So I’m keeping a blog to document my time in Iceland – starting with my struggle for residency – and my rather accidental proposal to John (don’t worry – we’re not engaged, no one has missed anything!)
The last couple of weeks have been a whirlwind of packing, working out my notice, John already having moved to Iceland and having started his job, and me trying to get the right documents together for the move.
In Iceland, you need something called a Kennitala to exist there. A Kennitala is a bit like a national insurance or social security number only you need it for *everything*. And I mean everything. Want to open a bank account? Rent a flat? Join the gym? Go to the library? Err nope not without a Kennitala you can’t. The Kennitala is the basis of existence in Iceland, so getting both of ours sorted ASAP has been a bit of a priority.
Luckily for us because John had a job offer in Iceland his Kennitala came through incredibly quickly, and in fact he had confirmation of acceptance of residency on the very first day he started work.
I was initially not so lucky. Initially things seemed like they might be easy-ish (haha!) – John has a job which is a great start, and we were told we would be considered common law married on the basis of our long relationship and residency together. This would have meant he could have applied to financially support me through his job, making things infinitely easier for me as someone initially moving with no employment. Sounds too good to be true, right? It was.
Things got a lot more complicated very quickly. “Oh we need utility bills to prove how long you have been together” Ok fine. “Oh we need flat contracts going back X number of years as well to show you were resident together” Oh god really? I can barely remember where I live at the moment, let alone 5 years ago! And then the kicker “Oh you’ll need a certificate of non-impediment to show you’re not married to anyone else and can legally reside together.” AHA. I knew there was a reason I had trained as an immigration caseworker – I know what one of these is – I also know it’s impossible to get hold of without a huge number of delays which we definitely didn’t want to experience.
This was the point at which I said to John “Argh, I hate admin!” We could just like, get married? Then we wouldn’t have to do all this paperwork to prove we’re common law married cos we could just….be married?!” See, I’m such a romantic. *Shockingly* he very politely refused this *highly romantic and heartfelt* proposal by pointing out that a) I’ve never wanted to get married, and b) Marriage also involves a shocking amount of money and paperwork. Dammit! I hate it when he’s completely right.
So we worked out a plan B which basically involved me self-certifying as able to support myself in Iceland, which resulted in moving a lot of money between our savings accounts and then my bank giving me a call and basically questioning the suspiciously large transaction that had just come through my account (their trying-to-be-polite way of saying, why do you suddenly have a rather large amount of money when your savings account is usually like, £4. Ha.)
Luckily once I was actually out there last week, I couldn’t believe how easy the residency process actually was. You basically turn up at a government office with your original documents and reference number. They weren’t even interested in seeing the originals of my bank statements and health insurance bits, just in having a cursory look at my passport.
I did this straight away when the offices opened at 9am, thinking there was bound to be some kind of screw up and I’d have to be running around town in a blind panic photocopying various things. Nope. I walked back to our accommodation, and got back to learning Icelandic. At 10.55, less than 2 hours later my e-mail pinged. Residency approved!!!
So there you have it. Stay tuned for my next blog which will be about our new house, which we move into on the 18th 🙂
 | ReplyForward |
Góðan daginn ísland 