Sure it's been a hectic week. I expected that. Amazingly enough, though, enough things clicked together at the last minute that we actually got the notebook repair program started.
Rocky? Sure.
Frantic? Absolutely.
Am I more calm? Nope.
But it's all relative, isn't it?
The day before St Patrick's Day, I arrived home to find a friendly letter from my local government office indicating that I wasn't actually a legal resident of Germany.
I did what I think anyone would have done, and basically stuffed the letter in my backpack and made a mental note to talk to my manager about it on the following Monday.
Well, we discovered that indeed, I needed to complete this step in the process, but it was merely a formality more so than anything.
Now, the residence visa process in Spain (if you need a refresher, go back to one of my stories from last year) is not particularly easy and fun, but it is rather straightforward: they send you a list of all the stuff you need, you put it all together, then you go down to the office and file all of the stuff with the civil servant, who takes your fingerprint, then tells you to come back in 6 weeks and pick up your ID.
Not in Germany.
I've been running around with a stamped piece of paper clipped to my passport that basically says I can live in this country. Despite the repeated questions I've asked to those responsible for organizing my paperwork, I was always told the same thing: it's all taken care of. However, I never submitted any photos of myself, or some of the things that were required in Spain. (I realize that the two countries are different, but the residence visa requirements tend to be very similar).
My biggest clue that something might not be quite right was the last time I came back into Germany from the UK; the passport control officer spent about 10 minutes with my passport (and attached sheet of paper), then let me through. (note - I asked more questions of my management about this and received the same answer as before: Alles klar)
So, after noting that letter I'd received mentioned that I had to have all of this done by April 1, I got a little jumpy. A colleague here completed a good bit of the documentation, and in one week, everything was compiled. I had my completed forms, proof of employment, housing, health insurance, and two passport photos (left over from when I did this in Spain).
Next step, find a day to go to the office in Frankfurt. I initially wanted to grab a friend to accompany me, but then I reconsidered. Perhaps it would be better to take my colleague who had initially been informed that I hadn't needed to complete this process in the first place. In the event additional discussions would be required, I needed language support.
Thus, Frau Frickel and I planned to go to Frankfurt Wednesday morning to get everything finalized once and for all.
At 8am, we were standing in line at the office, then were given a number and told to wait on the 3rd floor until my number was called.
After 20 minutes or so, we were instructed to go to room 302, so down the hall we walked to the office of the civil servant I was assigned to. Well, it turns out she's cute cute cute. That was an unexpected plus.
The negative came about 30 seconds later when she mentioned that I wasn't legally able to work in Germany, and it wasn't a good thing that I'd been working for, oh, the last 3 months.
Since the conversation was all in German, I missed most of it, but clearly understood the gist of what was being said, so I was immediately freaking out. Claudia, my colleague, was even more panicked. She immediately called the HR manager at Teleplan, and then we contacted the government office in Darmstadt, who had set everything up initially. Then, that clerk spoke with my cute clerk in the Frankfurt office, and ultimately, Darmstadt needed to fax something over to Frankfurt.
Brief as it was, I was still shaky for a few minutes. Then, of all things, the woman indicated that my passport photos weren't sufficient for my German visa, and I'd have to go have new pix taken somewhere. Fortunately, she was pretty nice and suggested that we get the photos at the kiosk next door while she waited for the fax.
Claudia and I headed to the little shop next door, I had my photo taken, we had a couple of ciggy, then returned to the office.
By 10.30, we were all set. All in all, not the worst experience, with the exception being the nervous moments initially.
So, for the second time this year, I'm saying, "At last, I have my German visa."
Back we went to Weiterstadt; I had units arriving for the first time, and my customer was going to visit later in the afternoon.
OK, we only received 5 units on Wednesday, but it was a start. I had the UK on the mobile walking us through everything to ensure that we were on the right track.
I've since spent lots of hours on the mobile with Duncan as we tweak the process, modify system access, etc. Somehow, we continue to joke and laugh as we push through.
My customers arrived and spent Wednesday and Thursday helping, supporting, and encouraging. It's a difficult customer to manage, but they've impressed me in the past couple of days as they spent time on the line with the technicians.
Thursday, we shipped our first three units, and today, we shipped 4 more.
We've officially made the program happen, and I'm pleased.
Sure, my manager already indicated he wanted to extend my contract for a year. He told me that Monday.
Sure, Tuesday evening my estate agent called to tell me that my landlord is planning to sell my apartment in August, so I'm going to have to find someplace else to live.
Sure, there are still silly questions coming from everyone, and my IT support guy was sick again today.
But, I've accomplished what I was hired to do, and I'm just getting started.
My buddy Goran plays a Simonout show tonight, and Arsenal are away to Liverpool on Saturday. The 40+ hours of work that I need to do before Monday will have to wait until later in the weekend.
keep the faith
bryan
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