Moving house, a bureaucratic view
03-Jan: Move to Rotterdam
15-Jan or so: Remember that we're supposed to register with the gemeente (local authority) and look up how to do so. Discover we're meant to have done it within 5 days of moving.
16-Jan: Request an appointment at the appropriate office. First appointment available is the 5th of February.
05-Feb: Chris goes to the appointment (I don't because of an important meeting at work that's come up in the intervening period) and fills in all the forms and stuff. He also brings home a copy of the forms for me, which I'm not supposed to be able to fill in at home, but in this case it's allowed.
06-Feb: Forms filled in, Chris drops them in at the office on his way to work.
21-Feb: Get a council services bill in my name, for the old address, from the gemeente back in Amsterdam, passed on by post forwarding.
22-Feb: Chris gets a council services bill in his name, to the new address, from the gemeente in Rotterdam.
23-Feb: Try to find out about my registration status; discover I can do this online, but only if I've signed up for the DigID service. Discover I can't sign up for DigID because the system doesn't recognise my address.
24-Feb: Successfully register for DigID using my old address in Amsterdam. But I can't log in to anything yet because I need an activation code, which will be sent by post, to my old address, and then forwarded to this one.
25-Feb: Ring the gemeente telephone service to see if I can find out my registration status. They can't tell me, but say I can ring back during the office hours of the office that does the registration and they will tell me.
26-Feb: Ring the gemeente telephone service during office hours. Person answering the phone refuses to put me through because it can take up to four weeks to change my status on the register, so I can't ask whether they've done it until at least those four weeks have passed. I'm told to ring back after the 5th of March.
01-Mar: Receive a hand-delivered letter from a Rotterdam gemeente control team informing us that this address appears to be occupied, but that they have no record in their database of anyone living here. The second paragraph reminds us that it is required by law for everyone to notify the gemeente of moving in within 5 days, and then provides a handy list of how we can do this and what paperwork we'll need.
02-Mar: I receive my DidID activation code. I sign in to the Rotterdam gemeente website where I can look up my registration status. I am officially still 'in process'.
Five days my arse, in short.
15-Jan or so: Remember that we're supposed to register with the gemeente (local authority) and look up how to do so. Discover we're meant to have done it within 5 days of moving.
16-Jan: Request an appointment at the appropriate office. First appointment available is the 5th of February.
05-Feb: Chris goes to the appointment (I don't because of an important meeting at work that's come up in the intervening period) and fills in all the forms and stuff. He also brings home a copy of the forms for me, which I'm not supposed to be able to fill in at home, but in this case it's allowed.
06-Feb: Forms filled in, Chris drops them in at the office on his way to work.
21-Feb: Get a council services bill in my name, for the old address, from the gemeente back in Amsterdam, passed on by post forwarding.
22-Feb: Chris gets a council services bill in his name, to the new address, from the gemeente in Rotterdam.
23-Feb: Try to find out about my registration status; discover I can do this online, but only if I've signed up for the DigID service. Discover I can't sign up for DigID because the system doesn't recognise my address.
24-Feb: Successfully register for DigID using my old address in Amsterdam. But I can't log in to anything yet because I need an activation code, which will be sent by post, to my old address, and then forwarded to this one.
25-Feb: Ring the gemeente telephone service to see if I can find out my registration status. They can't tell me, but say I can ring back during the office hours of the office that does the registration and they will tell me.
26-Feb: Ring the gemeente telephone service during office hours. Person answering the phone refuses to put me through because it can take up to four weeks to change my status on the register, so I can't ask whether they've done it until at least those four weeks have passed. I'm told to ring back after the 5th of March.
01-Mar: Receive a hand-delivered letter from a Rotterdam gemeente control team informing us that this address appears to be occupied, but that they have no record in their database of anyone living here. The second paragraph reminds us that it is required by law for everyone to notify the gemeente of moving in within 5 days, and then provides a handy list of how we can do this and what paperwork we'll need.
02-Mar: I receive my DidID activation code. I sign in to the Rotterdam gemeente website where I can look up my registration status. I am officially still 'in process'.
Five days my arse, in short.