European integration… the Dutch style!

So the European Union is integrating. Great. When I was a kid, I was a real idealist and I believed in European integration, like we’re all one big European family and our national borders and identities are secondary to the larger European purpose. Something like the US but then on the old continent. At school I learnt there were two dimensions to European integration: widening and deepening. Widening stands for geographic integration, literally the widening of the political area called the EU. Deepening on the other hand stands for the increasing intensity of cooperation, covering more areas other than just basic trade, something like now that we have the common currency, in the future we may even have a common foreign policy. Nobody believes it, but that’s the idea.

With my Central European background, I figured widening was the more relevant bit considering my own current situation. After all, the Czech Republic would become member of this European elite club and life would be much easier for all of us in terms of travel, study and work. After six years of residence in the NL I assembled huge piles of documents testifying to my being a decent citizen and allowing me to extend my residence permit, one year at a time. All this would be over in May 2004. Now May 1 used to be celebrated in socialist Czechoslovakia for very different reasons; you know the workers’ day or day of labour or what the official title may be. Since 2004, May 1 will be remembered for another reason: the Czech accession to the EU!

Like every previous year, I sent my papers to the IND (the Dutch immigration office whose poetic name translates literally as the Integration and Naturalisation Service (service?)). I thought this year and all the coming years the procedure would be simpler, after all, we’re now European brothers and sisters, right? I waited and I waited and I paid my fees and I waited and I waited. No sign of a new permit. My permit expired in July and it was already end of August so I waited some more and then made a phone call. I mentioned the 0900 concept with regard to Casema, well, the IND uses it as well. Only their waiting time is like double.

Finally I get a Dutch lady on the line. Hello, … (they’re always so friendly on the phone, I wonder why the whole thing is such a bureaucratic mess nonetheless). I say I’m inquiring about my new permit and I sent them my papers a long time ago and paid my fees and all and there’s no sign of a new permit and I need it for various purposes (like applying for jobs, my most crucial activity lately). She says aha, understood. The whole IND is running far behind their regular schedule and it may take another three months to process my application. Three months? That makes it six months of waiting time altogether, and the silly permit is only valid for a year to begin with, so that means half the time I don’t even have it and by the time I receive it, it’s nearly expired.

So I say what next, I need a proof of legal residence. Aha, the woman says, we’ll get you a stamp in your passport and that should bridge the time until you get your new permit. Okay, I say, how? It turns out I have to travel to Zwolle (another obscure Dutch town, I have never been before). Okay, I say, deal. A few days later I’m on my train to Zwolle, I treat myself on a cup of hot chocolate and the passing landscapes are in fact quite nice. Moreover, after an initial reconnaissance of the town, I find out that Zwolle has one of the biggest Benetton stores in the country, so I buy myself two nice warm woollen jerseys for the winter (a white one and one in chocolate brown) and the whole trip becomes a lot more acceptable with this unexpected catch. Now get the stamp.

The place is easy to find and I get seated behind a counter facing a trendy clerk in jeans and a striped T-shirt, pretty much out of place but then who said the Dutch were keen on formalities. He even fills in my form which I just as well could have been asked to fill in myself, and stamps my passport with this typical male swing. Okay, we’re done, I conclude. Not quite. His last innocent question takes me by surprise: you were not intending to travel abroad the coming months, were you?

I actually was… I have to travel to Italy in October and then again in November. Is that a problem? Well, it turns out the stamp in my passport does not allow me to leave the country, or better (worse, in fact), it doesn’t allow me to return after I once left. Now that is peculiar. I explain to him my train of thoughts: Czech citizens never needed a visa to enter the Netherlands. I could always travel freely with my passport and nobody could stop me. Moreover, on May 1 the Czech Republic joined the EU (hello!? rings any bell?!) which means I can travel double freely now and double bloody nobody can stop me.

Not quite, and here’s why: I have a regular permit to actually live and work in the Netherlands, rather than just visit it as a tourist. So I need proof of my legal residence when I enter the country, and the stamp he just gave me is not good enough for that proof. So I say, can’t you give me another stamp then, now that I travelled all the way here for pretty much nothing (nevermind my Benetton buy)? He says, the stamp you need is only valid for three months so it won’t be valid in November when you need it again. It implies I have to wait a few more weeks, calculate the dates and get the stamp just about in time to cover both my October and my November trip. Great. It all started so nice, one European family. Now you would think I am privileged by having this Dutch residence permit, but no, in practice it only gives me trouble. Why???

I think I’ll just forget this second stamp and see what happens at the airport. My Romanian friend told me the last time she travelled without a valid permit, the immigration officers just laughed and let her go. Even they, it appears, don’t have high regards of the tragically slow procedures. But maybe I change my mind and use the opportunity to visit that huge Benetton store again… :-) The Dutch European dilemma?!