What a year!
Even as recently as six months ago I never would have imagined that today I’d be writing a post from Kleve Germany, mere days from moving into a new rental home located between Didam and Zevenaar Netherlands. Somehow, Ann and I have pulled off a migration from Portugal to The Netherlands in just under 4 months. From start to finish. Our request for a consult with our Dutch immigration attorney was sent on September 4 and here we are, December 30 as I write this (ok, I finished on December 31). And we’ve been here in Kleve for almost 2 weeks. We’re not completely through the immigration process yet, but it’s going to happen and I’ve got permission (via a stamp in my passport) to work in The Netherlands so . . . .
Where to begin . . .? The bimobil is perhaps as good a place as any, because it is the motivation for us to undertake such drastic and blood-pressure-raising action. Plus, the bimobil is something that fills Ann and I with hope (and positivity) and inspiration that this will all be worth it. Positivity has been hard to come by this year.
I guess the hiccup in picking up the bimobil was the first indication of things to come. We knew there would be bureaucratic hoops to jump through to get the bimobil registered in Portugal, but as part of the EU it was supposed to be possible. As part of all of that, we also needed to exchange our US drivers licenses for Portugal drivers licenses. We started the process nearly a year before we were required to. Since we wanted a class “C” license (common in the US and necessary to drive the bimobil) and Portugal generally only issues a class “B” license, Ann and I had to jump through some extra hoops (to include a psychological and reaction examination). No problem and certainly understandable. After sitting on our application for 5 months, Portugal decided in March that they were ready to issue our license, three weeks before we were supposed to pick up the bimobil. They took away our Oregon class “C” licenses and gave us . . . a paper license, valid only in Portugal, and for a class “B” vehicle. The full drivers license would arrive . . . “later” . . . and “might” be a Class C (surprise, surprise, when it arrived in October, it wasn’t). We had to scramble and drop our plans to ship a minimum amount of goods to bimobil so we could take a leisurely drive back from Germany through France and Spain in our new rig. Instead, we flew to Munich, checked it out, signed off on it and arranged to have it shipped from Germany to Portugal.
That, of course, interfered with our plans to return to the US for a trip. In the end, we decided that Ann should go home to see her aging mom (the right call given the circumstances) while I stayed in Portugal to receive the vehicle and get it registered (something I’m still angry about when I think about it). See, by law we were supposed to have the vehicle inspected, taxes paid and license plates applied for within 20 days of the vehicle’s arrival in Portugal. Each step is required before you can proceed onto the next. That was early May; it should have all been done before Ann returned to Portugal. It is now December and we are still waiting for Portugal to tell us when they have an opening to inspect the vehicle. The last time we inquired (and every time before that) they’ve said, “We don’t have any openings for that type of vehicle. We’ll let you know when we do.” They do occasionally have openings to inspect auto caravans, we know, because another vehicle at the place we store the bimobil at got their appointment. Then again, they arrived before us and theirs was scheduled for late December.
We’ve been having a guy who runs the RV storage facility that the bimobil is at “help” us with the applications. He contacted the IMT (the DMV) less than a week after the bimobil arrived, and every couple of weeks thereafter for a few months. We provided additional paper work. We answered questions. As noted above, nothing has happened, no inspection scheduled. All the vehicle does is sit in an RV storage lot and the guys start the engine every so often. I can’t really blame the guy (as frustrated as I am), because they screwed him over too - he imported a car from Belgium and it took them 7 months to get him an official title when it was supposed to be done in 30 days.
Ann got back from her trip and we became increasingly frustrated at every “I’ll check on it when I go in next Monday” … “no news yet,” we got when we inquired about getting the rig inspected and plated. We talked to other people - everyone has their own IMT horror story. The folks who helped on our immigration and drivers license issues says they can’t do anything (it’s bad enough trying to do the licenses for us, particularly pushing for a class “C” license). Attorneys told us there is nothing they can do, IMT is a world of its own.
Given everything we could find out about IMT, and the fact that we would likely have to go through this 6+mo period of not being able to drive outside of the country every two years because of how they process drivers licenses (how long does it take to make a physical drivers license?), we decided to listen to Kenny Rogers. You’ve got to know when to hold ‘em, know when to fold ‘em, know when to walk away, and in our case, know when to run. To keep to the lyrics theme, in Portugal you can’t get there from here (REM), so we decided there must be some way outta here (Bob Dylan, versions by Jimmi Hendrix, U2). We migrated once, why not do it again? I’m a remote worker so . . . the only question is where (a question a lot more difficult to answer than it seems)?
We started with countries that seemed to have landscapes we would like to photograph in and settled on Norway, Sweden and Scotland. Norway would be an ideal photography location, but its pathway to migration is very difficult. Sweden seemed much easier for someone in my position, so we took some steps in that direction . . . and found out that the wait time for approval is currently 24-28 months. We took a step back and had a great conversation with a lawyer in Scotland (all of the UK was the same so . . .). Again, he didn’t see a pathway with me doing what I do - the UK’s immigration laws have changed a lot since Brexit. So we took another step backwards and started looking for easy pathways to migration.
Welcome to the DAFT - the Dutch American Friendship Treaty. The DAFT basically removes all of the major obstacles for certain persons (US citizens) who want to establish a business in The Netherlands (and I suspect vice versa) to live and work there as a self-employed person. No requirement that I have Dutch clients (a problem for me with Norway and Germany), invest an ungodly amount of money in the business, or employ a certain number of Dutch citizens, no points system based on your business plan and investors. None of that complicating stuff. Not only our immigration lawyer, but my accountant and notary (the guy who had to register my “business” - DTAT Consulting, BV [limited liability company]) said, “you meet the easy standards you get the visa!” One website said that for the years 2016 - 2018, 100% of the people who applied for it got it - simply because you know whether you meet the criteria or you don’t. The general consensus was, you just get over there as a “tourist” and then file the application and you can start working while they process everything (and you do a bunch of things needed to finalize the application). The biggest thing for us was getting certified (the international term is “apostille”) copies of birth certificates and marriage licenses.
After discovering the DAFT, reading a bit about it and scoping out the country (and its photography prospects) we decided we should go for it. That’s when we contacted the lawyer. September of this year. And it’s been a rollercoaster ride since because, in addition to compiling information, requesting the apostille documents from the US, we had guests visiting, a trip up to The Netherlands to sign the paperwork to register the company, more guests visiting, scheduling movers to come pick up our household goods, finding a place to live in a very, very competitive housing market, and eventually coming up here. Given our desire to get out of dodge and timing it so I can start my new “job” (my new boss is a real asshole) with the new year meant that it was not possible to have everything arranged as I would have normally liked - one step at a time with everything in its place and settled. We were winging it. For example, we scheduled furniture packing before we had a place to go to, with the contingency that if we did not find a place, we would pay to store it. Fortunately, we found a place. Pac-out was December 12-13, delivery is scheduled for January 3. We pick up keys to the place on January 2.
Packet went very smoothly. The Dutch movers hired a few local guys to assist and although it took them two days, it happened very quickly. My office was suddenly . . . a pile of boxes.
We managed to sleep in our bed one last night and even were able to eat breakfast at the breakfast table, though we were walled in a bit.
Once everything was packed, it didn’t take long for a few burly guys to transform a living room . . .
Into pretty much a racquetball court.
I’ve mentioned that things have been progressing without having all the pieces in place. Winging it isn’t my favorite way to operate, but in this case it was unavoidable if we wanted to keep things moving quickly. One of the things we didn’t know when the movers arrived was when the movers for the bimobil (same company as shipped it from Germany to Portugal) could pick it up. If they could do it before the end of the year, we were going to live in a near-empty house for a while (we’re leaving some things that our wonderful landlord, Sr. Gomes, said he can take care of).
During the move we heard from the bimobil shippers - the move wouldn’t happen until the week of Jan 8-13 (precise date to be determined). I promptly booked some AirBNB locations along the way from Portugal to Netherlands and a longer stay place not far across the German border from Didam (long story, but it has to do with not taking chances by “working” in The Netherlands before we have our visa stamps that allows us to work. Technically, we’re on vacation in Germany, and I’m responding to work issues.).
After the movers left, we were left with sleeping on an air mattress and . . . after a half day of cleaning, we decided to hit the road early (anything to avoid another night on that air mattress). We drove for a few hours (to make the next day’s drive easier), and stayed at a hotel in Spain. Worst part of leaving early was that I missed the France-Morocco semifinal World Cup match. I guess it was worth it.
The next morning we were still driving through Spain. Northern Spain is interesting and we saw a few places we wouldn’t mind visiting if we ever get this far south again.
It was nice to be on the road again, driving through unfamiliar landscapes. And even though most of it was highway driving, the landscapes were nonetheless lovely.
We spent the next night in Labouheyre, France, a small town south of Bordeaux. It was a quiet farming/vacation village that was not too far off a main highway. I say vacation village because much of it was closed down for the season, but it didn’t seem like a tourist trap. It seemed as if it’s the type of place folks go to for several weeks on holiday to relax and get out to see some of the surrounding sites (areas for camping, hiking, a lake etc). Consequently, as we wandered around the town, options for dining were limited.
We did come across a . . . 24 hour bakery of sorts. It was part of a two-store bakery and I guess you could order your bread pretty much any time you wanted to.
We missed lunch time so grabbed what we could from the earliest place that opened up, which happened to be a food truck with a built-in stone pizza oven. Sure, we had to wait half an hour for our pizza (good for a short trip to the store to buy some drinks), but man was it delicious. Based on our experience the two days were were in France (the next night in a farming town called Rumigny near Amiens), what they say about French and food is true. Delicious.
We took a slightly longer route from Labouheyre to Rumigny than we needed to just to avoid big-city Paris, so we got to see a bit more landscape. It was worth the extra 40 minutes driving to avoid the big cities.
Saturday afternoon found us in Kleve, Germany in an AirBNB that has been our home base since. There’s nothing fancy about Kleve other than it’s a decent town and we’ve found a few decent places to eat, and we can walk when we want to (read: when its not raining or freezing). The view from our rear window isn’t bad at sunrise or sunset.
Our first night there we found a great Armenian/Georgian restaurant (that we’ve visited twice) within walking distance. It helps when your first meal in a town is outstanding.
Best of all, this AirBNB had cable and, of course, one of the free German channels had the World Cup final. For once, the World Cup gave me the result I wanted all along! Maybe things are starting to get better!
I’d come up to The Netherlands/Germany not expecting to get much done. I know bureaucracies take time and, as the notary who helped form my company explained, a lot of the bureaucracy of The Netherlands is chicken and egg stuff where you can’t get one thing without having another thing. Much to my surprise, we were very busy that first week here.
Now that we had an address (and rental contract) and we had all of our paperwork needed to apply for the visa, our attorneys filed the application on Monday. On Tuesday, we get an email that they can schedule an appointment for us with IND (immigration) to get our passports stamped (which allows us to reside and work for 3 months, or until a decision is made on our visa application) on Thursday in the town of Zwolle - was that too far away? We replied of course not (Ann found this great program online - “The true size of” - which lets you compare the sizes of different places. The Netherlands is about the same size as NW Oregon. Driving to Zwolle from Kleve is like driving from Eugene to Portland, Oregon)! On Wednesday, IND called the attorneys to let them know they saw we had an appointment, so they would make sure that all our information was in the system by Thursday (no, the Dutch bureaucratic system is not like Portugal’s).
On Tuesday, we drove into Nijmegen to see about getting Dutch phone numbers/SIM cards. They needed us to have a Dutch bank to do that . . . . Walking back to the car, I realized I’d set up a BUNQ e-banking account (they require you to have a personal account before I could apply for a business bank account). I pulled up my BUNQ account, it had a NL (Netherlands) IBAN number. I hadn’t deposited any money in the account yet, but I went to WISE on my phone and transferred some funds. Given I’ve been a good WISE customer for the past 3 years, they transferred funds immediately. We returned to the phone store and got our SIM cards.
On Wednesday, before we found out that IND had called our attorney, we made a quick trip to Arnhem for a couple of reasons.
First, Ann wanted to look for a washer and dryer, and they had a good store where we could check them out. The models Ann wanted were not in stock so we didn’t order them (the washer is back in stock now, she’s waiting to hear on the dryer), but the guy helping us did let us know where we could take care of our other reason for the trip - printing out a copy of our visa application and a cover letter from the lawyers.
On Thursday, we headed to Zwolle for our IND Appointment. It went smooth as silk (the person helping us apologized for us having to wait for 30 minutes). We didn’t need the copy of our visa application (it’s always good to have one though) and there was nothing out of the ordinary about the process.
As we were leaving, the person helping us asked if we wanted to have our biometrics taken (a necessary step in the process, usually done later). We said we had time so yes! We left Zwolle with two big things done.
The next day, because we had our visa stamps, we called the Gemeente (the municipality) in Didam and were able to schedule an appointment for the week after we move into the house so we can register with the municipality. The big take-away from that will be our BSN - the equivalent to a social security number - which will allow us to get health insurance and do any other number of things necessary for us to get our final visa stamps and to just function in the country.
We also called to get renters and liability insurance (required by our lease) and, because we had a rental contract and a Dutch bank account (again, thanks to Bunq), we got that taken care of.
I didn’t expect to get any of the above things done before we moved into the house. I was quite pleased with our first week here.
The second week slowed down a bit, in part because I wound up having work. It’s always good to make money, but it’s made some days a bit hectic. Long story short, we’ve bumped heads with the chicken-egg thing a couple of times, primarily because our lack of BSN, so some things will have to wait until after next Thursday. Plus, getting a business bank account in The Netherlands is a big deal and takes lots of time. Ugh. We’ll just work through the process as quickly as we can, bird by bird.
At this point, perhaps the most perplexing thing is trying to speak. In-between our various trips, it’s hard to remember where we’re at, that I don’t have to respond in Portuguese, and remembering that I do, in fact, recall quite a bit of my high school German. Sometimes it goes smooth as silk, other times it’s an Autobahn-level pileup. Now I just have to learn a bit of Dutch! Thank goodness so many people here are conversant in English.
So what’s up for next week? January 2nd we inspect the house and get the keys (Ann ordered something yesterday in the mail and . . . it arrived on Saturday [oops]), so we’ll pick up our mail too!). On January 3, De Haan delivers our household goods (bringing an extra large crew so that it can get done in one day). On January 4, I have a work zoom conference call (which means my office will have to be ready by then). And on Thursday we head over to the Gemeente to register ourselves. From there, we’ll see what we can get done on Friday, because the following week, I’m heading back to Portugal to hopefully close out our rental home, take care of some other business, and get the bimobil headed to our new home. It’s going to be a very busy couple of weeks to open the new year.
As for our new home, here’s what it looks like. I’ll be doing a post about it later.
Best of all, we’ll be able to park the bimobil there!
Hopefully, 2023 is much better than 2022 turned out to be and we get back to traveling and photographing. I’m sure there will be some hiccups along the way, particularly with registering the bimobil (can’t wait for that conversation, “So why does the invoice say April and you’re just registering it now . . .?”), but we will deal with that as it comes. I expect at least that the interactions will be timely. Until then, we’ll just keep things moving along.
May everyone have a very Happy New Year!