This is
the fourth and so far last part of the written series "Office
catastrophes in Norway". Sorry for keeping you waiting for so
long, but it was absolutely necessary to keep everything
chronological, and you might have noticed the amount of text that
needed to be produced in order to tell everything as detailed and as
chronological as possible.
If you haven't read the
posts about the reasons for our move to Tromsø / Norway, how
absolutely horrible the local housing market looks like and how
"interesting" our first, second and third experiences in
and with Norwegian offices turned out to be yet, please do so and
read those posts first before continuing to read this fourth part of
"Office catastrophes in Norway". Everything is more or less
connected with each other, and it helps to read those previous posts
first in order to get a better overall picture.
So, let's start
with a short recap about me and my / our background: I am a German
citizen, hence an EU citizen, and a permanent resident of Finland
since 2009. Finland is not only an EU country but also a Nordic
country like Norway. Moving from one Nordic country to another is
supposed to be even easier than moving from a Nordic country to an EU
country which is not a Nordic country. In fact, persons who hold the
citizenship of a Nordic country [Finland, Sweden, Denmark (including
the Faroe Islands), Iceland and Norway] can go directly to
"Skatteetaten" ["The Norwegian Tax Administration"]
in order to be registered as a resident in Norway. The biggest
advantage of that is the fact that the registration is handled right
away. Who is not a Nordic citizen, needs to go to the police first.
This is where the immigration office is located, and getting an
appointment there is a matter of months (!).
Although I still hold a
German passport, everything else is based in Finland, including me
having a Finnish social security number, so I was wondering if I
could be registered directly at "Skatteetaten". Just like
my love who is a citizen of Finland. This thought was also based on
the fact that my love and I are registered as a family in Finland and
that my registration in Norway was based on family immigration.
During my first visit
at "Skatteetaten", it was suggested that I indeed could be
registered directly at "Skatteetaten". The only thing
missing was the presence of my love, so I had to return with him some
other time.
During my second visit
at "Skatteetaten", accompanied by my love, the registration
was carried out and we left "Skatteetaten" happily - until
I made the huge mistake of returning there in order to ask another
question. All of a sudden, it was not possible anymore for me to be
registered directly at "Skatteetaten". I had to book an
appointment at the police / immigration office, so the earliest
possibility to register myself in Norway turned out to be on 16th
October 2015, so two months (!) later. As said, all the details can
be read in the corresponding post.
Part 3 of "Office
catastrophes in Norway" had nothing to do with my registration
in Norway, at least not directly, but with me being excluded from our
rental agreement, leading to me being forced to contact the police /
immigration office prior to the actual appointment for the
registration. Otherwise, there wouldn't have been any contact prior
to the actual appointment. All the details about the email contact
with the lady at the police / immigration office can be read in the
corresponding post.
As a matter of fact, I
nearly had forgotten about that email contact since there were
several weeks between the email contact and the actual appointment
for the registration, and the problem discussed during the email
contact was solved without the "help" of the lady at the
police / immigration office.
So, here we go with the
fourth and so far last part of the written series "Office
catastrophes in Norway" which took place on 16th October 2015 at
the immigration office located in the headquarters of "Troms
politidistrikt" ["Troms police district"] in the
"Politihuset i Tromsø" ["Tromsø police station"].
The by far worst encounter in any kind of office in my life so far!
As said, I nearly had
forgotten about the mentioned email contact. In Norway, everything
prior to the actual appointment for the registration is done
electronically, so usually there is no contact prior to the actual
appointment. One goes to the webpage
of UDI ["Utlendingsdirektoratet" / in English: "The
Norwegian Directorate of Immigration"] and books an appointment
for the registration at the police / immigration office there,
together with the scheme that is applying. In my case, it seemed that
three different schemes seemed to be applicable:
- The registration
scheme for EU/EEA nationals
- Family immigration
with Norwegian or Nordic citizen
and then there was also
a
- Checklist for family
immigration with cohabitant who has a residence permit as a student
in Norway.
When you book an
appointment for the registration, you do it in connection
with the scheme applicable to you and your case, and whatever scheme
applies to you and your case, it always comes with a checklist which
tells you what to bring with you to the appointment for the
registration. In fact, you also have to print out that checklist and
bring it to the appointment for the registration so that the person
handling your application will know what you are supposed to bring.
So, prior to the appointment for the registration, everything is done
electronically, and during the appointment, you will hand in a
checklist so that the person handling your application will know what
you are supposed to hand it, yet the appointment itself is going to
take place over two months later.
You might argue that we
arrived at the same time as many other international students - BUT:
Tromsø has currently around 70 000 inhabitants. In 2009, I moved
from Hamburg / Germany to Helsinki, the capital of Finland, which had
around 580 000 inhabitants at that time and a much bigger flow of
international students at the time of my registration in Finland, yet
the registration was a matter of few weeks, without having everything
digitalised and the customers bringing any checklists for the actual
employees.
The scheme I
chose was by the way the "Registration scheme for EU/EEA
nationals" as it seemed to be the by far most reasonable one to be
applicable to me and my case. First of all, I am an EU citizen
myself, independent from my love and our family status. Second of
all, when choosing the "Registration scheme for EU/EEA
nationals", there is the very possibility of choosing to be a
"Family member of an EU/EEA national". Easy as pie as it
seems, and the documents required in the corresponding checklist were
gathered and prepared in good time. Also, the other two schemes /
checklists included a questionnaire whose questions seemed to be
quite "out of place" in a case like ours, e.g. "Have
you and the reference person spent time together since you met? If
yes, where and when?" and "How and how often do you and the
reference person have contact with one another?".
But back to the actual
appointment. The appointment was scheduled for 12:45. We arrived well
in advance, at 12:20, and waited in the very quiet lobby at the
"Tromsø police station". At 12:55, my love was wondering
when it was going to be our turn as the appointment was scheduled for
12:45. He went into the office cabin of the immigration office in
order to ask when it was going to be our turn. The lady in the office
claimed that she had called up my name already, so then it was our
turn right away. And what an attitude she had right from the
beginning... My goodness!
Instead of a
greeting like "Good afternoon!", only instant questions
like "Why do you register at the police?" and "What
are you doing in Norway?" came. This is how the whole
conversation started! I replied to the first question just briefly
that I was wondering about the same since I nearly had been
registered directly at "Skatteetaten". Then, as a reply to
the second question, I introduced myself and my case, when she asked
if I was able to solve the problems regarding the rental agreement.
This question reminded me of the email contact prior to this
appointment which I nearly had forgotten about, and this question
also revealed that the lady serving us now was the same lady I had
been in contact with via email before. Well, there was absolutely no
time to think any further about it while confirming that the issue
indeed had been solved, since she asked instantly if I could "please
put forth the 'right' papers; I don't want to go
through all of them". Now here is the thing: All papers I had
gathered and prepared were required and "right" in order to
finally register me in Norway. It also said so in the checklist I had
to print out and bring with me to this appointment.
Despite her being very
unfriendly to us right from the beginning (and we never got to know
why she was obviously so irritated by our mere presence in the first
place), we tried to maintain a friendly appearance. So I kept quiet
and went through the papers while the lady in her 30s was chewing her
bubblegum and sitting in a "Couldn't be buggered!" position
on her chair... An office lady at the police, at the immigration
department... Seriously!?!
And then, a very
familiar question was asked again: "Are you married?" Since
that very question pops up all the time although it's written already
on page 10 in the 135 paged "New in Norway" book that being
cohabitants for more than two years (and intending to continue the
cohabitation) is enough to be seen as a family and therefore enough
to fulfil the requirements for family immigration, I had that very book
with me and showed her the corresponding paragraph.
Instead of
caring, she now started to be extremely rude and to bitch since our
evidence of cohabitation, our common tenancy agreement from Finland,
was in Finnish, and she doesn't understand Finnish. Well, on all the
pages I checked on UDI, especially on the one with the "Registration
scheme for EU/EEA nationals", it did not say anywhere that such
evidence should be officially translated into Norwegian or English. Nowhere. It only says
that the cohabitation should be proved. And putting the heading
"Vuokrasopimus" [Finnish for: "Rental agreement"]
into the Google Translator and checking the dates and the signatures
at the end of the document could have helped to understand the
documentation, if one wanted to understand the documentation at all.
It's not that the documentation was written in Chinese characters or
Cyrillic. But, no, she became increasingly barefaced and arrogant and
seriously talked to me like I was nothing but a worthless piece of
shit. Excuse my French, but it is not possible to describe it in a
more diplomatic way.
And then the
whole situation escalated: My love asked in a total normal, if not
even friendly way if an English translation of our Finnish rental
agreement would be understood by every person who would or could
handle my registration. A very reasonable question, given that it is
not even the case in very international countries such as Germany.
She replied in a total derogative tone - as my love would have been a
retarded idiot [Again, excuse my French] - what he would think: "Are
you kidding me!?! Of course, we understand English, we are here at
the immigration office, please!" My love became speechless with
shock, and for the very first time in my life, I was forced to put
someone loudly in his / her place since I became once and for all fed
up with her excessive arrogance and her obvious "I don't give a s***" attitude. And no-one, really no-one talks that way to my
love who just asked something very reasonable in a polite way.
She became quiet
and clicked around at her computer for around one minute. Then, she
asked my love in Norwegian if he understands Norwegian. Completely
out of context. Otherwise, you seem to be worth nothing in Norway in
her eyes. He confirmed that he understands Norwegian (and so do I,
but I wasn't asked in the first place so I just kept quiet). Silence
again. Then she continued to bitch, saying that my opinions about how
unorganised Norwegian authorities operate weren't "up for
debate", assigning any possible blame to UDI. And then it became
loud again. Since the day I arrived here in Norway, in August 2015,
it is me who has to tell the ladies in the offices how to do their
jobs, every single time I have to deal with Norwegian offices, and
that's what I told the"lady" serving us now. Then, she
started to demand more documents from which I know quite certainly
that she does not need them but just wanted to bully us even more by
requiring them.
First of all, she
wanted the rental agreement to be translated into a language she
understands, so either into Norwegian or English, and Swedish would
have been - according to her - ok, too. However, she could not
specify what a "proper" translation would be and in what
country the translation needed to be done. From my love, she wanted a
documentation of his income in order to prove that he could support
me financially. However, she could not specify how that kind of
documentation should look like and how long that documentation should
date back. When my love asked her if bank statements since our move
to Norway - so bank statements from the past two months - would be
sufficient enough, she just nodded in an insecure way. She gave him a
piece of paper in Norwegian [I guess that's why she asked him about
his Norwegian language skills before], stating that it was "the
Norwegian law".
She did not specify the
exact source of the printout and continued to talk exclusively to my
love although it was my appointment and he was more or less just
accompanying me. Moreover, she photocopied his ID, making us wonder
if this appointment even could have taken place without his presence,
and stated that I should rather search for a job and not register on
the basis of family immigration in Norway, "I just want to help
you!".
We were dismissed with
the assignment to hand in the additional papers. Neither did the
printout of the "Norwegian law" answer or even refer to any
of the questions asked before nor were we told a date until
which we were supposed to hand in the "missing" documents. Furthermore,
she refused to keep the colour copy of my passport which was stamped
and signed by "Skatteetaten" and supposed to speed up the
process for my registration at the police / immigration office.
There was no "Goodbye!",
"Thank you" or any other formality when we were dismissed,
so it pretty much ended the same way as it started. And while
leaving, I heard her calling up the name of the next customer, so
quiet and unconcerned that I did not wonder anymore how we could miss
her calling up my name before.
First of all some facts
we figured out later back at home...
1. The printout of the "Norwegian law" was nothing else but a circular letter for the
employees working for the Norwegian authorities from the year 2010, and the additional documents she
started to ask for were a mix of the three different schemes and
checklists applicable to me and my case, not following any of those
schemes and checklists accurately. So quite clearly, she did not know
herself what she was doing or supposed to do, not at all, so she just
clicked around at her computer and printed out something very
randomly and also just 1 1/2 pages of those parts suiting her the
best. Parts of a circular letter from the year 2010 for the employees
working for the Norwegian authorities. In Norwegian. The fact that I
obviously knew better what I was supposed to hand in, thanks to the
attached checklist, made her furious. Quite obviously. One friend of mine
asked me in all seriousness if it maybe wasn't just mere
unprofessionalism and pure incompetence that made her act like this,
but also a general hatred against immigrants. To be honest, we had the same impression, to say the least.
2. After some
more research, I found something about translations on the webpage of
UDI (However, not on the page with the "Registration scheme for
EU/EEA nationals"). A page the lady at the police / immigration
office should be way more familiar with than we are and hence should
have found in no time. It states quite clearly that documents such as
our Finnish rental agreement should be handed in in its original form,
so in Finnish, and also as a certified translation into Norwegian or
English if the original is in a language other than Norwegian,
English, French or German. According to that, a translation into
Swedish is not valid, even if the lady at the police / immigration
office stated so, and she would have needed to process
documents in French and German even if she herself does not
understand those languages, as it is not up to her personal language
skills whether documents can be accepted or not. It is up to the
rules of UDI and not to the personal language skills of single
employees.
3. As for the
documentation of my love being able to support me financially: It
says in the very newsletter quite clearly that a piece of paper
written by my love would be sufficient enough as such documentation.
He just needs to state with one, two lines that he can support me
financially. That's it. Even the effort to provide bank statements
from the past two months wouldn't be necessary. This is probably the
reason why she just nodded in an insecure way when my love asked her
how the documentation should look like and if bank statements from
the past two months would be sufficient enough. Otherwise, he could
and would have written his statement on the spot. But that was maybe
not what she wanted after all, I suppose.
We were once again
extremely shocked to see how excessively arrogant, ignorant, lazy and
unprofessional the ladies in the offices here in Norway act,
especially in the offices of highly official institutions. After all,
Norway is a country of good reputation. One of the highly praised
Nordic countries. Well, neither in Finland (where I had lived the
past six years) nor in Germany (where I am originally from) have I
ever faced such catastrophic conditions in any kind of offices as
here in Norway. As sad as it is. The "I don't give a s***"
attitude overall is as surprising as the tone which is anything but
friendly. Me and my love (who was rather coincidentally with me when it all
happened) had a lot of time to reflect about the whole event. Family,
friends and acquaintances both in Norway and abroad (Finland, Sweden,
Germany et cetera) have been informed about the event, and sadly,
those living here in Norway haven't had anything flattering to say
about the "Norwegian office culture" either. We still
cannot believe what happened and we are still at a loss for words.
Coincidentally, I
stumbled on two German-speaking blogs in the meantime whose contents
about living in Tromsø sound partly very similar to our own
experiences. One of the bloggers moved back to Germany, the other
blogger moved back to the previous location Sweden,
dedicating the very first post on living in Norway to the failed UDI registration. Surprise, surprise.
I know that I stated in
the post written on the same weekend that our new life here in Tromsø is actually quite wonderful, 95% of the time, and that only 5% are
seriously catastrophic, mainly due to those "office
catastrophes". I'm afraid that I meanwhile have to revise that
statement. Ever since that fourth "office catastrophe"
(which led to this written series in the first place) and some other
small things which happened afterwards, my view on Norway and living
in Norway has changed a lot. I won't go into details since this post has become very long already. And very
soon, there are going to be some news anyway. All I can say for now
is that I'm absolutely not impressed by the life here in Norway and
that I would definitely rank living in Tromsø / Norway below all the
other places I have lived in so far, namely Hamburg / Germany,
Helsinki / Finland and Turku / Finland. In fact, I meanwhile
reached the point where I'm seriously asking myself if moving to e.g.
Denmark wouldn't have been a better choice than moving to Norway. For
many reasons.
Sweet memories:
New Year's Eve 2008 / 2009 in Denmark's capital Copenhagen
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