The Saustrup Family Blog

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.

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.

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