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| Inside the Kreisverwaltungsreferat for hopefully the last time. Actually, the view from the front of the building isn't bad. |
Prompted by my upcoming trip to Italy (with the choir, see next post) I finally remembered to pick up my permanent visa... one week before my temporary permit expired near the end of March. We had been told at our January appointment that it would be ready in 4-6 weeks, and I'd made a note on the calendar since they don't send reminders when the visa is ready. Apparently, however, they do send a "PIN" number in the mail for access to the electronic version of your visa (which I still don't quite understand) -- but I didn't get this mailing, which led to my last bit of complication...
March 19, I arrived with everything I though I needed in hand, and went to the waiting area specifically for picking up finished documents. It only took a few minutes until I was called to the next-available county-clerk's office, and I would have been done in only a few more minutes... if I had received in the mail my PIN number for electronic access.
I didn't even know what she was talking about when the clerk asked for my PIN letter, but finally we figured out that I must not have received the mailing. It wasn't the Kreisverwaltungsreferat's fault however! At our apartment building, until I specifically and recently asked for my name to be added, our mail box had only Thomas's last name on it. Thus since my last name was "unknown for this address" the mail was returned. Arg.
Which means I was sent downstairs, to another Wartzone (waiting area) which I think I understood to be specifically for "quick pick-ups"... Anyway, I didn't have to wait too long until the number I'd received from the automatic machine appeared on the screen to tell me in which room to ask for my mail.
Ten minutes or so later, I was carrying my "undeliverable" mail back upstairs to find the previous clerk, for whom luckily I could just knock on her door, instead of waiting again.
The Kreisverwaltungsreferat (countyadministrativeoffice) is all very organized, in good German form, and really I have no complaints about this trip since the mail snafu was not their fault, but our apartment manager's (or, I suppose, mine for having a different last name!).
But now I have the visa in hand. Yahoo. Quest accomplished.
March 19, I arrived with everything I though I needed in hand, and went to the waiting area specifically for picking up finished documents. It only took a few minutes until I was called to the next-available county-clerk's office, and I would have been done in only a few more minutes... if I had received in the mail my PIN number for electronic access.
I didn't even know what she was talking about when the clerk asked for my PIN letter, but finally we figured out that I must not have received the mailing. It wasn't the Kreisverwaltungsreferat's fault however! At our apartment building, until I specifically and recently asked for my name to be added, our mail box had only Thomas's last name on it. Thus since my last name was "unknown for this address" the mail was returned. Arg.
Which means I was sent downstairs, to another Wartzone (waiting area) which I think I understood to be specifically for "quick pick-ups"... Anyway, I didn't have to wait too long until the number I'd received from the automatic machine appeared on the screen to tell me in which room to ask for my mail.
Ten minutes or so later, I was carrying my "undeliverable" mail back upstairs to find the previous clerk, for whom luckily I could just knock on her door, instead of waiting again.
The Kreisverwaltungsreferat (countyadministrativeoffice) is all very organized, in good German form, and really I have no complaints about this trip since the mail snafu was not their fault, but our apartment manager's (or, I suppose, mine for having a different last name!).
But now I have the visa in hand. Yahoo. Quest accomplished.
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