As U.S. Americans we had the luxury of arriving in Germany, and remaining for up to 90 days, before a visa was required. After settling into our home and beginning our work positions, we began the process of applying for a work permit. This included registering with the city of Bad Oeynhausen for the Auftenthaltserlaubnis or residence permit. After receiving documentation for living there, we obtained our Meldebescheinigung or registration certificate (each person must register and unregister whenever he or she moves, including Germans and even if moving next door). At this point we were able to apply for our work permit. We went into town and, after returning home again to retrieve our marriage license, handed in everything we had. This included the two previous items we applied for, our marriage license, a certificate from the Tacoma Police saying that we played well with others, our work contracts, our bank account information, our passports, as well as the application forms. The person taking our information did not seem to know what we needed, but rather accepted everything we gave her, making the bureaucratic process all the more confusing. We were informed that the process could take 5 to 8 weeks, and so we began our wait. After a week or two, we received a letter from another man, Herr Baltruweit, saying our information was not complete. We then mailed in our marriage license again, our resume, our pay stubs from Wittekindshof (what were actually needed instead of the bank info) and a statement saying how long we would be in the country.
After almost 50 days we received a letter, which stated that our application had been rejected. We took the letter to the man who helped us with everything we could ask for while in Germany. There he helped clarify for us that the letter stated we were rejected because we were hired through a subcontracting firm that Wittekindshof uses to hire its workers. It is not allowed for people outside of the European Union to be hired as contract labor. Our contracts were quickly changed, with an obligatory raise involved, and we gathered our information to travel to Minden. On a rainy Tuesday morning in March, we bussed into the larger town near our village to see Herr Baltruweit. We prepared ourselves to meet the evil man face-to-face. There the man I visualized as an enemy turned out to be a decent guy, and not even the one making the decision on our working fate. We told him that we would not be able to give our passports again, as we had travel plans, and he helped us obtain an (up to) 30-day extension for our reapplication. We would be able to continue working, and getting paid, while the application was reviewed a second time.
We enjoyed our month of allotted work, including the travels involved, while hoping that the process would take as many as the 30 days and not go over, in order to earn as much as possible. As the deadline approached, we sent an email asking about the status of our application, and were told to come back to Minden. Baltruweit surprised us again with the news that we had been rejected a second time. The reasoning this time was different: our position description was not specific enough, and did not display why we should be in these positions instead of a German or another EU resident. He said it was a low-skilled job requiring no specific talent or skill, (when researching our move we did read that those with skills that were unique are given permits), similar to McDonald’s, informing us that “a Turk should have that job.”
We asked some clarifying questions about our rejection and what we should do to reapply. Here Baltruweit was helpful, telling us that Bryce could teach English, and I should take German lessons if we wanted to stay, without “giving advice”. It was the end of April at this point, and our contracts had stated from the beginning that our work would be finished after May. Baltruweit was a bit confused, then with our asking about reapplying, as we only had a short time remaining. To us, however, it was a big deal, it was a long time and around 2000 dollars that could be spent on travelling if we were allowed to earn it. I was reminded of the professor from Carnegie Mellon University, who gave his final lecture before retiring to be with his family for his last days, as he was dying from cancer. In the lecture, he spoke of walls that are put in people’s way, and those that are willing to go around, or climb over, or take down the walls succeed. With this in mind, we were willing to reapply again even if only for a month.
We once again brought the information gathered to our contact at Wittekindshof, and he once again willingly and graciously helped us quickly change our contract. We told him that a more specific description would be helpful, that one that included the necessary use of our English would be ideal, and we were even willing to incorporate that we were working there partially do to an ancestor of mine being involved in founding and leading the community from the very beginning. We also sent a letter, in Bryce’s exquisite German, explaining why we are attempting to work in Germany, how we know of Wittekindshof, and that we are indeed only hoping to work through May, as we are registered in Graduate programs each, beginning in the Fall, with our tickets home already purchased.
In truth, our reapplication was a goal of time. Our hope was not that we would be accepted. If we were, great - we would feel more validated in our work. If we were rejected again, it would be fine, especially if it took most or all of the remaining time on our work contract. In fact, an acceptance would most likely have meant a fee, that we would have been happy to pay, but could find use for if we were not obliged to do so.
And that is how it played out. We never did hear a response from Herr Baltruweit regarding our final effort. We worked through our entire contract and earned as much as we had planned on.
In the midst of these stresses and experiences some interesting feelings surfaced. First was anxiety and worry - had we overstayed our welcome? Quite a bit more than the 90 days had passed when we were first rejected. Would we be ordered to travel out of the country? How would we get by if we did not earn any money? How would we travel? We immediately signed up for couchsurfing, which Bryce illuminated on in a previous blog article. We stopped buying as expensive of food, and had our eye out for free food opportunities. We discussed with each other that our goal in coming to Germany was to learn the language, experience the culture, and immerse ourselves in the community in which we lived. We decided that we would continue working, unpaid, if we could not be hired. I also began thinking of other ways to make some money. In these thoughts I did not care what I needed to do, or even if I was paid much at all, as long as I earned some sort of money. It was an interesting window to look through, specifically considering the fate of so many undocumented workers and citizens in the US, not to mention Arizona.
After the fact, everything developed as we had hoped. There was added stress that made us long for home, but it was a valuable experience to go through. One that helped us realize our un-entitlement that even when trying to avoid, can seep into the American mindset. Although this was uncomfortable, it was something we were searching for. So it all worked out, except that Herr Baltruweit proved a bit too nice, not so inimical. For, I had thought I found the perfect nemesis in my upcoming great American novel.
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