Applying for Residence

Well, well… it seems I took a long break from this blog. Sorry about that.

I’ve been to the Netherlands three times since last I wrote (including the trip I was preparing for in my previous post). Dutch Boy has been here twice since then, and is arriving for another visit in two days. On my third trip to Amsterdam I bought my very own bike. My first bike since I was 7 years old, by the way!! It is SUCH a thrill to be able to get yourself around in a foreign city. I love to make plans to meet up with him somewhere after he gets off work, and to be able to get myself there. It’s slightly terrifying learning traffic laws in a new place, especially one where people often seem to take them as mere suggestions. But once you get confident with your own abilities on the bike, and that you can make a strong decision when needed, you can totally have a blast getting around. Here’s a picture of my bike:

And here’s a picture of me having a blast getting around:

Also, since the last post, I’ve acquired the Rosetta Stone series for learning Dutch and it’s so much better than I ever imagined. It’s AWE. SOME. Totally better than learning on your own out of a book. Bit pricey, but totally worth the money if you are serious about learning a language.

I was in Amsterdam for the holidays this year, and after only studying with it for about a week, I already felt my fluency skyrocket, Christmas day with the fam was mostly in Dutch and I understand almost every word. It was exciting!

Other awesome news is that I’ve just started the process of applying for residence. I really wanted, when I started this blog, to be able to be a resource for people attempting to do this very thing- it’s hard to know exactly which steps to take in order to get all the legal ducks in a row. However, I have since realized that I am in no place to try to do this myself. I am hiring a lawyer and would say for anyone who isn’t like the king or queen of legal organization, you might want to consider doing the same. ExpatLaw.nl is a good place to start.

***EDIT: It’s funny how quickly things change, over night I received an email from a fellow ex-Seattleite who has moved to the Netherlands, and I am getting the feeling that I can in fact do this myself. PLEASE STAY TUNED for new posted detailing the process!***

What I do know is that I need to apply for residence but do NOT need to apply for an mvv (visa), because I’m from the USA- I honestly don’t know what the technical difference is between an mvv and a residence permit, but for people from some countries, both are required- not for me, however. The application for residency has to do with under which “reason” I am going to be living there (family formation, education, or work).

I’m going to be with my partner, which requires he be able to show that he can financially support me (paystubs and work contract required as evidence).

I’m told the application can take between 2-6 months to be approved, and upon approval you have six months in which you may move into the country. Most people probably go immediately, as soon as they are approved. I do not know how long you are allowed to live there, if there’s a time limit, etc. That’s one of the next things I need to ask about, actually.

Will keep y’all posted.

Hope this little update is of some use. I’m REALLY excited to be applying for residency. I’m still thrilled at the prospect of becoming Dutch.

Amsterdam trip No. 2 (and a book recommendation)

I was planning a trip to Amsterdam toward the end of April, but had to ask myself- why am I waiting? I want to be there now, and I am able to take the time away sooner than that so… shouldn’t I just go if I can? So, I’m going to be going on my second trip to Amsterdam in a few weeks and I am super-excited! (The very idea of riding around town on the back of Dutch Boy’s bike again is pretty endearing…) I hope to explore the city even more on my own this time, and we will also be venturing out of the city quite a few times.

I will be meeting his parents and brother for the first time- Hurray! (“Hoera!” as they say.) Of course everyone speaks English there, but I am extremely into learning languages and have never quite become fluent in any other than my native tongue of English, so this is my big chance His parents are quite a lot older and I’d love to someday have a conversation in Dutch with them to take the pressure off them trying to speak English with me. His brother is an English teacher and I am sure that as soon as we meet I’ll get to ask him my pressing grammar questions. So far, I’m self-teaching with a pretty good book called Beginner’s Dutch by Gerdi Quist and Dennis Strik. I recommend it if you can’t get into a class or get a private teacher. It’s quite basic when it comes to teaching the grammatical elements of the language- I really think that any person with no experience with grammatical terminology (even from the basics of “noun, adjective” etc., to subject/object differentiation) could follow this book very easily. That said, it is also not too basic for me, even though I have plenty of experience with language study, including German, which has a very similar grammatical structure as Dutch. It’s a terrific start for building my vocabulary with practical words and phrases to know for everyday life.

My only gripe would be that apparently this book can, in some places, be purchased with a CD with which you can listen along to certain exercises. I bought my copy at Barnes & Noble and they didn’t have any copies with a CD nor did I even know, when purchasing the book there, that a CD-version was an option. (I think B & N itself didn’t know when they put this book on the shelf, and that bothers me.) It only does so much good to read and write in another language. Listening is key to pronunciation and conversation abilities. Luckily, I will have real, live Dutch people to listen to in a few weeks.

So happy to have moved trip number 2 up!!

An article by someone else about making the move…

Here is an article I found when I googled some combination of words about ‘moving to the Netherlands.’ I found it enjoyable, and am happy to provide it for all y’all’s reading pleasure:

“Pipe Dreams” from Seattle’s alternative paper, The Stranger.

I want to be Dutch.

I am sure this already exists: A blog about someone’s journey to become a citizen of another country, and probably even specifically- becoming a Dutch citizen. While I think part of my own such journey will be to dig pretty deep for just these kinds of blogs, I haven’t dug deep yet, so I apologize to the entire ‘blogosphere’ if this seems redundant to anyone.

There is a huge back-story behind why I’m planning on becoming Dutch, but to keep it simple for an intro, let me just give you the technical reason- it’s what’s known as Partner Reuinification. My love lives there, and I live on the west coast in the US. I’m keeping things kind of anonymous for starters (I will refer mostly to my love as “Dutch Boy”), because it’s kind of a complicated time for me and I feel that this blog will not really benefit toward its purpose with specifics of who I am and how I got where I am at this point in my life. Don’t take that as a vow to be impersonal and boring! Far from it, I have so much to say about why a person’s heart might decide it wants to be able to claim citizenship in a country like the Netherlands. I think it’ll be an enjoyable read, so I hope you’ll stick around.

This will be a long journey, possibly up to 7 years long. Someone in my circumstance cannot obtain citizenship in less than 3 years, and from what I’ve read, it could take up to 5- and that’s from within a living situation where you and your Dutch partner are under the same roof for at least 6 months out of the year. Mine and I will not be in that situation for at least another year, probably a year and a half. For once, I had the foresight to consider starting to detail the long journey from the beginning of it instead of trying to recollect it after the fact.

So, stay tuned for tales of learning the Dutch language, fun trips to Holland, and eventually- details of what a move overseas looks like, and the naturalization process!