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You are here: Home Moving to Country Facts Fighting for the right to stay

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22/07/2003Fighting for the right to stay

Legal at last - Karen Brady describes her arduous quest for a residence permit to stay in the Netherlands.

 
My heart nearly fell through my stomach when the CEO of a small firm outside Amsterdam told me, on my first day of work last year, that I had to go home immediately. I'd hardly finished my first cup of coffee and meeting my new colleagues when he called from his vacation home in France to tell me they did not have a work permit for me, and the company could face massive government fines if I was found working there without one. Of course, he was terribly sorry about everything, but I had to understand their situation. Stunned, I politely smiled to those around me and murmured some good-byes as I struggled to hold back the tears. As an American, I knew I didn't have many options if the company couldn’t arrange a work permit. While waiting for the bus home, I called a close Dutch friend and sobbed as I explained what had just happened. "This is so humiliating. What am I going to do? I can't stay here without a job, maybe I should just go home!" I wailed. "No, you're not going anywhere," he said calmly. "You are going to stay, don't worry." I sniffled, tried to catch my breath and whispered, "I hope so." Contrast that rock-bottom moment with the morning I had recently, 15 months later. My Dutch boyfriend, whom I met three months after the first work-permit debacle, held my hand as we waited in the small, almost empty waiting room of Amstelveen's foreign police office. It felt more like a doctor's office than Amsterdam's intimidating buitenlander (foreigner) operation, with its endless hallway of sinisterly numbered doors and stadium-sized number board. At 9.40am, 10 minutes after our meeting was scheduled, one of the two magic doors opened, and a kind-looking, bearded man invited us into his office. Before I even sat down, I saw the temporary residence visa sticker and the small stack of official paperwork on his desk.
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