Getting a Residency Card as an Expat's Spouse: The "Good"-Parts Versions

I’m very happy to announce that I’m finally an official temporary resident of the Netherlands complete with a hard plastic ID card good for one year. The process for me took nearly 4 months (partially because of my spouse status) and I hope it doesn’t take this long to renew the card in a year. Next: a driver’s license.

Since its been a long time coming, I thought a quick run-down of the paperwork process would be appropriate. I may expand this into a detailed article in the future and the order may be a bit off based on our particular circumstances, but for now…

Getting a Residency Card for USA Spouse of an Expat: The “Good”-Parts Version
1) Get your spouse employed or placed in the Netherlands. This is a vital step because non-EU citizens can only get working visas though employment. If your expat is gets a Knowledge Worker Visa, you won’t need to get a work visa of your own. Otherwise you won’t be able to work until you’re hired by a company willing to go through the paperwork.

2) Before you move, get your “moving” visa. This sticker is placed in your passport and allows you to stay in the Netherlands for an extended period of time.

2a) Get apostilles of your birth certificate & marriage certificate. Apostilles are an extra layer of officialness. I’m not sure why the Netherlands insists on them, but you need it anyways. They are typically issued by the office of the Secretary of State of the state you were married in and I was able to do everything by mail but I’ve heard rumor that some states are less flexible and require you to visit them in person.

3) Move. Move your pets. Start counting the days/weeks until you get your residency card.

4) Register as a resident in your local town/city. Everyone is required to register with their town hall within 5 days of moving to a new city. As expats its important to do this quickly since it will prevent delays with your other paperwork. Also, you’ll get a personal ID number from this process that acts like a Social Security number. You’ll need that to open up bank accounts and the like.

5) Your spouse will probably need to process his/her temporary residency & work visa paperwork first. If you’re in Maastricht, this will involve completing paperwork with your expat’s company and a trip to the IND for a temporary temporary resident/work permit sticker in your passport. Try to do it all at once if you can, but I’m not sure that’s possible.

6) Go back to your town hall and complete the paperwork to get your apostilled marriage license approved. When we were there we were told this process could take 4-6 weeks. They’ll want to take your marriage license for this approval, but you’ll also need it to finish up your own IND visit if you haven’t already.

7) Wait. If you can/need to, visit the IND to complete get your own temporary temporary sticker. Your expat won’t need to wait for the marriage license paperwork to go through so he/she will probably make a trip to Eindhoven for the official residency card during this time.

Wait for the marriage license stuff to get through all the hoops. When you get the document stating that your license is approved you may need to send a copy back to the IND (they do the approval, but a different department must need it for the residency card).

9) Wait.

10) Get the letter stating that you are approved. Its in Dutch of course.

11) One week later, get a letter stating that you can go pick up your residency permit.

12) Take the train to Eindhoven (if you’re living in Maastricht anyway) and pick up your new card. Remember to bring the letter and your passport with you. In my case, my card indicates that I am the spouse of an expat and that I can work without a working visa (my husband is a Knowledge Worker). Your card will reflect your relationship with your expat and your ability to work.

13) Celebrate with beer & waffles!

The Humble Hot Dog

I was catching up on Kitty Hawk today (a great pulp-style webcomic about a woman pilot) when I ran into this comic. It kind of hit home for me. Not that I miss American hot dogs that much; I only eat all-beef with natural casing ones anyway, but the 1600 types of sausage plays to one of my shopping frustrations.

There are so many different kinds of sausages and meats (few with names that Google Translate can handle) that I’m often left confused or buying the same things over and over again. I’d like to branch out, but with things on the shelf like “tongue-worst” (a cold-cut you can see slices of beef tongue in), I’m not brave enough to just randomly select. I don’t think I’m up to eating organ meat, or at least I want to know what it is first.

Anywhoo, enough about meat. If you like pulp-style stories and well crafted comics, take the time to check out Kitty Hawk. The story has an Indiana Jones feel to it (without the womanizing) and I really like how the main character’s memories appear like living people around her.

Episode 9 of Maastricht Minutiae: Bicycle Banditos

Episode 9 of Maastricht Minutiae, Bicycle Banditos, is now available for download. This week we talk about my parent’s visit and all the things we did during the weekends they spent with us.

Topics this week:
- Life & Work the last few weeks.
- Showing my parents “how we live” in Maastricht
- Valkensburg
- Grotten Zonneberg
- Arnhem, Food & Wanderings
- St. Eusebius Church
- Historical Cellars
- Hoge Veluwe National Park (and art museum)
- Burgers’ Zoo

Click here to listen to the podcast and/or set up a feed.
We welcome comments. Please feel free to comment on this post, give a review at Talkshoe, or email me.

Renaming My Blog

I’ve been thinking of giving my expat blog its own space and name. I’ve been blogging here fairly exclusively about expat life and my travels, but the name of this blog “Single Stitch Studio” really doesn’t reflect that content at all. It would make more sense to change the name now for traffic and so I’m representing content accurately.

So I need your help. Below is a poll with a few suggested blog titles. Please vote and then comment on this post with your thoughts or suggestions. I have my own thoughts on all of these of course, but I don’t want to share those until you have the chance to vote.

What will happen with Single Stitch Studio? For now of course I will still be doing all my expat blogging here until I get the new space set up. Single Stitch Studio will be reorganized as an online portfolio for my professional and creative self.

July Projects & Work Update

With all the posting I’ve done about vacationing, I thought it was high time to talk about what I’ve been doing project-wise.

I’m really pleased to note that I’ve started working on a real (paying) freelance project. I’m doing copyright research for a publishing company on a new edition of a textbook. Its actually pretty interesting, I’ve always found the complexities of copyright rules intriguing, and its good to be working on something that really exercises my brain and research skills.

The other paid work I was doing for a few weeks was “title proofing” for Demand Studios (an article creation site). They by all exclusive rights to your articles, which I wasn’t willing to give for $5, so I worked on their titles instead. Its not bad work (its related to applying taxonomies and SEO), but at the moment its dried up. Hopefully the titles will begin flowing again since I did earn enough the first month to pay for my student loans that month.

I’ve also been trying to build a website for a webcomic project my husband is working on. I’ve promised it done for his birthday at the beginning of September, so I’ve got a lot of work ahead of me. I finished up the design in PhotoShop and have set up a WordPress install on our own server space, but now I need to bring the pieces together.

Writing-wise, I’ve been working on copy for a secret project, research for a possible Crossroads project, and trying to update this blog. I’m getting the itch to try fiction again, but maybe I’ll wait until November when I have NaNoWriMo to push me. I’m trying to become more prolific so I can take on more writing projects and maybe grow that revenue stream.

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