The Saustrup Family Blog

“Good news everybody!” Nina got her visa on Friday, and after a couple of nice days in Copenhagen we’re finally back in Århus together. We just filed the marriage application about an hour ago, so things seem to be running smoothly.

Nina went to pick up her visa at the Danish Consulate on Friday. With it, she also received a paper that verified that the Russian authorities do not issue documents regarding civil status. This document should not be required, but since the wedding office in Aarhus are a little “difficult” we thought it might help us. It was a total bargain at 100 euros for a single sheet of paper. Nina arrived in Copenhagen on Sunday, which also happened to be her birthday! Monday morning we went straight for the Russian Embassy, where they kindly issued a paper that verified that her internal Russian passport did not have any notices or stamps regarding previous marriages. This is the official way of documenting that a person is not currently married.

After visiting a tiny bit of Russia in the heart of Copenhagen, we decided to chill out a bit and went to visit Copenhagen Zoo. The rhino and hippo were on vacation somewhere, but the giraffes and lions were in. Very relaxing. A nice change of pace when you’re in the middle of a paperwork war.

Tuesday morning - today - we filed the official wedding application with all the required enclosures. I’ve had a previous encounter with the lady working the desk, and I was surprised that the process went smoothly without anyone screaming or threatening to kill family members. The bureaucrat informed us that processing time for this paper would be 14 days. After this, we should take the issued “licence” and forward it to the place where we will have the ceremony. Processing time here will be around 8 days.

If none of these two offices have any objections, it looks like our schedule is right back on track. Papers will be ready in around three weeks and hopefully we’ll be set to get married on May 17.

It’s not even 13:00 here yet, and I’m already exhausted!

Our faithful readers - of which there are at least two - already know how very very frustrated we have been waiting for Nina’s visa to Denmark, but finally we got some good news.

I just got off the phone with a friendly guy from the Danish immigration service. He called to let me know that they made a decision in Nina’s visa case, and had given an authorization to the Danish General Consulate in St. Petersburg, allowing them to issue a visa to Nina. We’re both thrilled about this naturally and that guy really was very friendly.

With that being said, the case still took way too long to process (9 weeks) and the information provided to us during the process was bleak to say the least. I could possibly think of numerous ways of improving the information level, but right now I honestly don’t give a sh*t. I’m just very happy that we finally made it this far.

Nina’s browsing airline tickets and I’m smiling all the way up to my ears!

I just got off the phone with the Russian Consulate in Copenhagen and the Danish immigration service. Both turned out to be huge disappointments. This time around the Danes win the prize for technological ignorance and the Russians for good old fashioned inefficiency.

I previously called the Russian Consulate, and asked if they could issue the civil status paper required by the wedding office in Århus. They acknowledged this, and said that Nina had to call in and make an appointment. We thought this was a trivial matter and possible to do on a day-to-day basis. Here, optimistically one week before Nina arrives in Copenhagen, we decided to make an appointment - and in good time, we thought. I was hoping to make an appointment for April 14, and was greatly disappointed when I was told that the next available appointment was on April 24. I never saw this coming and it feels like hitting a brick wall that suddenly appeared out of nowhere.

This whole wedding thing is a very delicate and tricky puzzle, and now the Russian Consulate is pushing it even further. If we can’t get an appointment before April 24, things really have to run smoothly for us to get married on May 17.

The Danish immigration service wasn’t much help either. The last report I got when I made my ceremonial Friday call to them, was that they had sent a request for information regarding Nina’s passport to the Danish Consulate in St. Petersburg on March 26. The Danish Consulate said that they had received this request and had sent a confirmed reply on April 2. According to the lady I spoke to, no reply was received in their magnificent new visa system yet. I was puzzled to hear this, and asked if information wasn’t transferred electronically inside their new system - she kept telling me that it was, but letters and faxes first had to be scanned by their reception before it appeared in the system. Wheels were turning inside my head and then it finally dawned on me:

Even though they have a brand new computer system, some information is apparently still passed around by good old fashion paper fax and as paper information it needs to be scanned before it appears in their system.

I can’t even begin to explain how stupid I think this is. It’s like refusing to use more than the first gear in your brand new red Italian sports car.

I sent the relationship documentation to the Danish immigration office Saturday. Express. Rather expensive too. Wanted them to know that we meant business. A lot of good that did me.

The postal worker gave me a tracking number when I handed in the letter and cheerfully charged me 12 EUR for postage. Mail isn’t delivered Sunday here, so Monday morning I went to the national postal service website to track my express letter. The form I filled out was submitted to a website that didn’t exist, so I was unable to confirm whether or not it had arrived at its destination. I notified the postal service, not really expecting a reply. Ever.

I called the immigration office on Tuesday and Wednesday without much luck. As it turns out, they had all been on some sort of course all through Monday. According to the girl I spoke to, the normal procedure for received mail was to open it, scan it and attach it to the case it was associated with. Our case did not have anything attached to it, so obviously it wasn’t in the system yet. She said that this open-scan-attach procedure usually took 2-3 days. I said I would call them back. Like I’ve done so many times before.
Continue Reading »

Something is rotten in the state of Denmark. This was the case in Shakespeare’s Hamlet but it also applies to the immigration office. After waiting almost eight weeks for a generic visa questionnaire, it finally arrived on Friday. It was returned Saturday morning, complete with 20+ pages attached, documenting our relationship.

The questionnaire itself was 4 pages, will questions like “Is the applicant your wife?” closely followed by “Is the applicant your fiancée or girlfriend?” They also wanted the exact dates of our previous meetings, and wanted to know if I could cover any expenses including the return ticket. I already informed them of this on the initial invitation - which is required to get a visa - but apparently that wasn’t enough. They wanted evidence of our relationship.
Continue Reading »

We’re hoping to get married on 3. May, but there are many pieces to this puzzle. Many dates that depend on each other, including Nina’s arrival in Denmark. Her visa hasn’t been issued yet, so we’re getting rather frustrated with the immigration office.

I think the original waiting period was initially around six weeks when she filed the application on 1. February, and this Friday we’ve been waiting for seven weeks. I’ve been calling them every Friday and all they can tell me is that they haven’t processed anything yet, and they need to send me a form which I have to fill out and return. This form can’t be sent from the immigration office, until their in-pile has reached a level where they feel they can process new forms. They can’t say anything about this level or when they might reach it. The only information I was able to squeeze form them last Friday was “two weeks is probably a little naïve” and “the waiting period is now 8-9 weeks”. Great.

Continue Reading »

We’re getting married! I proposed on February 4. 2008, and even though it still feels new and weird, it also feels incredibly good. One thing is a bit of a bother though, and that’s the initial paperwork. The marriage office at Århus City Hall is being everything but cooperative.

Marriage - or in our case a civil union - is not really a tricky thing in Denmark. It’s not supposed to be, anyway. All you need to do is fill out a marriage application, attach the required documents and wait a couple of weeks for the approval. When you have the approval, you can make an appointment at city hall, and the actual ceremony takes 5-10 minutes.

If you’re both Danish, all the information required is already available and you don’t really need to attach any additional documents to the marriage application. If you’re not Danish however, you need to provide documentation of your civil status. In our case, we need proof that Nina is not already married in the Russian Federation.

“No biggie” I thought. Not the case.

Continue Reading »