{"id":268,"date":"2013-06-28T14:04:26","date_gmt":"2013-06-28T14:04:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bittesuite.wordpress.com\/?p=268"},"modified":"2016-03-20T19:28:25","modified_gmt":"2016-03-20T19:28:25","slug":"wow-that-was-pretty-easy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ryankeelerlives.com\/bittesuite\/wow-that-was-pretty-easy\/","title":{"rendered":"Wow, That Was Pretty Easy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Germany gave me a Visa, today. I haven’t reached my ultimate goal, yet, but this Visa is valid until April of 2014. So, this is definitely a valuable step en route to my ultimate goal.<\/p>\n

It’s a Language Student Visa. Obviously, it allows me to stay here while I learn German and complete my metamorphosis into a pork-eating, beer-drinking, symmetry-loving, no-shoes-in-the-house deutschmann. If I’m admitted into LMU’s Master program, then I’ll be upgraded to a Student Visa and granted permission to stay here until October 2015. If we stay in Germany after that, I’ll use my new education and German fluency to find a job and obtain a Residence Permit for Work. For now, though, I have a Language Student Visa until April 2014. So let’s focus on that.<\/p>\n

Shocking to me was how easy and fast it was to get this Visa. Well, it’s not necessarily easy to get a visa in Germany. What I can say more certainly is that it’s easy for a U.S. citizen to get a visa in Germany. The U.S. is a member of a group of countries whose citizens don’t need visas before entering Germany. We get 90 days for free, during which we can mess around with the visa requirements and apply while we’re here. I’m definitely going to come up with some theories about why these countries are on the list (unless I find an actual fact about it first), but not now. If you’re curious, here are the other countries:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Andorra<\/li>\n
  2. Australia<\/li>\n
  3. Brazil<\/li>\n
  4. El Salvador<\/li>\n
  5. Honduras<\/li>\n
  6. Israel<\/li>\n
  7. Japan<\/li>\n
  8. Canada<\/li>\n
  9. Monaco<\/li>\n
  10. New Zealand<\/li>\n
  11. San Marino<\/li>\n
  12. South Korea<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Without knowing at all what I’m talking about, I’ll hypothesize that the motivations behind that list are talent attraction, humanitarianism (refuge), and political negotiation. Now, let’s hop off this tangent and get back to how getting this visa was easy. First, here’s a list of my requirements:<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. Passport<\/li>\n
    2. Passport photo<\/li>\n
    3. Proof of German Health Insurance<\/li>\n
    4. Proof of enrollment in a language school<\/li>\n
    5. Proof that I won’t be broke before my visa expires<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      I started applying for this visa about two weeks ago, 70 days after I got here. Since I had 90 days to obtain a visa, that puts my procrastination factor at .78. I received my visa today, 94% of my way to the deadline, immediately after I submitted my application for it. So, why didn’t I receive the visa back at the 78% point? Two reasons:<\/p>\n

        \n
      1. The “Student Application Visa” is a phantom tip<\/li>\n
      2. Mother F#@$*& Heatlh Insurance<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

        I asked for a Student Application Visa, hoping it would give me time to apply to LMU. After Desk Lady’s head exploded, she said that what\u00a0is\u00a0<\/em>possible is a Language Student visa. All I need to do is get a note from the language school that confirms that I’m enrolled. Oh, okay.<\/p>\n

        Oh, and there’s a problem with my health insurance. I took out a policy with Techniker Krankenhaus–a popular public firm that caters to students and employed people. They arranged for my policy to activate when I begin the Master’s program. In October. “What will cover you between now and October?” asked Desk Lady.<\/p>\n

        “Dammit,” I replied.<\/p>\n

        So, I went home and learned a little about some of the private companies here who offer short-term policies. These are really just red-tape policies, right? I can manage safety for three months, I think. So, I don’t care what they offer, as long as Germany considers them legitimate and they are inexpensive. I “applied” with a company called…something to do with “care.” Don’t ask me.<\/p>\n

        Within hours of “applying,” I received my policy in pdf form. That was two days ago. And today I have a visa.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

        Germany gave me a Visa, today. I haven’t reached my ultimate goal, yet, but this Visa is valid until April of 2014. So, this is definitely a valuable step en route to my ultimate goal. It’s a Language Student Visa. Obviously, it allows me to stay here while I learn German and complete my metamorphosis … Continue reading “Wow, That Was Pretty Easy”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[63,100],"class_list":["post-268","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-expat-life","tag-munich","tag-visa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ryankeelerlives.com\/bittesuite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ryankeelerlives.com\/bittesuite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ryankeelerlives.com\/bittesuite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ryankeelerlives.com\/bittesuite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ryankeelerlives.com\/bittesuite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=268"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ryankeelerlives.com\/bittesuite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1843,"href":"https:\/\/www.ryankeelerlives.com\/bittesuite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268\/revisions\/1843"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ryankeelerlives.com\/bittesuite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ryankeelerlives.com\/bittesuite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ryankeelerlives.com\/bittesuite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}