UDI....
Any immigrant coming to Norway will certainly be aware of the three letters UDI and all that it means. UDI is the directory which all our documents and applications for residency or work permits are sent to. I'm sure in times to come I'll be posting a lot about this.
Arild and I thought we'd have no problems and sail through the application process quickly as we meet all the criteria and we were told we should be approved in a fairly short amount of time.
Our first problem arose just the other day when we received a letter in the mail stating our marriage license and my birth certificate both need an Apostille stamp on them to ensure they're both authentic. The raised seal on both documents isn't enough proof, so both documents need to go through the state Apostille departments in America.
No problem for our marriage license. I called about my birth certificate and was told my birth certificate is out of date. I almost laughed when I was told that because I didn't know if the guy on the other end was making a joke and calling me old or not. He wasn't. Apparently they stamp your birth certificate with the date it was last ordered and the last time I ordered mine was when I got my license when I was 16. Your birth certificate can't be any more than 3 years old. So I've had to order a new one.
The person I talked to on the phone had me sent to the wrong website and though I lived in Kentucky, I wasn't born there. So my birth certificate search went through the wrong state and went to Kentucky instead of Indiana. When I received an e-mail from someone saying they couldn't find my records and explained to them I wasn't born in Kentucky, she told me the fees weren't refundable. So I have now ordered my birth certificate again through the correct state and once we receive it, I'll have to send it back to America to get the Apostille on the birth certificate and wait for it to come back here to my address before we can turn in our application.
Thankfully we have 3 months from the time I arrived here in Norway to the time the application has to be turned in to be processed. We still have no worries over this. Everything is under control, but we just have more hassle to deal with as getting my application prepared is taking longer than we hoped for.
I wish I knew these documents had to be sent to the correct department to have an Apostille stamp on them before moving so I could have already had it taken care of, although that couldn't have been done with the marriage license of course. Right now though, time is money because this ties in with my language classes. To my understanding, when an immigrant's application is approved language classes are free, but the books must be paid for. Instead of me just sitting around and dying of boredom until January (when the next set of classes begin), we decided it would be a good investment and worth the price of going ahead and paying for these classes to keep me occupied before the application is approved. The price of 3 months of classes before the application is approved is about $1000. However, if I'm in the middle of classes while the application is approved, we will receive a refund for the remaining time in the semester after the date of the approved application.
The person I talked to on the phone had me sent to the wrong website and though I lived in Kentucky, I wasn't born there. So my birth certificate search went through the wrong state and went to Kentucky instead of Indiana. When I received an e-mail from someone saying they couldn't find my records and explained to them I wasn't born in Kentucky, she told me the fees weren't refundable. So I have now ordered my birth certificate again through the correct state and once we receive it, I'll have to send it back to America to get the Apostille on the birth certificate and wait for it to come back here to my address before we can turn in our application.
Thankfully we have 3 months from the time I arrived here in Norway to the time the application has to be turned in to be processed. We still have no worries over this. Everything is under control, but we just have more hassle to deal with as getting my application prepared is taking longer than we hoped for.
I wish I knew these documents had to be sent to the correct department to have an Apostille stamp on them before moving so I could have already had it taken care of, although that couldn't have been done with the marriage license of course. Right now though, time is money because this ties in with my language classes. To my understanding, when an immigrant's application is approved language classes are free, but the books must be paid for. Instead of me just sitting around and dying of boredom until January (when the next set of classes begin), we decided it would be a good investment and worth the price of going ahead and paying for these classes to keep me occupied before the application is approved. The price of 3 months of classes before the application is approved is about $1000. However, if I'm in the middle of classes while the application is approved, we will receive a refund for the remaining time in the semester after the date of the approved application.
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| On the bright side of things...here's a picture of a rainbow from earlier today! |
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