatica news they mentioned that the General Programming Board (APR) is considering replacing Dutch channel rtl7 with an Arabic speaking channel. Due to the large number of Arabic speaking people in Amsterdam and its surrounding areas they want to replace the failing station with one that would better serve its viewers. It would be part of the standard package in the area and thus covering the Media Act where there has to be diverse material in its programs.
Within each country there is a culture within itself and its people want their cultural identity preserved. When people come to another country speaking another language and identifying with an all together different cultural setting should they be made to speak the language and adapt to its new surroundings they knew they were going into? Where is the line of adapting verses losing oneself in the integration process? Being the immigrant myself I find the topic interesting and can look at it from a different perspective than I once did living in the US.
My Dutch is by no means perfect. I can say ‘Mag ik een kop koffie’ or say een, twee, drie of vier. I get around at the store, can read some basic child like level and my understanding of hearing gets better as my vocabulary gets better. I have to learn Dutch. Not because the government mandates it for residents who only have a permit here but because that is the culture I have moved to. It would make my life immensely easier if I could understand and mingle in the language I am surrounded in daily. The Dutch government only requires citizens to speak Dutch. Individuals living here on a temporary basis or individuals living permanently but with only a permit are not required. Regardless, why should I as the immigrant ask the people around me to adapt to me when I moved to their country? I don’t feel it is their obligation to make my life easier. I will take my integration classes and find my niche in Dutch society. Will I lose a part of my own self or the culture I came from in the process? It is something I ponder but feel that if something particular is important to me and I don’t wish to lose it then I will keep it within my own home and personal space. Sure I have those ‘American’ things in me, I can’t help it I am American but I don’t feel it is right to take those things and force others to endure it or tolerate it simply because I am here.
I have never had issue with the immigrants in the country of my birth. They want their Spanish delis and the music of their culture, kudos I say! But to ask if I can speak Spanish in English speaking nation is another. If you do it in your native land can you still do it once you move? If we do something here that is alien to you or your native land forbid it, does that give you the right to judge it? What is proper integration and who decides what is best for the immigrant as well as the native? These constant questions that go round and round all over the world; what is the right answer when it comes to immigration and integration? My opinion or anyone else is simply that, an opinion. Yet the growing presence of the topic gives way to talks, political decisions, opinions and cries from both sides of the fence. It has gone on and will continue to go on. It is how societies evolve; it is how the world goes on. A constant blending of one culture to another whether it is liked or not.

American Expat, Netherlands, Immigration, Integration

I was reading the news on NetherlandsNews.net over my morning coffee when I bumped into an article that caught my attention. It was an article written by Bruno Waterfield of the Telegraph, India who writes on a Dutch politician Geert Wilders.

“An anti-immigrant politician is making a meteoric rise with his call on the Dutch — once one of the most tolerant nations in the world — to stop Islam taking over Europe.

Geert Wilders, the 43-year-old leader of the Freedom Party, is convinced that governments are being forced to accommodate a “tsunami of Islamisation” that is fundamentally incompatible with European social value. “Islam itself is the problem. Islam is a violent religion,” he told The Daily Telegraph. “The Prophet Mohammed was a violent man. The Quran is mostly a violent book. We should invest in Muslim people but they have to first get rid of half the Quran and half of their beliefs,” he said.” More

Wilders has been stirring a bit of trouble in the Dutch government on a number of issues, not just this. De Volkskrant (a Dutch newspaper) reports Geert Wilder also has provoked the outrage of a large number of politicians in The Hague with his announcement that he plans to submit a motion of no-confidence against state secretaries Ahmed Aboutaleb and Nebahat Albayrak. Wilders wants to submit the motion on Thursday during the parliamentary debate on the government statement. There isn’t anything that these two individuals have done to deserve this. The government is outraged over his recent conduct as his only basis for this is that they carry dual citizenship, Moroccan and Turkish respectively. He is also unhappy with new Integration Minister Ella Vogelaar as she does not want to ban burqas completely but rather only have them banned in public places and settings where they are dealing with large groups of people face to face…More

I share this because this is an ongoing issue all over Europe, not just the Netherlands. In the UK recently burqas were banned from being worn in public and there has been tension between Muslims and the English on such issues as religion, culture and whether Muslims are trying to dominate the area and force people to conform to them. Here in the Netherlands it isn’t just Wilders who are having issues; he is just the only one making enough noise.

What can be done to quiet the noise that has been going on all across Europe? How do you appease the people who have long called this or that country home while also making Muslims who are fast becoming the fastest spreading religion in the world happy? When you watch the news and see outside your door the unrest that is between the Islamic culture and the western world it makes you uneasy just to talk about it outside your own private rooms. To the average person we see that the Muslims won’t see the western culture for what it is and adapt to it when they come and live in it and the western world sees no reason to bend to accommodate them. Should we accommodate to them? Should they, who have come to us, accept what is and adapt to the environment they moved to? Some even fear that because of the rush of Muslims coming to western countries that those countries will lose their own identity and culture in hopes of not sounding hateful and ignorant and running around trying to find room for them.

A lot of people, while not liking how Wilders is going about it, agree with some of what he has to say and what he is trying to do. It is the same with what goes on in France and in the UK. Measures are being taken to ban burqas and, for a lack of a better word or term, take back their culture they feel is being lost in the constant need to accommodate people who come to their land. It is something constantly being talked about by some and avoided by others but will anything change?

 

Europe, Geert Wilders, UK, Netherlands, Islam, Dual Citizenship, expats

Thursday, it was the 22nd of February; I received a letter from the IND. (Immigratie en Naturalisatiedienst – Immigration and Naturalization Offices) It was the letter I had been waiting for in what seemed like ages upon ages! THE letter that states I will be receiving my residence permit! I wish I could put into words the feeling it gives to know you are now a resident of the country you want to reside in, that you will be a functioning member of society. They now have to make up my file. I get a sofi-number, the Dutch equivalent of a social security number. After they make my file and all that jazz that goes with it my permit will be sent to my town for me to pick it up. I got my letter Thursday so I have to wait a little while longer before I get it in my hands. I want to write on the process that I went through in getting to this point. (A little dry yet helpful in understanding I promise)

First of all there are several forms of residence permits. As in the United States you have options on how to get into the country, Americans call it a residence card or a green card but the concept is the same. Here is a list of reasons one could enter the country of America. Each reason has its own length of time allowed to stay and how much the process costs, for a better idea click here.

• Worker- Priority Workers: scientists, artists etc; Professionals with PhD’s or a Masters Degree; Skilled workers in these cases either you are hired through a company or if you are self employed you have to have a substantial amount of funds to bring into the country.
• Diversity Immigration: they are required to allow a certain amount of individuals of various backgrounds into the country yearly.
• Political Asylum
• Refugee
• Family – Marriage. You can bring siblings, grandparents and parents into the country this way. Under this category you can bring in children you have that are elsewhere.

It is extremely hard to get into the country as a resident if you do not have the funds to get in or a job waiting for you so most opt for marriage for a way in however this is by no means easy either. The Dutch have their own reasons as well though much is the same.

• Asylum
• Marriage or relationship
• Highly skilled migrants
• Self employment: this requires a specific amount of money to enter on these grounds.

There are of course the short term reasons; adoption, visiting family, medical reasons and study in both countries. Most countries have similar requirements and restrictions that need to be met and all one would have to do to find out are look up that particular countries Immigration office. I fell under marriage or relationship though at the moment I am not married. (That comes in September!) My partner sponsored me as a legal partner and under this had to prove without question that I would be taken care of in every way without the assistance of the Dutch Government. Therefore there is a certain amount of money a Dutch person has to make a month in order to sponsor someone. They have to also prove that I would have health insurance when approved; adequate housing must be shown by going to the town and pulling housing records. I as the person being sponsored have to prove that I am not married or legally bound to anyone. As soon as I land in the country (or any country in the EU) I have 90 days before I either have to leave or apply for an extended stay. You also need to pay for this all. The permit and application itself cost us 840 euro. With that and the paperwork we both required we spend over a thousand euro.

I applied in October of 2006, during this time I am NOT allowed to work. In December I received a letter from the IND that I was being rejected on grounds that I did not prove I was single. I had to have the document had to have an Aposille Seal. A seal proving it is legal, the information is valid and from my country. It came in to me the same day I got my rejection letter. They received in the following day. We both then had to object to their decision. Crazy stuff let me tell you. The feeling that you might not be able to stay in the country with the person you love all because of a piece of paper! They then sent us a letter two weeks ago stating they were going to need more time to decide on our objection! I have to tell you its nerve racking! I have already been here since October and was told it would take six months, now they wanted to add an additional six months!

Well I took the information as best I could. What else was there to do? Yet the oddest thing happened on Thursday; I got that letter. I had to translate this letter mind you as my Dutch is not perfect by any means! It took me a few to finally understand that they thought my objection was valid and I was now a legal resident in the Kingdom of the Netherlands! (Yeah, I live in a Kingdom now!) I jumped up and down, I cried, I called my partner first and then let the rest of my family and friends know! I was told it was first going to take six months, and then a year and all it took was four and a half months!

Glee was all I could come up with! This is a recent experience for me and I know there are people like me going through the very same thing or worse. Some aren’t as lucky as I was to have it take only four and a half months. A moment I will surely never forget I promise you! Such a happy day, it showed that all the efforts and money that my partner put into this was validated. Now we both can rest easier at night and now my journey really begins! I am now considered an expat, (expatriate) I live abroad, however you want to call it I am it and loving it!
Netherlands resident, residence permit, green card, expat, living abroad

Netherlands resident, residence permit, green card, expat, living abroad