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Paperwork sucks, few will disagree. I will not bore you with every little detail, but suffice to say they kept us busy, mentally as well. We’ve made calls to plots of places, because damn near everyone said something different regarding the whole procedure; the proper way to get a permit to stay in the Netherlands beyond the 3-month limit.
We were very worried that someone would tell us the wrong information about what we should or should not do and consequently get denied their permits because of that. Initially we were told (through the IND website as well) that they were supposed to see the ‘foreigners police’ within 3 days of arrival, but when I called them they said they didn’t have to.
We obtained the permit application forms and proceeded to fill those in to the best of our ability. It was a little confusing at times as some of the questions on it almost felt like trick questions. This was especially the case with the questions regarding our daughter. While my wife took extra care to get papers that gave her permission to take her out of the country ‘n such. The sheer possibility they’d approve my wife, but not our kid was a scary thought.
Once completed, with copies added ‘n stuff, we had to go over to the IND to submit the applications. We expected to be called into a little office where some guy would go over every single entry, but that was not the case. Instead, we just got a number and had to wait for it to be our turn and head to the desk where a young man was sitting at. He then proceeded to go over it briefly, adding numbers and data from the forms into his computer. He asked for a few papers he wanted to make copies of, which he then added to their files. He also wanted recent mugshot photos, which apparently we had overlooked in the forms. He was kind enough to let us go to the nearby market to make some and return with them afterward.
He then pasted a sticker in both their passports which gave them a temporary permit for up to 6 months. (So they don’t have to leave the country while the decision is made if their standard tourist visa expires.) If a decision was not made within those 6 months they’d get a new sticker for 3 additional months, and again if not made in those 3 months they get a final stickers for yet another 3 months. The decision simply has to be made within that time.
So then we played the waiting game once again, but the wait wasn’t as long as we feared. When we got the notices from them, we nervously opened the letters and it said.. approved! w00t! It also said we’d get another notice later to pick up the permit cards, as they were put into the queue to get printed I guess. We got that notice a lil’ while after and headed over to the IND again to pick ‘m up. This process took mere minutes and made them legal to stay for up to a year. They simply have to reapply before that year is up, but that time it won’t cost as much, plus they already got the information they needed, so I’m not too scared about that.
So now that they’re perfectly legal we got my wife a bank account, are applying for an extra income plus checking for additional benefits I can apply for. So there’s still more paperwork to be done, but the scariest part is over.
