Following classes I had to go back to the police station in Esbjerg to check on the status of my alien registration. While I was in Copenhagen I discovered I had the wrong stamp after all. So back I went to try and get this resolved. After all, I had now been in Denmark for right at a month and apparently I was still not properly registered. Once to the police station I was directed to a place I had not been in the previous times I had gone. Apparently I had never been to the proper office; in spite of the multiple previous times I had been and the many officers with whom I had spoken and who tried to assist me, it appears I had never been to the proper office.
So I thought I was finally in the right place; turns out I was, but the lady who was helping me during this visit seemed as frustrated as I was. She came back to me several times and said she did not know what was wrong, but there appeared to be an error in my paperwork. After about thirty minutes she finally said that the Danish Immigration Service in Copenhagen had not entered my registration into the database and there was no evidence of my existence. Now I need to flashback here for a moment and give you the back story of this. Long before my departure date for this trip came I sent the application for Danish alien worker residency. Only a few days after I sent the application (complete as I thought it was) I received a phone call from the Danish Immigration Services in Copenhagen; this was at my office in Tahlequah. I was informed that they needed my actual Passport, not just the information and a copy of the photo – but the actual Passport. OK. So, I sent it to them. I was assured I would receive it back as soon as my application was processed. I do not remember the exact date of that conversation but it was during the Spring semester; I did not leave the US until late September.
Along about August, having heard nothing further and beginning to get worried about the status of my Passport I sent a few emails basically asking, “Sup?” It took a few days and some phone calls by the Danish Fulbright Commission but they finally tracked down my Passport: it was still sitting – unprocessed – on the desk of an officer somewhere in the Danish Immigration System. I was told I could pick it up at the airport once I deplaned in Denmark. Ah, but there’s the rub. I was not coming into Denmark via air. I was coming by train, arriving into Dublin, Ireland first and travelling the remainder of the way by rail. I needed my Passport. I made that clear. It took about another week, but I finally got it back.
OK, now you have that back story, so return with me to the present day of still not being properly registered with Danish authorities. The woman who was assisting me in this present situation I believe was as genuinely frustrated as was I. I showed her the previous stamp, the incorrect one (which at this time is approaching three weeks old) to prove that I had tried to do the right thing. She believed me and began making phone call after phone call to Copenhagen to try to get answers. She was finally able to tell me that I had never been entered into the database. Though my application and Passport sat in Copenhagen for over two months I had never been entered into the database. She assured me that she would personally work on the situation and phone the school to let me know when I could come back and get the proper documentation. I thanked her for her efforts and left to go do other business.
No comments:
Post a Comment