The absurdity in my quest for permanent residency here in Norway continues to increase. When we left off the last time, I had received a letter on Christmas Eve from the police saying that I didn't have documentation for taking 250 hours of Norwegian instruction, and that I thus needed to get a waiver from my local municipality. Of course the local municipality was closed for the whole Christmas break, so I couldn't actually apply until after New Year's Day. Then, as is often the case, the one person responsible for this kind of think was so busy that she wasn't able to get to it until today, the sixteenth. This morning she called me with information that makes me really fear for the future of Norway, a country about to be strangled by bureaucracy.
You see, it turns out she can't actually give me a waiver regarding the 250 hours of Norwegian instruction because, through a strange legal quirk, she doesn't think I'm required to have it. Although I moved to Norway this time in 2008, I have spent lots of time here before, including in 1993-1995, while I researched and wrote my doctoral dissertation, and it seems that--at least according to the local municipality--I am officially in "the system" as a 1993-model rather than a 2008-model. Unfortunately, the police don't agree, and they still think I need either proof or a waiver. Gah!
After talking to my local bureaucrat, I called up my case worker in the police, and had a conversation about all this. She's not sure she can give me a residence permit herself, and thinks that she may have to forward my case to the Immigration Directorate itself. Luckily, in the time that has passed since I submitted my application, I have managed to get a PDF-file of my university transcripts from the US, and she thought maybe seeing those might help.
Both of the women I spoke with were very nice, and assured me there's no real danger of me getting deported. There is just no way either of them can, well, think independently and critically, and make a decision in a case like mine, which is outside of the norm. They are completely locked in to bureaucratic protocol. On the one hand, I totally understand, and am trying to be really patient, but on the other hand this makes me want to scream! I still can't believe that it's the language requirement that is holding me up here. Anyone who's met me knows I speak and write Norwegian pretty much as "near native" as you can get without actually being a native. It's just totally crazy.
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