Last week I thought that by next month my residence would be settled, and I could start drawing full pay. I should know by now not to be so optimistic. I’m putting the rest of this entry below the fold, because it’s basically just an extended gripe. The short version is, for even stupider reasons than have previously applied, it will be another month before I become a fully legal and paid-up employee of the university.

I have in fact received a letter saying that my residence permit has been approved. I had also made an appointment to get a sticker in passport, which I could use to get my sofi number. So I arrived this morning at the appointment, only to be told that such a sticker in fact constitutes an extension of a previous permit while a new one is being considered, and since the new permit has now been approved (some three days earlier) I couldn’t be given the sticker.

Ok, so I should be able to use my brand new permit to get a sofi number instead, right? Not so fast, Joe: the permit has been approved, sure, but it won’t arrive for another month. During which time I have… um, well, no evidence of its existence apart from the letter, which the nice man at the IND assured me would not be sufficient to request a sofi number from the tax office.

So I spent the morning on the train for nothing — I’m just glad I live relatively close to Rijswijk, it could have been a four hour journey. (Yes, you can only get these stickers in one place in the country.) And it cost me 17 euro, which I consider a bit excessive given that (a) I didn’t get anything out of the trip, and (b) because I don’t have a sofi number I’m only drawing two-thirds pay, and since tomorrow is two-thirds payday I’m now down to a total balance of €15.40.

I’ve been looking forward to real employment for so long, I’m getting tunnel vision.