I'm a born and bred Australian citizen, and though I have a German surname, we're really not sure where that comes from, as my grandparents are all born in Australia and my father doesn't know very much about his family. As a result of this, I have an Australian passport. And as a result of this, the last six months have been spent in complete limbo, resulting in a complete change of life-plans and being rather broke, even though I'm technically not broke at all, while I've been trying to set up this life. It's been a tough and long six months trying to get a visa that will allow me to work in Europe, and on Monday, when it finally came my way, I wanted to cry, and scream, and ended up eating an entire wheel of camembert and a packet of Trollis to celebrate.
It all started with attempting to get my English visa - I employed an agency to help me as I didn't want to get anything wrong or file incorrect documents. I'd heard the horror stories, and didn't want to be one of them, so I thought I had done everything right. Unfortunately, the agency I picked didn't ask me the right questions, and as a result, the British consulate are currently accusing me of deception and not handing in the right forms because I was apparently trying to hide certain information. With the British immigration system, there's no room to explain yourself, no room for an 'honest mistake' the first time around at least. And in in this one rejection, which they probably thought about for a total of 30 seconds, my life completely fell apart.
For a week I held myself together, and was proud that I cried only once. I was stuck in Australia at the time, with all my stuff back in the UK, unsure if I would even be able to get back in the country to get it out. My ticket home to London passed me by, and as I couldn't get a refund so did about 500 pounds, and as my performance in my job suffered and my boyfriend waited patiently in Germany for news, hope that I would get my life back was dwindling.
But then some came, in the form of a lawyer who (no shit) thinks I have a pretty strong case to appeal what Britain is currently accusing me of. And he told me that I could work in any other country I could get a visa in. A quick call to the German embassy, and suddenly I was moving there for good.
I was faced with two choices: to wait in Australia and apply there or get to Germany straight away and go through the local authorities. Apparently Frankfurt is easy to deal with as it's a big city. For the record, this information is about as correct as saying a Bavarian doesn't drink beer.
Arriving in Germany, I immediately took my application form to the 'Alien Authorities'. It was the wrong one, and I had to go back with the right one in a week. I did this, and was then asked for my 'registration' in broken English. This is one big lesson I have learnt coming here - NEVER assume people in immigration, in a widely English speaking country, speak English. Anyway, turns out when you move to any town in Germany you need to register as a citizen of sorts, and they give you a present to welcome you. With this done, I returned to the Alien place for the third time, to be told I would receive a letter with an appointment.
Three weeks later, my German flatmates took me to the Alien place for a fourth time to find out why I hadn't received a letter. Turned out they could book an appointment for me on the spot, there was no such said letter. The appointment was booked for over a month away. In all this time I've been unable to work, which has driven me crazy on multiple levels. So when the day finally came, on June 10th, I think it was pretty understandable that I didn't sleep a wink before it thinking, and hoping, and getting anxious, and praying to a God I don't really believe in on occasion.
My appointment lasted about 10 minutes. I've been handed a visa for the time my health insurance lasts, allowing me to work for at least 10 months before I can possibly swap to an ongoing work visa, dependent on my health insurance. All of this could have been avoided if I'd waited in Australia for an extra month, but then I would have missed out on the following things: Travelling to Spain to see the football team I own shares in; finally getting to go to Queens Day in Amsterdam with most of my friends in tow; finding this amazing house near the city; seeing Borussia Dortmund play for the first time; and spending that extra month with my boyfriend.
So there's positives to be taken out of every situation right? I wonder if sometimes we use this as an excuse to feel better about situations that have just been rather shitty. Sometimes there's no reason for them, and when I go back to London for Glasto in a couple of weeks, and have to stand in front of immigration while they are rude to me and judge me again and I have to take it, I'll probably feel like this is another pretty needless shitty situation. But if it weren't for all of those problems, I wouldn't be in Germany now, and overall, whether this is some kind of human need to justify the situation or not, I'm pretty bloody happy right now that it worked out like this.
A tip to Aussies wanting to come here in the future? Apply from home, not here. Save your sanity.
xx
No comments:
Post a Comment