The daughter of a former colleague of mine married a Turkish young man, and it was months until he was allowed to come to Germany. This mainly went so “fast” cos someone who is very active in providing help for asylum seekers who face difficulties heard of their problems and gave them the number of some lawyer who was more into helping Turkish immigrants.
Compared to some stories I’ve heard, months is like a jet plane. Then again, that’s coming into Germany. Do you know anything about the time he had to wait for a working/residency permit after arrival or was that taken care of while waiting in Turkey? One thing I didn’t mention in my post: people first have to take this cultural exam at the Dutch embassy in or near their country of residence making people travel and waste time and money… especially if you know the opening hours of some of those consulates – the one in Chicago is only open from 09:30am – 12:30pm, for instance. Then again, they might be slightly more flexible or even more rigid for such exam stuff.
Questions included everything from “What is the first thing you see when you enter his family’s house?” over silly stuff like “If you walk down the streets do you go side by side, or do you walk behind him? Do you hold hands in public?” to “none of your goddamn business” stuff like “What brand of underwear does he wear?”
Such ridiculous questions aren’t limited to residency permits. If you go to the US (or nowadays also the UK) they ask similar, or at least equally ridiculous, questions. Admittedly, they didn’t ask anything about me or my wife’s underwear. Still, you’d think they’d be familiar with the concept of tourism.
]]>The daughter of a former colleague of mine married a Turkish young man, and it was months until he was allowed to come to Germany. This mainly went so “fast” cos someone who is very active in providing help for asylum seekers who face difficulties heard of their problems and gave them the number of some lawyer who was more into helping Turkish immigrants.
I’ve been told the young couple had to come to some immigration office here in Germany and some German embassy in Turkey at the same times for interviews.
Questions included everything from “What is the first thing you see when you enter his family’s house?” over silly stuff like “If you walk down the streets do you go side by side, or do you walk behind him? Do you hold hands in public?” to “none of your goddamn business” stuff like “What brand of underwear does he wear?”