It's nothing personal Blogger, I just have a life now!
Actually, I just have a different life now. Since I don't work in front of a computer anymore, it's not easy to respond to emails immediately and they tend to pile up. Also, since I have Alberto to hang out with in the evening, I tend not to log so much screen time in the evening either. All this adds up to a bit of anxiety over the people I should be writing to every time I open gmail, facebook or skype. Having an online life is work!
Alberto and I have been in our apartment for 6 months now and things are wonderful. We have crazy neighbors, mosquitos and other insects that seem to find their way into our home in increasing quantities now that the weather has turned cold, and old appliances that sometimes give us a scare, but all in all we love it here.
The only real thorn in our side is my immigration status. As it stands, my residency permit expires at the end of December and, like all things in Italy, there seems to be no clear procedure for how to renew my status. We've logged countless hours trying to figure things out, running around to the town hall, the police station, the local immigration office etc. But this being Italy, when we finally figured out who I needed to speak to, we also realized that this this would be no easy task. The immigration officer I would need to talk to is never in his office! His colleagues say "He's not here because there are very few people with your type of request (the conversion of a permit for study into a work permit)" that he doesn't come very often.
"Does he respect any sort of hours?" I asked. If I knew he only worked from 9-10am, for example, I could pin him down.
"Hard to say, he kind of comes and goes as he pleases." responded one of the colleague of the illusive official.
Nice.
"So what are my options?" The confusion on their faces was priceless.
"Well, you could come every day until you see him." Yes, because I have hours and hours of free time on my hands to camp out in front of the immigration office in the center of Milan. Couldn't they just tell me which cafe this guy is at having his coffee so I can corner him out of the office?
"or you could try to apply for an appointment online." Yes, yes yes... tell me how!!!
Well it turns out that the requests for appointments for my exact status are not excepted after June 30th.
Damn!
But wait! The immigration officials told me "that deadline doesn't count for Americans, Japanese and Swiss."
Great!
BUT....there is no online procedure for the Americans, Japanese and Swiss to follow.
Booo! It seems I'm back to the "stalk the immigration officer" option.
Given the fact that I work in most stalkable hours, Alberto and I decided to do what all good Italian beaurocracy savy individuals would do. We applied for a different type of appointment, just to have a way to meet this guy face to face. This is something that I would never do in America. Back home there is a clear and specific procedure for everything. You follow it, or you are not served. Here, beaurocracy is a jungle... and you need to know how to survive.They told us it usually takes 6 weeks before they give you an appointment. Sure, I can totally understand that seeing as how this man is so privy of appointments that he doesn't even bother showing up to the office. But I'll be a good sport. I'll give him six weeks to drink his coffee and smoke his cigarettes... because if you can't play the game in Italy, you will not survive.
Legal or Bust by January 1st! Let's hope for the best.
