Registering at City Hall

Living in Nederland seems to be a lot of work. We not only have to apply for residency with IND (Immigration and Naturalization), we also need to register at the municipality. The VISA we got was only valid for 6 months. We were expected to get our resident cards within that time. It's very different from the US where your VISA is everything. Getting the resident cards is a lengthy process. It's even longer for JK. Since he's holding a TW passport, he also needs to get inspected for TB (Tuberculosis). Basically taking some chest X-rays at some place. I, on the other hand a Canadian passport holder, despite that I was born in Taiwan, don't have to get TB checkup. Up till now, we finally received a letter saying that we will receive notifications from IND in a few weeks to inform  us to obtain our resident cards from some agency. (our health insurance company had been badgering us for this letter for a while.)

Getting registered was another totally different thing. We had to prepare for many documents and have them "legalized", such as marriage certificate, birth certificates (there's another story on that), etc. Luckily they only ask for Engels not Dutch copies for these documents. Also very luckily at the New York Dutch Consulate, the lady told us that we would need to get a more recent copy of our marriage certificate and get apostille by the California Notary public. We were able to get this all done while in the US. 

Getting registered means that we will receive BSN number (sim. SSN in the US). Only with BSN, we can apply for bank accounts, and with that apply for utility services (water, electricity, cable, internet). To register we must go to the Expat Center. It's like a service window for highly educated and professional experts. If you don't quality to be an expat you have to go get registered elsewhere. We didn't have our birth certificates when we went to the Expat Center, but we were told it was okay as long as we get them and bring them to the local city office within 3 months. Up till now, we were all told that they wanted birth certificates.

We received legalized birth certificates from JK's mom in a few days and we brought them to the city hall, but the city hall people told us it was not birth certificates that they want.With some lengthy checks and searches, we were told that they wanted our hu-ko (戶口). Yes, they said hu-ko, not household registry, hu-ko. Despite the fact that I'm Canadian and also the fact that in TW you lose your household registry if you leave TW for more than 2 years, they insisted that they wanted our hu-ko. Luckily both of us still have our household registry, but what about the people that don't? I can think of more than 5 people that were born in TW but aren't registered in TW on top of my head. This is just some very unreasonable rule. When we asked to see the exact regulation, we were told that it's for internal viewing only. We were still very confused with what exactly they want. At the time, the expert with registration in the city business mistook that we were from China (Thanks to the Republic of China title. Everyone is confused.) and that with Chinese there's a new rule that they only accept hu-ko and this new rule was only implemented this June. We received a call back from the city after they clarified with the "expert" that we're not from China that they still need our hu-ko. To top that, we received letters from the Expat center that they still need our legalized birth certificates.

Confused and baffled with what exactly they want, we asked many people: IND, the Netherlands Economic and Cultural office in TW, the TW Economics and Cultural office in Nederland and the municipality in TW. This is what we found: For TW, some city offices accept only birth certificates, some accept only hu-ko, and some accept both. With the new rule for China was that it was harder for them to get birth certificates, so they complained to the Dutch people to accept hu-ko instead. I can understand how in China it's hard to get official birth certificates or how easy it is to get fake ones. However, in China they also only accept single citizenship. Unlike in TW, the government allow for dual citizenships, and hence citizens can lose household registry if they leave the country for more than 2 years. Basically, it's unreasonable for the city people to ONLY accept hu-ko and not birth certificates for people born in TW. 

We went back to the city hall and tried to reason with them. This time we got a different representative. However, she again confused Republic of China as China and consulted the same "expert" for what they'll need. Once again, we were told that they require our hu-ko, but they were unable to provide us with any documentation stating exactly what they want. They also refused to follow the regulations we printed off their websites. Everything we found didn't say they only accept hu-ko. They also did not want to call and consult the people at the Netherlands Economics and Cultural office in Taipei. At least we weren't given a time constraint.

What we're gonna do now is to get English copies of our hu-ko. First showing them the scanned copies and making sure they will definitely accept them before getting them legalized.

Amsterdam apartment photos

https://plus.google.com/photos/113880069774612153445/albums/5805102076524728817?authkey=CJKBj5eV68-dtAE

Health insurance deductible skyrocketed

our deductible went up from 220 to 350 for next year!  is this cuz of the austerity?!  seriously...no wonder everyone is complaining. this is not austerity. this is telling you to go to heck if you get sick.

"ah Formosa"

almost every Dutch person I met here said: "ah Formosa" when I told them I'm originally from Taiwan. They all remember that from their history lessons.

Importing car...Part II

Went to a car shop on the next day of port pickup. Guy told us that with the fog light we had to go to a Mitsubishi shop cuz it requires changing the settings in the computer. However, they can adjust the angle of our front "beam". (that's how they call the head lights)

Came home, searched for Mitsubishi shops. Closest one is in Amstelveen (about 20 min drive). However, they only have time to look at our car after 1 week. Second closest one is in Aalmsmeer (about 30 min drive). The guy said over the phone that they can look at our car immediately, so we drove over. If where we live is semi-suburb, Aalmsmeer is suburb suburb. If you ride metro out of Amsterdam central, within 20 min you can see cattles, sheeps, etc. After looking at the lights and stuff, the guy told us that they needed to order parts and that we should take the car to another shop. However, we shouldn't worry. The other shop is operated by his brother. It's all family business. He said the other shop can take even better care of our car. This other shop is in Mijdrecht, about 20 min away from Aalmsmeer. The older brother said there's a bus that can take us to Amsterdam from Mijdrecht if we don't want to rent a car. So we drove to Mijdrecht. It is a bigger shop. The younger brother doesn't speak much Engels. He got the sales rep to translate for him. They didn't have time to look at our car immediately, but they'll look at it and give us a quote in a couple days. Since that solves our current parking problem, we were happy to leave the car with him. We took the bus back (about 40 min ride). Got off at Ikea and had the discount lunches at Ikea.

We later found out that we can apply for a parking permit with a foreign license. We decided to get the permit before we take our car back from the shop.

Several days later, got a phone call from the shop. The shop claimed that fixing all the problems would cost us about 950 euro!  It's that expensive because they would need to replace the head lights. That's a very big item. We were very skeptical and did some search on the internet. There's even a youtube video showing you how to adjust your head lights angle yourself. Not to mention the very first shop we went to told us that they could adjust the angle of the lights. We decided to call the shop back and asked more in detail. If just installing the tail mist lamp (actually, we have the mist lamp. they just needed to change something in the computers so it can be turned on and off. weird eh?), it's about 270 euro. They could also just adjust the head lights angle, but they insisted that we must replace the head lights. They even asked for the RDW number to confirm that we needed to replace the lamps. Anyways, we insisted that since the check list only said to adjust the angle, we will only adjust the angle. If they ask us to replace the lamp, then we will think about it. (we also have the appointment from the Amstelveen in a week. for such a big item, I'd want to have a second opinion). Mumbling, the guy said they will do as the list says without replacing the front lamps. They'd call us when the car is ready.

A couple days later, the shop called and said car is ready. We went to RDW to get the permit in the morning and picked up the car in the afternoon. The guy was still complaining about that we must get the front lamps replaced, and how they called the government and we wouldn't pass the APK test. For the mist lamp, they installed a small button inside the car just below dashboard and above the hood lever. We asked them to show us why they think we needed to replace the head lights. The technician showed us with another car that satisfies the regulation. We could see why they think we need to replace the lamp, but if it's not on the list (esp. when it's such a big item), we'd rather take our chances.

We went to RDW again the following day. The inspection went smoothly. The technician didn't ask for anything that's not the list. We paid the 26 euro and were sent to the customs. (What do you know? it's right next door under the same roof with the same waiting area.) The customs we are required to pay is called BPM. It's different from custom import duty, but the same import exempt can waive us the BPM duty. BPM is required of all "new" cars entering EU. It's based on the vehicle CO2 emission and the car valuation. I remember checking the figures and it's something humongous. Luckily we're exempt. However, at the customs window, the guy told us that we still need to fill out the forms and calculated the BPM we needed to pay even if we weren't required to pay. He gave us a list with some websites showing us how to do the calculations.

We could only come home. Did the calculations myself and found out that if we had to pay BPM, it'd be at least 7k euro. The procedure isn't rocket science. The hardest part was to find the valuation on my car especially when this particular model isn't marketed in Europe. I had to use its value in USD and made the currency conversion.

We went back to the customs several days later, and finally everything is good. Now we just need to wait for the letter with our registration number (to come in a week) so we can take it to a shop to make the plates. THEN I can mail back my New York plates to DMV. At least the difficult part is all over now.

Importing car

Finally car arrived in Nederland. It's still a lot cheaper than having to sell and buy another car although it's very hassle. Car transport with documentations on the US side was about $1050. Another $200 for inland pick-up for the vehicle. We weren't in the country when they picked up the car, so we left the car with a friend in the States. (Car shipment was only 4 weeks but our stuff was said to take 6-8 weeks in transit.) That's all on the US side.

Most of the hassle was for the Europe side. The biggest item was to get the import exempt for the custom; otherwise it'd be very costly (like 2k when I did the calculation). That final piece of paper we got took a lot of work. Good thing we were anticipating this so I kept all the necessary papers with me and not packed in boxes. Still they require more stuff after we arrived in Nederland. Then it was getting the car registered here. Can't stop our liability insurance in the States yet before returning our New York license plate. (So gotta mail that with a return receipt so I have something to show Geico that I returned my plates.) Clearing the custom, port, fees and documentations at Rotterdam cost about 300 euro. Took the train down to Rottermdam was about 20 euro. Taxi from Rotterdam Centraal Station to port was 57 euro.

Finally we arrived at the RDW (Dutch version of DMV) in Amsterdam for inspection and registration. Car didn't pass inspection since apparently every European car has a tail "fog light". Also that our head light beams are too high. We need to get the fog light installed and the front light angle adjusted at a local garage before getting registration. Good thing we can still drive around with our US plates for a bit (altho I was told foreign plates are collectible items. I took my tail plate up just in case. I need to have something to send back to the NY DMV.) The hassle now is with parking. We don't have a garage, so we must do street parking. Street parking here is cheap with a permit. It's about 98 euro for half year. However, it's a totally different game without a permit: 3 euro per hour. Anyways, paid about 200 euro for inspection and "partial" registration. Need to pay another 26 euro for the fog light inspection next time. With the custom tax exempt, luckily we also don't need to pay the BPM tax. That's a tax imposed on newly imported/purchased vehicles based on your carbon emission.

All in all, I hope this is all worth it, or I'm gonna make sure it's worth it.