It was getting to be time for visa renewal, so last Monday we headed to the Ausländerbehörde (Immigration Office). It's only open for non appointments Monday and Tuesday 7-2 and Friday 9-12 (and appointments are reserved over six weeks out), so we got there at 7. Unfortunately, there is very little direction and signage. We got to Keith's area just in time to see the long line of angry people being told that there were no more slots available for the day. It took us 30 minutes or so to figure out how to get an appointment (number giving machine with no indication that you were supposed to press the button to get a number) and I got the last one for the day. Things improved significantly after that. We waited a couple of hours, but I had all of the necessary paperwork and I was able to get a significantly extended (14 month) visa. Since I'm getting an ID card instead of a visa pasted into my passport, I have to wait six weeks to get the ID card and until then I'm not allowed to leave the country.
Tomorrow I'll tell the story of Keith's visa adventure. It was much more exciting than mine (hint: two stampedes of visa hopefuls).
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