Renewal!

I tend not to blog about things that stress me out. I kind of go quiet, and yes it's been a "quiet" couple of months.

Last year, as you may recall, the IND back-dated my pasje (residency permit) to 9 January. They're good for one year, so that would be the renewal date as well.

So one expects to receive from the IND, about three months before the expiration of one's pasje, a letter with renewal instructions. Didn't come. So I called the IND, and they very nonchalantly said, "It happens." So instead, I downloaded the renewal forms from the web, printed, filled out, included the documents that the form instructions asked for to the best of my ability, and sent it off.

Part of "to the best of my ability" is that the form requests a copy of your balance sheet and profit/loss sheets from the previous year (because my permit relies on the fact that I'm here under the Dutch-American Friendship Treaty, which allows Americans to come set up businesses in NL). The previous year would be the year that ends 8 days before my pasje expires. No problem, I use accounting software that can spit out such documents in 2 minutes. The problem arises where the IND wants those documents checked by an independent expert. Ever try to find an accountant who can check over your books yesterday? It's a challenge.

The other part of "to the best of my ability" is that you do not want to drop things on a civil servant's desk a week before they're required to do something about it. Rushing a civil servant usually goes badly. I think that's true in any country. That meant I was trying to produce a balance sheet and profit/loss for a year that wasn't even over, so that I could get it to them at least a month before it was required. Ever try to find an accountant who can check over your books that aren't even closed... yesterday and at the end of the tax year? Again, a challenge.

I ended up creating an year-to-date balance sheet and sending it in around the second week of December. Mind you, Christmas season starts 5 December here, followed by First and Second Christmas, then Old Year's Day and New Year's Day... a whole lot of partying going on. (A whole lot of civil servants on vacation.)

So I got a letter back from IND in early February that I needed to submit the balance sheet and profit/loss, checked by an expert, and that they needed that in two weeks. (Recall that my pasje expired 9 January.) So simultaneous with the searching for an accountant who could check the books was a call to IND for an extension. They granted that, an extra two weeks. That helped dramatically. It also helped that I finally persuaded my friend to call for me. I'd had one accountant (friend of a friend) who decided he didn't have the time. Then another accountant I had a phone conversation with agreed to do it, said he would email me a list of documents that he needed, and then decided he didn't have the time to do it. I emailed a local office and got zero response.

The Dutch speak English, and are very friendly to you in person when you speak English. But over the phone or in email, you must explain that you are American, and even then there's hesitancy. As much as the world has mixed feelings about Americans, the wariness actually stems from the massive scam attempts that people from an English-speaking African country seem to engage in here as a full-time business. So having my Dutch-fluent friend make some phone calls cleared the path to a very nice person from an administratie kantoor (administration office: it's not an accountant, which is an educational title, but it still works--the equivalent of a bookkeeper in the US.) coming over, going through my info on the computer with me and promising to produce my statements in a few days. And he did, and they were lovely and bound in a nice book, and he gave me two copies so I could send one to the IND, and all for less than 100 euro.

Got everything sent in and paid the fee, which is now billed separately by the accounting office instead of passing through the IND but is also lower than it used to be--375 euro vs the old 800 euro--and waited.

And waited.

And... yeah, more of that.

Now, last year, when the person at the IND made her decision to approve my pasje, as you may recall, she sent a lovely letter telling me to wait patiently for the other letter that would tell me when I could come pick up my pasje. This time they skipped that step, which is annoying because it meant there was extra waiting and my friend saying, "Still nothing from the IND?" and other such fun-ness.

But, finally, a letter: "Come pick up your pasje whenever you like."

It's just that simple.