So... who knew that moving over to Italy would be so complicated!? As it turns out... there are many more things to consider than we originally thought (and we thought there would be a lot of considerations). Josh originally applied for his work visa (and my family visa) back at the end of September. They originally told us to allow 4-6 weeks for processing... After 8 weeks they told us to allow 10-12... Then after 13 weeks they said he was denied!! Word to the wise, if you apply for a work visa towards the end of the year, it may be denied! No... we aren't ex-cons. Apparently, Italy had already given out its quota of work visas for 2010, so we had to wait until 2011. We originally planned on moving over on January 2nd, and since his visa wasn't ready yet we decided to push back the move date.
It was a GREAT thing that we didn't move over on January 2nd! As it turns out, we can't get our sea shipment with all of our furniture until the visa is ready. It also turns out that without a work visa we can't get cable or internet installed. So, if we did move over on January 2nd, we would have been sitting in an empty apartment (no light fixtures either- but that’s another story), with no internet and no cable. Luckily our air shipment with the Play Station 3 arrived with some games and movies the week that Josh got there. Since we didn't ship a TV he did have to purchase one, but at least now the poor guy has some entertainment while he is over there in our empty apartment!
Our sea shipment left the east coast right around New Years Day (a few days later than planned because of all of the snow storms), so it should be in Italy around Feb 9th. It may take a couple weeks for our furniture to be delivered to our apartment after it arrives because the work visa may not be ready yet. We are now told that it should be ready by the end of January... but I won't hold my breath. In these types of situations I don't do well if there is not a clear answer. Knowing that I'm flying out on a specific day but I don't have a flight booked yet makes me nervous!! I just have to trust that everything will work out and I'll get there eventually. In the meantime, it’s been like a three ring circus!! I'll just have to get used to how things in Italy are done... at a more leisurely pace than here in the States. Now it has been four months since we originally applied for his work visa, and we are still waiting for a clear answer on when it will be ready.
Good luck with it all... you will learn very quickly that Italians have, make and change their own rules as they wish. Paper work is a nightmare in general... do you speak Italian?
ReplyDeleteI don't speak Italian yet... Working on it though! Everything you say is exactly what I've heard. It sounds like we'll get used to "going with the flow!" Thanks for the well wishes! We'll have to connect once I get over there!
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