..a.k.a residence permit. Getting this is one of the most important thing to do after I arrived at Bolzano, besides opening a bank account ;p.
First of all, within 8 working days of entry into the Schengen area, we have to apply for that. Fortunately the International Relations Office from the university helped us fill the form. Then we had to bring all the required documents and the revenue stamp (marca da bollo) of € 14.62 to the post office. The post office then gave us the receipt and the appointment date and time to go to the Police Headquarter, where our fingerprints will be taken.
One month later…
I went to the the Police Headquarter, and it took 3 hours just to get my fingerprints taken.
…was my Facebook status at that time. I should’ve known that this was some sort of a clue, that my residence permit refuses to be given to me easily :p.
Another one month later…
Even though the officer said that it will be ready in the next two months, me and my friends monitored the progress of our residence permit through the website, almost every day. Because we’ve made plan to go to France on Christmas holiday, and going abroad without residence permit… is not recommended ^^; And.. it was finally ready!
At that time, because we’re there only to ritirare il permesso, we didn’t need to wait so long. After some times, both of my friends had secured their permesso, and when it was my turn…
The officer found my files (under the SC —senza cognome— category ;p), took out the permesso card, and put it into the machine where I had to scan my fingerprints (to match it with the stored data). I was thinking, “Ah, finally…” and prepared to receive my card happily. But then the officer started babbling in Italian…
“?????? ??? ? ? cinquanta sei ??? ??? ?? ?? nata ?????? ? ???”
Yap, that was my Italian comprehension at that time ^^; I managed to get those 2 keywords that I understand, but I didn’t get the relation between those and my permesso. Then he showed me the card, where my birth date was written as: 25-12-1956. Oh, I see.. damn..
After that, according to my emergency Italian translator in my brain, the officer made a joke about how he was surprised when he saw my birth year, then my face, which supposed to be around fifty years old. He showed me that the birth year on the files was still correctly written as 1986, so maybe they made mistake while printing the card. Truthfully, I was stuck between these two feelings: “Why? Of all cards, why mine?? :(“ and “Hahah, so funny :)”.
I thought it will be ready soon after that, since the mistake only happened on the card. Besides, at that time the officer said something while making a hand gesture for 4, that I translated as 4 days later. Well, maybe my Italian was not as good as I thought it was, because…
One week later…
I went there confidently, without checking the website, and it was still not ready. The officer said that my card was still in Rome. It’s done, but it needs to be delivered to Bolzano by post, which maybe will take around 2 weeks. <– again, this is according to my ‘very beginner level’ Italian translator, so maybe it was just my imagination :p.
Two weeks after that…
When I checked the website again last Sunday,
It’s finally ready (again)!! 🙂
Today…
I knew it, when I picked my queue number, that I can finally get my residence permit today. It was lucky number 7 after all ;).
Please let me introduce myself… PARAMITA <SENZA COGNOME>! 🙂 *well, last year it was PARAMITA, INC, I like that more, sounds like I own a company ;p*