Bring on the Night

Or maybe better titled: “Why flying from Beijing to Denmark takes forever”.

It is not the flight that takes the time. It’s the paperwork!

Well, C. have been in Denmark for almost 3 weeks now and we are still going strong.

C. and I are still very happy that we finally reunited after 3-4 months of visa woes. I knew the visa business would be a tough one, since Denmark has some of the world’s most restrictive rules in this regard. Of the many troublesome efforts we had to go through I can list the whole process as I recall it.

C. had to get a new passport.
C. had to quit her job to go to her hometown and get the passport made (In China this must be done in your hometown).
C. had to travel about 3500km by bus/train (Give and take a few, I am not sure) to get to her hometown.
C. had to wait 10-14 days for the passport to be done.
C. had to get new passport photos.
C. had to travel 1000-1500km by bus/train to deliver the passport and visa application documents to the Danish Embassy in Beijing. Applying for a Danish Visa apparently demands that you show up personally at least once at the embassy. This is quite a hassle when China is enormous and the embassies are located only in major cities.
Having delivered the paperwork to the embassy, C. had to wait in Beijing for while to catch a bus/train home again (additional 1000-1500Km).
C. had to wait for the embassy to return the visa (this lasted 8-9 weeks!)
Meanwhile C. had to live with her family and help out at her sister’s shop.

Besides checking up on the insane laws about getting a visa to Denmark (EU), I had to I had to investigate what documents was needed for the visa application. Since this was in English and Danish I had to be the link to C. translating everything, and making sure everything was remembered.
The visa documents are in English, I had to pre-fill the documents for C. and have her fill out the last herself after receiving her passport. I guess I have sent the Embassy in Beijing at least 15-20 mails asking all kinds of “stupid” questions and asking about the cases’ process.

When the embassy finally got the visa application all we could do is wait. Since the normal visa process time is 6-8 weeks according to the Embassy’s homepage, we had to mount a great deal of patience. The embassy corresponds directly with the Danish authorities by email/net, so the embassy actually works quite fast. The slow part is here in Denmark at “Udlændingestyrelsen” (The Danish Immigration Service). Much criticized for slow process, and I understand why. I know they are heavily burdened and undermanned, so I completely understand why this takes time. Still it is a mockery to foreigners that getting a vacation visa to Denmark takes so long. No wonder why very few outside the EU go here for vacation.

After about 10-14 days I received a 3 pages long questionnaire about the Visa. First of all “Udlændingestyrelsen” needed me to confirm that my girlfriends application was real, and also needed me to provide many personal facts and furthermore deliver proof that we knew each other in form of pictures, or similar. Also I had to vouch for all C.’s expenses in the period she is here. Working fast I had all this fixed within the same day, and back in the mailbox, and start waiting again.

Meanwhile I have sent 4 or 5 emails to “Udlændingestyrelsen” with some very short and basic questions. None of them was answered. It would take about 1 minute to answer for an employee but still no answer. This really underlines HOW busy they are.

I began to become a bit nervous, because the time had now passed the first 6 weeks, and soon the visa should be ready if nothing went wrong.

Wham!! then a new very “disturbing” letter arrived from “Udlændingestyrelsen”. Since I had agreed upon paying all expenses for C. on her vacation here, they demanded that I made a bank guarantee of 51.000Danish Kroner (about 8.000US$) to ensure C.’s stay here. This meant a phone call to my parents to ask for help. Also I had to go to my parent’s bank and do the paperwork. Long story short: I succeeded and after 4 days the bank could send the paperwork to “Udlændingestyrelsen”. Again back to waiting.

Then after 1 or 2 weeks a new letter from “Udlændingestyrelsen” arrived. This time something was wrong with the bank guarantee. Apparently a sentence could be misunderstood and had to be changed. My contact in the bank worked fast, and sent the new papers same day. Waited for about a week and then I finally received an email that the application for visa now was accepted and the papers were now returned to the embassy so they could finally warrant the Visa.

Having bad experiences with just waiting, I emailed the embassy to hear how the case proceeded after 4-5 days. The embassy replied very fast, but to my big regret, they told me that no answer was received from the “Udlændingestyrelsen”. At least I now had a contact from the email I received. After some days, I got an answer that the embassy should have received the papers by email, so I went back to the contact in the embassy with the new information. After some digging in the embassy’s inbox, they finally found the email. Pheeew

The embassy needed 2 last things from me: a copy of the flight tickets and a copy of the insurance papers. I started ordering both, and though I had done much looking beforehand, I had to realise that flight tickets was pricy this time of year. First time I checked, it cost 5.100DKr (about 8-900US$). Now suddenly the price had climbed to 7.800DKr (about 1.300US$).

On my parents advice I contacted my cousin, who is in the travel business. He helped me getting a better flight (with a short stopover in Stockholm instead of Istanbul, which was my other option), and also the tickets included an extra flight from C.’s hometown to Beijing. The price was the same, but still a much better deal.

I got the tickets, and the flight insurance same day. Scanned them, and send them to the embassy by email, and sent the actual papers to C. by regular mail service. Now all I could do was wait.

The embassy worked fast, and returned C.’s passport/visa within 7 days. It actually arrived exactly the same day as C. received the letter from me with the flight tickets. Bingo! Now soon waiting time was over.

C. finally arrived Friday the 23. September. 4 months after I returned from Shenzhen and about 3½ months since we started working on the Visa. I guess we should be thankful, because I have heard of many others having endured worse process and longer waiting.

Now finally she is here, but for 3 months only (a vacation visa can be no longer, and the stay can not be prolonged anymore according to new rules).

This is only the things I can remember from the whole visa business. There have been lots more. Not counting the personal costs in form of lack of sleep, worries, longing and bursts of anger about the visa systems slow speed. Also C. have really made some personal sacrifices like work, income, own home and last but not least risking everything to go and see me. I really hope it works out since she deserves to be happy. Time will tell if we should apply for permanent stay. So far this is what I hope. Still Denmark is far away from China, and many things are different. Only C. can decide, though I will do my best to make her feel comfortable here. :-)