I LOVE BELGIUM!......Or the twists and turns of the Belgium beaurocracy........Or WTF??!

Well, we are well overdue for an update on our residency saga, but frankly I am emotionally exhausted and the shock is only starting to wear off now.  Also, inconveniently, we had no internet for a couple of days (waaahhhhhhh - how did people use to survive without constant access to the outside world?!)

So the big question is: is it possible that 8 weeks worth of work could possibly be accomplished in 8 hours?

The answer, my friends, is YES.

Here's how the whole deal went down..... 

As you know, last Friday we got totally slammed again and given an 8 week wait to get our ID cards. Then, as an accompanying saga to try and collect the car (the one that we have paid for and is sitting in the dealers garage while we rack up huge rental car fees), the alternate, try to get around the ridiculous beaurocracy route, was not quite as simple as had been suggested.  Again, a trip to the licence plate agency with what we thought was all the complete and necessary paperwork, resulted in being told that NON, the invoice for the car was not the correct one, and we needed an additional proof that we were in the process of waiting for our ID cards from the commune.  Sigh... apparently there is a form called an annexe 19 that says we are waiting for our application to be processed. 

So, again, on Tuesday, I make the usual trip to my favourite place in the world. Luckily it is a 5 minute walk from the apartment and it is a sleepy commune and very few queues at the offices.  I politely request an annexe 19. Unfortunately, but of course, we are not allowed an Annexe 19. They are for special people, not plebs like us who come to Belgium on a mere working Visa.  Hmmmm. Ok. But I need proof. PROOF. WHAT CAN YOU GIVE ME???!!  The guy who has again turned unhelpful is shouting at me from the back desk- I said I will call you, I said I will call you.  Nope, I am not leaving without some committment of something tangible. We need this darn car ASAP and a couple of people who do not liking working are not going to stand in my way this time... squeaky wheels and all that.. 

Finally, after some concession, I am allowed to get an annexe 15 which is essentially a proof of address (given that the policeman has already verified that I am legit).  We had already received one of these from the Ixelles commune (which incidentally took a grand total of 1 minute to prepare and was prepared for us on the spot) but that was no longer valid of course. The dude is telling me it will take some time, some time. Yes. Yes. I KNOW everything "takes some time" here. He asks me to come back the next morning. 

My day continues and I feel like things are starting to get back on track...when I get a totally random and out of the blue telephone call at 4pm from Monsieur from the commune. What?!! I didn't even know he worked that late!!! Frankly I am beyond shocked. He is jabbering to  me in french and I am understanding about 1 word in 10. Something about me, birth, Belgium, is it true? Um, yes. I was born in Belgium. That's why it is listed as my birth place on ALL MY DOCUMENTS and my passport. No I wasn't registered. He didn't seem concerned about this. Then more incomprehensible french and something about coming tomorrow morning to get our cards and bring ID photos.  To say I was confused would be an understatement. Did he mean to collect the annexe 15s which I had requested (which also need ID photos)?  He definitely said carte. He definitely did not say annexe 15.  30 minutes later the plot thickens as he calls back again - do I have a marriage certificate and birth certificates? Yes of course. But we have already submitted them to the embassy for the visas (and all the websites say that they are not required with a visa once we get to Belgium anyway). No, no  I must bring them tomorrow morning. 

A little bit of hope flickers in me that somehow, someway, we may be further along the process than I even dare to believe. Of course the fact that Monsieur had had our files in his possession for the last 3.5 weeks and had only just opened them to do the work I had requested at 4pm that day, should not surprise me. But it did appear that he was rather flustered and surprised that I was born here. Maybe I should really be making a big point of this in the future.... it seems to bear some weight in these matters!

Wednesday morning, I am trying not to get my hopes up. Having been far too optimistic in the past, I have learnt to expect the worst in all situations. But I can't help it. I, on the most part, expect things to go well even if all evidence points to the contrary.  I trot off to my favourite place in Belgium for the second morning in a row. Ten minutes after opening, there is a queue of 5 people in the aliens line (yep that's what I am). Monsieur is NOT making eye contact with me. This cannot be a good sign. Finally, it is my turn. He asks me why I am there. Sigh. All sorts of wild thoughts fly through my head, but calmly I say that I have the ID photos and the documents he requested.  Then it becomes clear why he wanted these documents for the file. Passports only state the town of birth, not country, so he had gone onto Google to find these places and according to him I had birthed in NZ, Australia, Canada and USA. Hahahahaha, that really would be something.  After working a while in silence. He gives me the big news. HE HAS OUR ID NUMBERS. Yes I can see them. He shows them to me. OH MY GOODNESS they are so close I can almost touch them.... (So, if I calculate correctly, he obtained them between 4pm and finishing work the night before,probably 5pm,  and/or between his start time, probably 8:30 and 9am this morning. Hmmm. That don't sound like a 3 week process to me?!) Before I can ask, he tells me that no I cannot have them yet, he hasn't had time since 4pm the day before to finish all the paperwork associated with it (I refrained from suggesting that maybe he could have started it a little earlier in the day yesterday, and just nodded agreeably and commiseratively).  I would need to come back tomorrow. Oh and my birth certificate looks like a dog's breakfast so can I please go to the commune in Uccle to get a new one. Yes, before tomorrow. 

Feeling extremely optimistic I scoot home to find the best way to get to Uccle from our place, only to find that it is an hour each way supposedly. It is 10:30am and the kids finish school at 12:10 and must be collected by 12:30pm or no doubt something dire would befall them.  Feeling fairly high levels of stress I grab a copy of my birth certificate (as Monsieur has kept all the originals) and speedily make my way to this new commune, praying that: a) I find my way without a map b) there are no queues c) that it can be done immediately.

It all goes pretty smoothly. The woman is a bit confused about why I would need a new birth certificate, I am not sure I explained it well enough. But she prints out a scrappy tiny piece of paper with my birth details on it and stamps it. That is suffit (enough). I am not convinced but I take it and hightail it as fast as possible back to the school in time for pick up. I have no time for arguments or discussions. 

Later this day, 4pm, hubby gets a call from Monsieur asking him to come to the commune to collect his ID number and card. Phew. I was a little worried, but had not said anything to rock the boat of goodwill we seem to have fallen into, that he was only processing myself and the kids (given my new special status of being born in Belgium). 

As hubby had to work in the morning, we decided that I would go first thing and get mine and the kids paperwork processed and ask very kindly (and with several hints of desperation) for the ID numbers for all of us so we could go the bank before closing time so that we can get our car license plates processed before the weekend. 

Thursday morning, I make the very familiar trek to my favourite place in Belgium, 3rd day in a row. Again a queue, but it moves fast. I hand Monsieur the scrappy piece of paper from the Uccle commune. Perfect, he declares. Seriously? I am no longer capable of comprehending how this country works...! Unfortunately, he tells me now, I cannot get my paperwork processed as it must be done AFTER hubby's as he is the primary visa holder. I just kind of look at him. I make a last ditch plea- please can I have the numbers? I need them today for the bank, car, school, my sick grandmother, my elderly cat etc etc etc. Oh but I was just going to do this for you right now, he states.  Lots of smiles, thank you's, you are the kindest man on the planet sort of exchanges take place and I leave with NATIONAL ID NUMBERS for our whole family. What a sense of achievement!

Hubby manages to cancel some stuff and gets home in time to go to the commune again in the afternoon before it closes at 2pm. We arrive at 12:40 (luckily as there is a sign on the desk saying that Monsieur does not close at 2pm, he in fact closes at 1pm).  What ensues is just beautiful... Monsieur processes all our paperwork, completes the applications, provides us with the temporary attestations for our cards and it is all good humour and happiness all round. It takes an hour. Poor guy is working into his lunch hour and well beyond but at this point we are best buddies.  And there is so much goodwill it is unbelievable. A few minor hiccups along the way (why wouldn't there be? This is Belgium). Apparently, hubby's birth certificate is not valid in Belgium. I had trouble following the reason why but a secondary reason was that it had not been apostilled (we had not got it done as it wasn't required for the work visa). Getting anything out of South africa I am sure, would be a long drawn out nightmare process. Normally, it is not a problem, we are assured by Monsieur, normally (but it could be, being the underlying assumption). Let's hope this does not cause any difficulties. Secondly, apparently our marriage certificate is not valid either! For goodness sakes, why not?!!!!  Well, it does not state that from the date on the marriage certificate, I changed my surname from my maiden name to my married name. I explain that marriage certificates in NZ DO NOT STATE THIS EVER.  Apparently, in Belgium, this is what is required. Normally, I would have to visit the NZ embassy and request an attestation from them that I had changed my surname from the date of the marriage certificate. But, and here is where Monsieur became Monsieur BFF (best friend forever), he is going to overlook this minor detail and accept the legitimacy of the marriage certificate as it stands.  

Here we are - legally resident!

I cannot believe the lucky break we have got- going from an 8 week wait, to getting the numbers processed within an afternoon, and I am extremely grateful that we were not sent on our way to get "acceptable" south african birth certificates and marriage certificates as I don't know that we would have finished this process before christmas if so.... So in the space of a week, despair and despondency has turned to joy and elation. We have numbers, temporary cards, and our car is well on it's way to completing that process (I will write about that saga another day). And our internet has been fixed. Halleluia. It is a good day. Just in time as next week is school holidays and I cannot imagine trying to get all this done with 4 bored, hungry, tired, grumpy kids in tow....

A la prochaine.... xx