There are many new experiences as an exchangestudent but also for the hostfamily. Due to som commincation problems she did not have her residence permit when she arrived in Denmark. And that became our task to take care of.
Meeting the official Denmark seen through the eyes of an foreigner is definitly a new experience for all of us involved. We actually had to make the trip to the policestation twice because she needed a picture ID ie. her passport to apply for the residence permit. Second time we had all the papers ready and drew a number. All my ideas about who has to apply for a permit was confirmed that day. In the 30-40 minutes we waited we saw a roma family, who may or may not have scammed the danish wellfare system a bit, an older danish man and his young asian wife, another danish/asian couple with their au-pair ...who was related to the wife, the middleeastern looking couple - the husband dressed like a dane and the wife dressed in hijab. I felt intrigued and embarrased at the same time. Intrigued becauce it is a part of the danish society I only read about and embarrased because I realized that I do have prejudices about who visits the police station to apply for a permit. I on the other hand welcome them to Denmark - any body who wants to live here are welcome in my book regardless of where they come from or how they ended up here.
When it became our turn it took the lady a long time to check if all the right documents were present only to discover that she needed a copy of the passport. Inside I sighed and thought oh no ... do we have to go out, copy it and wait in line again? Luckily she was able to make a copy right there so another trip back to the police station was avoided. All other items was good and after a few questions, a picture and fingerprints (!!!!) we could leave with the knowlegde that it would take 8 weeks to hear.
6 weeks later I called to check on the status of the application. It took me a while to figure out where to call at first. First I called the "Udlændingestyrelse" and after 4 choices; If you wan to listen to this in english press 1, (waited) "if you are calling about ... they then listed 4 different things like greencard, marriage, and lastly recidence permit press 4, pressed 4, after an additional similar choices I finally reached what I wanted: to learn the status of a recidence permit for students the friendly voice said you have chosen to learn what the status of a recidence permit for students - that is not taken care of in this department, pleace call "Styrelsen for fastholdelse og rekruttering" (board for retention and recruitment). Luckily I only had to go through 3 choices and 30 minutes hold on the phone before a reached an actual human only to get confirmed that yes they have received it and their standard processing time is 8 weeks.
Two days later a letter arrived from smae board. With great anticipation she opened the letter. But alas; they needed more documentation; a better copy of the passport and a consent form signed by both biological parents. Sigh ...
On October 29th she has been here three months so I hope we hear soon if she can stay.
Lessons learned:
- make sure that you always remind your student to bring picture id to any meeting the official Denmark
- make sure you have the list of what papers that are reqiuered to apply and check if all the documents are present
- don't let the police copy anything - you may end up redoing it yourself
- have plenty of time when calling the official Denmark
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