I’m having some delays in the process of becoming a PhD student. It’s almost a catch 22 situation, but not quite. The original catch 22 was “You can only have this if you ask for it … but if you ask for it, you can’t have it any more.” (Know the phrase but don’t know what I’m talking about? Read the novel by Joseph Heller, it’s fabulous.) This is more like the Escher print, Drawing Hands, where the first hand is drawing the second hand, which is drawing the first hand…

To become a fully paid-up member of the University staff, I need a sofi number (which identifies me throughout the EU for taxpaying purposes). I went today to apply for this, and was told I need a visum or residence permit that includes a work permit (unlike my student visum) — if I’m not working, I don’t need a tax number, so they won’t give me one. However I can’t apply for a working visum until I have an employer…

I think this vicious circle is breakable. I think I can convince the University to fill out the visum application without having a sofi number. The downside of this plan appears to be that this will leave me as a formal employee of the UvA, but not actually being paid anything.

Somewhere, some faceless bureaucrat is laughing at me.