German Bureaucracy
Even though I'm an EU resident and so am entitled to automatic residency, I still had to (in 1999) have the infamous "Aufenthaltserlebnis" - the green card that says I, as an alien, am entitled to live here.

After 5 years, my green card expires. I have to go to the Ausländeramt (local immigration office) and renew it. I'm about to go in when the woman comes out and locks the door, and goes for her coffee-break, which takes an hour. When I finally get served, she dismisses me, saying that I should have a letter from my landlord.

My girlfriend writes a letter stating that I'm living with her in her flat. I go back and see the beamter. She takes one look at the letter and starts screaming that she's never been so insulted in her life. She prints out something from their website and shoves it under my nose, then rips it up and throws it in the bin before I can read it - which makes me suspicious. I'm sent away with no green card and a flea in my ear.

Next time, I take my girlfriend, but Frau Arschloch is not there - she's on holiday (or an extra-long coffee break) so we see Frau Katzenliebhaber, who has pictures of kittens all over her office. Frau K grants me a temporary green card until May the next year. After May I don't have to have a card. Frau A was wrong, I'm told.

In May, off we go again. Oh shit, it's Frau A again. Except this time, Frau A. can't be nicer, and prints out my EU exemption, and we're out of there in about a minute. I think she was on a warning or something.

Time taken : eight months of laziness on the part of one small-minded racist Beamter.

Hackney fuckin' council ain't even in the same league.
( Stevedix http://www.stevedix.de/blog, Thu 26 Jul 2007, 14:24, Reply)