Today I cried. I’ve just come back from the Ufficio Immigrazione at the Questura di Bergamo and it was awful. Horrendous. The backstory on this, as some of you may know, is that I’m currently here on a Blue Card, a special type of work permit. But since I got married in September to an Italian citizen, I need to convert this to a different permit, one for family that will be valid for five years without the need to renew. About a month ago I had already gone to the Questura, stood in line 2 hours, and obtained a list of documents that I would need to hand-in along with the new application. Important note here: at that time, I was also give an appointment to come and hand everything in , however the date was in June. I told the officer that I would be away in Canada in June on vacation for the entire month. He told me that it wasn’t a problem and that I could come and hand-in my documents in May before leaving. Ok, so fast forward to today. It’s May. On the suggestion of the officer, I show up, stand my usual 2 hours in line while people push and shove and jump in front of me. And yes, I do try to tell them, but usually they are men and maybe from a country where women have no right to tell men what to do, who knows, but they don’t listen to me. This already makes me want to cry and punch someone. Finally, I get to the front of the line, explain the situation and hand-in my documents and the officer, (a different one) working today decided to not accept them. “You have to come back in June” he tells me. I explain to him that I will be in Canada in June and that his colleague said it would be fine for me to come beforehand. “No, you can come when you come back then.” is his terse response. He doesn’t care that I just stood in line two hours, that I had to take the morning off work, that I will have to take another morning off work to come again…I tried to be a bit more Italian at this point and tell a white lie. I tell him that without this permesso, I won’t be able to come back to work immediately and that I have a job that I need to return to the day after I return from Canada. “Non mi importa” is his response. He doesn’t care that I’m trying to follow the rules and I need this permesso to continue working (this is the white lie because my current permit doesn’t expire until July but I just wanted to test him). So essentially, you have so many Italians complaining about all these immigrants who don’t work and I’m trying to explain to the immigration officer that I need him to process this permesso so that I can WORK and he refuses to move an inch. Tell me, what difference do you think it makes to him to accept my paperwork now or accept it in a month and half from now? Absolutely nothing. The only difference is that for a nano-second, he was able to get off a bit with his “power” by saying no to me. Tutto qui. So today I cried out of frustration and I said things that I hate to say like “THIS WOULD NEVER HAPPEN IN CANADA.” And I know, maybe I'm too "permalosa", I'm too easily affected and need to toughen up my skin but unfortunately and fortunately, I was raised in Canada and I'm not use to this kind of inefficiency and roadblocks created for absolutely no reason other than to bust your balls. And so I vented and I'm having a moment of hating Italy. But I know it’s temporary and that I can control my reaction to these types of things. I’ll be better after some wine.
8 Comments
5/11/2017 12:57:51 pm
OH! That is awful! Very frustrating plus having to contend with rude people. When I became an American citizen I had to give up my Italian citizenship -- that's no longer the case. You can now have dual citizenship. I've often thought about getting my Italian citizenship back. I don't know how many hoops I'd have to jump through. I hope you can resolve your problem soon. Would working through an attorney help?
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Jasmine
5/11/2017 01:33:34 pm
Hi!! Thanks for stopping by and leaving your comment, I appreciate it! It's so unfortunate that you had to give up your Italian citizenship, you should definitely try to get it back, I know that it's quite the process but it might be worth it! I think I'll just bring my Italian husband with me next time, that usually helps. I'm a bit timid in Italian in the sense I would never think to get angry or raise my voice or lecture someone at the immigration office and so maybe I get taken advantage of too easily!
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Hi Jasmine. I'm taking a sick day from work today and just finished watching your episode of House Hunters International. It's good to see that you did start a blog and are still writing in it! Congratulations on the house & making life in Italy work.
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Jasmine
5/18/2017 11:09:55 pm
Ciao Marina! I'm so happy that you saw the episode and tried to find me although I guess Google works wonders! It feels like a lifetime ago that we filmed House Hunters! I cannot even immagine full-blown reverse culture shock...I even feel like a fish out of water at times when I head home to Canada to visit and have to stop myself from talking about Italy or saying annoying things like, this mozzarella is disgusting compared to in Naples ahaha. Thanks for saying you cried in an immigration office too, you have no idea how happy that makes me feel because sometimes I think I'm totally losing it! I've completely recovered from my bad day, I wrote this post super fresh. Keep in touch and let me know how the rest of reverse culture shock goes, I will make a point to check up on your blog as well!
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Jasmine
5/18/2017 11:11:28 pm
Omg *imagine* ...so sorry, I used to be so proud of my spelling abilities but Italian is ruining me. IMMAGINARE = TO IMAGINE haha, hence the 2 "m"s...
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Haha! It's cool that you're learning so much that it's affecting your spelling!
Orson
6/12/2017 09:58:25 am
Yes. This is a very real, very valid post, Jasmine. I've been there (emothionally), too. (Albeit in Northern nation, the Netherlands.)
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Jasmine
6/12/2017 07:10:50 pm
Orson, thank you!!! Your comment about gumption made my day!!
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(I suggest "Italian Men" or "wine" but that's just me!) Curator:Jasmine is a former pharmacist turned writer and wine drinker from Alberta, Canada living "the sweet life" in Bergamo, Italy.
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