With all of our documents in order and checked twice, we tried for an early Sunday night bedtime. Based on our experiences last time we tried to get an appointment at the Ausländerbehörde (Aliens Authority) we knew that getting there on time wasn't going to cut it. We were going to have to suck it up and get there before opening time.
Opening time on a Monday is 7am. Groan! We got up at 4:30am, had a coffee and left around 5am. We set of into the night.
The Ausländerbehörde is not a direct trip for us, requiring three trains to get there. By 5am the U-Bahn is already running regular services, we had good connections and arrived at our end destination by 5:45am.
We wondered if we were going to be early enough, I'd read reports about people shivering out in the cold from as early as 3am some days! We walked up to the still closed gates and were deflated to see a huge line already assembled.
Surely with a line this long already, we may have missed the chance to get a golden ticket to an unscheduled appointment.
We surveyed the line and took our place at the back feeling like we should have got up earlier.
We weren't really sure how long things were going to take but we were prepared for a long wait. Maybe we would be waiting three hours today? Three hours seemed like a tedious enough goal to be mentally prepared for.
At about 6:20am the guards opened the door and we filed neatly inside to the office courtyard. And then lined up again at another door. This is the one we had been at before.
Office lights started to flicker on in the main building and I wondered what was going on in there. Would we get a chance to get a number and see someone up there. Would they be sympathetic to me or bureaucratic bastards.
The office we were waiting for opened up around 6:45am and everyone happily herded themselves inside.
Last time we were in here everything proceeded painfully slow. Today is was moving really quickly as the officers just asked what the person wanted and then gave them a waiting number. No long winded advice like last time. I had counted about 60 people in front of us. We still thought we wouldn't get the waiting number for an appointment like we had hoped.
Nearing the front of the line we were getting nervous about the tickets running out. Then we heard one of the officers raise her voice to someone and bark at them 'That's your problem, not mine!'. Now we were nervous about her. Naturally we deemed her the hard-ass-bitch and hoped not to be served by her.
We were served by the bitch and she was okay with us. Abrupt but we got a number...woo hoo! First step cleared. We filed outside to another line to the main part of the building. It was daylight now and just after 7am.
We didn't have to wait in this line for long before we could go in. Things seemed to be going really smoothly, about 7:20am and we were already seated in the main waiting room.
Here we sat, watching people go in and out of the magical door 172 in front of the room and next to the number board that we all stared at in a daze. We had the number 96 but no one was getting called sequentially so we had no idea when it was our turn.
Around 8am, still in high spirits and happy we got this far. Taking in the surroundings and checking with each other 'what we would say in the interview'.
About 8:30am there was a bell ringing and a woman appeared out of nowhere with a tea and sandwich trolley. It seemed odd and very amusing. Tiredness was getting to us already.
By 9am almost everyone had gone before us. We watched as they went in room 172, came out looking happy or came out looking very disappointed. a group of Indian guys that we assume were students all seem to get rejected for whatever they came for.
We finally got called in just after 9am. We walked into room 172 and this is a small space with a wooden counter and a glass panel that you speak to the officer through. It reminded me of cop movies when people get sent to jail and this is the area where they hand over their civilian possessions and receive their prison wardrobe.
A lady 'served' us with typical ice cold attitude we have grown accustomed to in this system. I handed over my passport first, said I wanted an extension, pointed to Nordine, this is my wife. 'What do you make here?' she said. We stuck with our rehearsed spiel and said we were looking for work but needed the visa first. She started to demand stuff from us - marriage certificate - yes, both passports - yes, passport photo - yes, finances - yes, health insurance....ummm no about that... We handed over our special letter along with the business card of the person that gave it to us. The lady shrugged and chucked all the papers together, giving the business card back to us. We didn't get a chance to explain anything at all. She told us to go and wait back out in the waiting room again and our number would be called when everything was ready.
We went back to the waiting room. Could it really be this easy?
We waited. We spied on everyone else and got the routine down. They first go into room 172. They come out and wait. Then they get called into another room. Then they come out and pay for whatever they are getting and wait again. Then they get called again, get their visa or whatever and get to go. Oh man, we were only at stage 1 of this parade.
10am came and went.
By 11am everyone that had started in the waiting room with us had come and gone.
At 11:30 we were going loopy with delirium. This is sooooooooooooo boring. We have too much time to think about what is happening with the paperwork. We start fantasising about what they are doing. Does a long time mean good or bad? We work through all possibilities.
At around 11:45am our number finally comes up - report to room 171. We go in and officer Frau Herrgurth immediately greets us with 'What do you make here?'. We stick to the script again, looking for work, want to make a life here, need the permit to make it happen.
She listens to us flippantly and says 'There is a problem. You cannot have the residence permit. You both do not work and you do not have an income. You can have a 6 month permit and come back with a job and we can reassess the residence permit'.
Our hearts immediately sank. This is not how it is supposed to go. We are supposed to have an argument about health insurance, not about getting a job or how much money we have. For a split second we consider the 6 month thing and telepathically decide that there is no way we are going to accept this shit. If we did all our plans will be ruined.
Without skipping a beat (other than that split second) we simultaneously start barking back at the officer. This is too important for us to accept this blindly as an outcome. We protest about the work thing 'Do you think this is going to be a problem?' she said....'YES' we said. And then we protested about the money. We haven't spent the last several years saving and structuring our investments to have this glossed over. She gets the financial papers out and it is clear she hasn't understood what they are. Well they could ASK us!
'But this is in Australian money, do you know what it is in Euros?' she said.
Luckily I had prepared a spreadsheet, clearly detailing savings and income and of course broken into what is means in Australian dollars and Euros and per month - and I had referenced it to the financial information.
The officer got a bit flustered and started to frantically flick through a reference book through these matters. She couldn't find a ruling on this and said she would need to talk to someone. She asked us to wait outside again.
We had a tense time out in the waiting room. Our future was hanging on this decision. We had decided we were not going to accept the 6 month offer at all. We would either demand to speak to someone else or have to come back on our scheduled day and argue it all again.
We waited and waited. It felt like forever. How many people were chiming in to this situation? Why wouldn't anyone just talk to us.
Finally at around 12:30pm we were called back in. We sat down in room 171 and Frau Herrgurth said 'I have two things to tell you. 1. You can have the permit. 2. The computer has broken down so I can't print it right now'.
'Wait' we said, 'By permit do you mean the five year residence and work permit?'.
'Yes' she said, 'But the computer is broken - IT problem. Can you go outside and wait maybe 15 minutes'.
'Okay' we said to our new best friend.
We went and got a breath of air outside in the most beautiful Berlin sunny day we have had so far. We didn't stay out there for long as we didn't want to miss our number getting called again. When we came back inside we saw the number on the board so went back in her office. She looked at us as if to say 'Why are your here'. 'Our number is on the board' I said. She said that was the old number, the computer is still broken. Go and sit down.
We sit down. 15 minutes pass. half an hour pass. Our relief at the favourable decision also passes and we get super bored. I lay down and pretend to sleep. 45 minutes later the number finally comes up. We go back in and she is printing out my visa thing. She gives us a card and asks us to pay 8 Euros as the cash machine. Not really sure what the 8 Euros is for but we do it without question. We were expecting to have an argument about the usual 135 euro visa fee as this is supposed to be waived for spouses of EU citizens.
All paid up we go back to Frau Herrgurth and show our receipt. She hands over the residence visa and we check it over. There it is. Five year validity and full permission to work.
For some reason it is printed on a separate piece of paper and not stuck in my passport like my old one. We double check this and she says that's how it is. We don't argue any further. We thank her profusely, leave the room, embrace each other in a moment of relief and then get out of there!
Its about 1:30pm by the time we leave. 7.75 hours of waiting, worrying and arguing. We were so exhausted but so pleased with the result.
Whatever happened to all that worry about the health insurance. It barely cracked a mention!
No comments:
Post a Comment