Residency Card

At last I can sit back and wait. As of yesterday I finally finished searching out, gathering, collecting, fetching, filling in and out, and completing ALL forms for my tarjeta de residencía.

Let me take you back through the process. It all started when I applied for a visa. See to live here, one needs a visa. So I collected my documents from the police, proved the health insurance, filled in and out several hundred pages of questiones about my mother's birth and why my father has a moustache, had some passport-sized photos taken, got some legal documents from Spain, wrote an essay on illegal immigration from Morrocco and why we should be using alternative fuel sources, and last but not least took a breathalizer. I think there were a few more hoops to jump through but I can't remember them. Once I placed all of these documents and results in a neat folder I boarded a train and went to Chicago where I handed them in between the hours of 9 am and 2 pm. Not before, not after. "You should recieve your visa in 4 to 6 weeks sir I was told..."

Six weeks later this statement was questioned and a phone call was made. "Oh I am sorry, you are mistaken. The type of visa you applied for takes somewhere around 3 to 4 months. It's the student visas that take 4-6 weeks..."

So I went to Spain and decided I'd just come back whenever it showed up. Well around Thanksgiving it rolled on into town. Chicago that is, and if I could come between the hours of 9 am and 2 pm I could pick it up. A bit of fog in Madrid, an overnight stay in London, a late arrival in Chicago all added up to me showing up there at 3 pm on Friday. "If you could come on Monday sir, between 9 am and 2 pm we would be happy to give it to you."

Three hours there. Three hours back. A headache from listening to too much music. And an official looking visa was finally stamped into my passport the following week...

With that I set off for Spain again. "Once you arrive, please go to the police where they will tell you how to start the process for your residency card..."

Now in Spain: "The first step is to go to the delegacion del gobierno, not the police. They won't know what to do with this. At the delegacion they can tell you what to do. "

Delegacion: "Why yes, we can help you, just fill out this paper, and make sure you have all the following documents. Then call this number and make an appointment."

Me: "Hello I'd like to make an appointment."
Delegacion: "What for?"
"I have a visa and I need to apply for a residency card."
"What sort of residency card?"
"The type where I am just allowed to reside, not work."
"I don't know what you are talking about."
"Look here, at the top of the paper which I was given at the delegacion it says application for residency card with a work exception."
"Why didn't you say that in the first place? You're appointment is January 24th at 12.30."
"You mean January 24th as in a the date that is nearly two months away?"
"Yes, have a nice day."

Two months later and with slightly more confident spanish I roll up for my appointment at 11.45. Better early than late. And am promptly ushered in where I recognize the lady who had given me my instructions two months prior.

Me: "Busy huh"
Her: "Yeah"
Thoughts of why I had to wait two months for my appointment, and then happen to show up find I am alone and they can see me early can't help but run through my head. Maybe people had forgotten about their appointments...

Her: "Oh! We seem to have all your information on the computer. We don't need these papers [that you spent hours collecting from various people and organizations here in Spain] just your passport will do. Sorry about that."
Me: "No problem." I just spent hours on them, no worries, it was good practice collecting various bits of worthless information. Something I have definately benefitted from. One can never be too skilled at collecting paperwork for the government. If you like I could run collect some more papers I have in Madrid and then drop by Hong Kong to get them photocopied if you like...

I was concentrating on remaining amiable when she then mentioned that all I had to do was go up to the fourth floor where they had everything ready for me. Ahhhhh that makes it easier to keep smiling...

Ana is very helpful on the fourth floor. She gave me my papers and told me to NOW go to the police where they will fingerprint me and get me my card. She then met with me three more times the following week or so...

Police: "Is this your correct address?"
Me: "Mmm, what happens if I say no?"

Ana helped me change my address two days later.

Police: "Do you have your letter of authorization?"
Me: "What letter of authorization?" No one thought this was important enough to mention.
Police: "I can't do anything without that letter, everyone needs one."
Me: "I don't suppose you could really and I suppose they do..."

Back at the delegacion I broached the subject with Ana.
Me: "Do you know anything about a letter of auth...?"
Ana: "Yes, would you like one?"
Me: "Yeah that'd be great since it's required." Thanks for telling me about it the first time.
Ana: "Just pop back in next Tuesday and we'll have it."

Next Tuesday I pop in and, small miracle, there is my letter!
Ana: "Here you go, but hang on a few days until the copy we send to the police gets there..."
Me: "I am tired of waiting, I am going to go anyways.¨

Small miracle occurs at police station...
Police: "Do you have your letter?¨
Me: "Yes."
Police: "Passport, authorization, and photos?"
Me: "Yes."
Police: "Okay, come back in 45 days and we should have your card ready, have a nice day."

In 44 days I should have a residency card... That is, if there isn't a list of documents that no one has mentioned yet in order to be able to collect your residency card. Never mind that it will have my photo on it. Forget about connecting the picture of my face with my real face. Not when thirteen forms of identification and a thorough family geneology are readily available to be demanded...