Thursday 26 November 2015

Office catastrophes in Norway - Part 3

The day before yesterday, I started with Part 1 and Part 2 of the written series "Office catastrophes in Norway", and yesterday, I delivered you an insight into the local housing market here in Tromsø / Norway. Especially the latter can be helpful to be read before you continue to read this third part of "Office catastrophes in Norway"

So, as already mentioned in the post about the very desperate housing market in Tromsø, my love and I were just extremely lucky that we never had to live in a tent as many other students when newly arriving in Tromsø. One can have everything regarding the finances put in order and use all the sources available to find an accommodation months prior to the move, just as we did, and yet getting a place to stay can be very often just a matter of pure luck. 

Right after the final confirmation of his exchange year had arrived, my love applied to "Studentsamskipnaden i Tromsø" ["The Student Association in Tromsø"] for a one-room-apartment for us. Parallel to that, we - of course - kept searching for an accommodation on the private housing market as well. One cannot expect to get one of the much sought-after student apartments just by applying for those. Of course not. The student apartments are so much sought-after amongst others because of their rental prices which are just one-third or sometimes even just a quarter of what is asked on the regular housing market in Tromsø. And unlike the student apartments, those on the private housing market might not include the costs for electricity, heating, water and internet in the rent

Since the day of our move to Tromsø was approaching and since we were still without a place to stay in Tromsø, my love called "Studentsamskipnaden" in order to ask for their emergency accommodations, in case we wouldn't have found an accommodation by the time we had moved to Tromsø. During that phone call, it turned out that his application for a student apartment had never been handled in the first place since he applied for an accommodation for the two of us, a couple, and for a one-room-apartment. Apparently, it is not allowed for a couple to live together in a one-room-apartment. A couple has to apply for a "parleilighet" ["couple apartment"], so for an apartment with at least two rooms, even though we would have been perfectly fine with living together in a one-room-apartment. Well, a rule is a rule. BUT: Just putting away the application without a single word...?!? Just not handling it...?!? Seriously!?! 

Now this is just an anecdote from what happened prior to our third "office adventure" which took place at the service centre of "Studentsamskipnaden". As in the first part of "Office catastrophes in Norway", you might think that all of this is not even worth to be mentioned - until you will get the full context... 

So, one fine day, we ended up in the service centre of "Studentsamskipnaden i Tromsø", and the occasion for that was a very happy one: We had gotten one of the much sought-after student apartments! Yay! So, there we were, in the service centre of "Studentsamskipnaden", signing the rental agreement for our "couple apartment". We haven't had the opportunity to take a look at the two-room-apartment before signing the rental agreement for it - but it didn't matter. The housing market in Tromsø is absolutely horrible and we managed to find a place to stay at relatively fast, so we were just happy and grateful. 

Before signing the rental agreement, we were going through its small print. After all, this is something one should always do before signing a contract, right? Well, the customer consultant who served us at "Studentsamskipnaden" (and was friendly and helpful at first) did not seem to agree. All of a sudden, she urged us to just sign the contract and leave. There were still three hours to go before the service centre closed and the entire service centre was empty, except for two other employees, so there was no pressure to serve any other customers present in the service centre. And even if there would have been a queue, we could have been asked (in a friendly way) to step aside while going through the small print of the rental agreement. Instead, we were suddenly urged to just sign the contract and leave, "you can read everything on our website later on". But the actual "adventure" was just about to start... 

Being surprised by the sudden change of her mood, we more or less just signed the rental agreement. Or to be more precise: My love signed the rental agreement. My signature wasn't even needed - since I wasn't mentioned in the rental agreement in the first place! 

We told the customer consultant that both of us were going to live in the "couple apartment" and that it was of great importance for us that both of us were mentioned in the rental agreement. For various reasons. Amongst others, if you remember the regulations I mentioned concerning family immigration in Norway, cohabitants over the age of 18 not only need to have lived together for at least two years before moving to Norway but they also need to intend to continue their cohabitation in Norway. So, how could a couple prove that they have continued their cohabitation in Norway if only one of them is mentioned in the rental agreement? Not to mention that the authorities in our home country Finland and other countries we might move to in the future might need such a documentation, too. We explained all that to the customer consultant... 

At first, she stated that I couldn't be included in the rental agreement since I wasn't a student. "Studentsamskipnaden" is renting out apartments to students only, hence only students can be mentioned in the corresponding rental agreements. On the one hand, this policy sounded a bit strange since there are many couples and also entire families living in the apartments provided by "Studentsamskipnaden", and it's probably not that unusual that only one person in a relationship is studying, so why would the one who is not studying been forced to live without having a valid rental agreement? On the other hand, this policy sounded logical to some degree, indeed, so I don't know why the customer consultant started to repeat the following words like a mantra: "She's not a student, so we don't care where she lives. She can live wherever she wants. She can move to wherever she wants. We don't care. She's not a student, so we don't care where she lives." 

However, we then kindly asked for a written confirmation which would just state that my love and I are living together in the "couple apartment". No more, no less. And we were both quite stunned by the following barefaced response she gave: "That's not our problem. That's YOUR problem. We rent out apartments to students. And we don't care about Finland. If you need a written confirmation for an authority here in Tromsø, you can come back with a written request from that authority and just then I will give you a written confirmation, but only if it is for an authority here in Tromsø. We don't care about Finland. That's your problem, not ours!" 

Oh my, what an attitude! What about the "Nordic cooperation"? What about "Nordic agreements"? And what if we would have returned with a written request from an authority located in e.g. Oslo since she insisted so strongly on an authority located in Tromsø? Questions upon questions... 

Well, we were so stunned about her biting tone and "I don't care" attitude that we just left. We tried to explain to her that I was going to have an appointment at the police / immigration office soon and that they definitely would need that written confirmation we kindly asked for, but she kept replying the same as before. 

So, that was our third "adventure" in a Norwegian office, and yet the worst part was still to come (→ Part 4). 


Celebrating our move-in with a ready-made "Festkake" ["Celebration Cake"] 


The problem with the written confirmation was solved as follows: Back at home, we took and printed out several screenshots from the webpage of the police / immigration office which proved that we needed the written confirmation we kindly asked for from "Studentsamskipnaden". At the same time, I contacted the police / immigration office via email, requesting a written request for a written confirmation. As absurd as it all sounds. 

A few days later, we just stopped by at "Studentsamskipnaden" with the screenshots, but this time, we were served by another customer consultant who just gave us the written confirmation we needed without even asking for the screenshots or any other written request. To date, this was the only positive experience we gained in a Norwegian office. 

The lady at the police / immigration office replied to my email just after a whole working week (!) had passed, and apparently, she hadn't even read the email I sent to her carefully since she replied that she could not force "Studentsamskipnaden" to include my name in the rental agreement when I just requested a written request from the police / immigration office for a written confirmation from "Studentsamskipnaden". After repeating all that in a second email, the lady at the police / immigration office replied that they would never request anything from "Studentsamskipnaden" as they never request anything from a third party, so I should just go back to "Studentsamskipnaden" and explain the whole situation to them again. 

Fortunately, at that time, we already had stopped by at "Studentsamskipnaden" and gotten the written confirmation we needed from the only kind and competent employee we have met in a Norwegian office so far. 

I don't even know how to conclude this third part, but it was after this third "office adventure" that I started to realise that this kind of chaos seems to be rather the rule than the exception in Norway. As sad as it is. And in combination with the absolutely horrible housing market, I wouldn't call Tromsø a hospitable place for (exchange) students either.


Wednesday 25 November 2015

The housing market in Tromsø / Norway

Yesterday, I started with Part 1 and Part 2 of the written series "Office catastrophes in Norway", and before it continues with Part 3, this post is going to deal with another catastrophic condition about living here in Tromsø / Norway (since it's connected to the third part): The local housing market.

As a person who is originally from Hamburg / Germany, I'm already quite familiar with a very tough housing market. I could write a whole book just about my experiences from Hamburg's housing market, and from what I keep hearing from my friends and acquaintances there, it's just getting worse all the time. All year round. All the more I was quite shocked when I moved from Hamburg to Helsinki / Finland where the housing market is even a lot worse. Also all year round. My three-year experiences from Helsinki's housing market could fill another book. Our years in Turku / Finland, on the contrary, turned out to be very calm and peaceful. The move from Helsinki to Turku was based on the university place my love received there, and since we moved there at the same time as all the other new students from outside Turku, it was not easy to find an apartment there either, but that was solely based on the time of our move (= high competition). Otherwise, it's not a problem to find an accommodation in Turku all year round, and when it comes to "value for money", Turku has been by far the best place to live in, amongst others because of its very reasonable housing market and real estate prices. That's maybe one reason why we never had to move within Turku during the three years we lived there. Everything has been perfect, right from the beginning. Everything has been stable. 

When we prepared our move from Turku to Tromsø, we had around two months time to find an accommodation in Tromsø (since the final confirmation of my love's exchange year arrived just around that time). We were fully prepared for the high real estate prices in Tromsø, so money wasn't the problem. Not at all. And we knew all the sources for finding an accommodation. However, when the day of our move to Tromsø came,  in August 2015, we had to move to Tromsø without having a place to stay... And we were by far not the only ones!

In Tromsø, it's not unusual that even Norwegian students don't find an accommodation, leading to them being forced to quit their studies and to move back to the places they are originally from. Not to mention how it looks like for students from outside Norway. Many of those who don't find an accommodation live temporarily in tents. Those who can afford it are living on boats, in caravans, in cars or in hostels and hotels.

At the beginning of the academic year 2015/2016, "Studentsamskipnaden i Tromsø" ["The Student Association in Tromsø"] offered emergency accommodations for 120 NOK (~ 13,30 €) per night and per person. Furthermore, many hotels in Tromsø got together and offered hotel rooms at a lower rate for students in need of accommodation. 

As you see: The housing market in Tromsø is very desperate. And that's a fact all year round. Last time we heard of the waiting list for student housing, there were still nearly 100 persons "standing in line". That was a few weeks ago.

If one has no boat, caravan or car and cannot afford to live in a hostel or hotel for a longer period, living in a tent might be the only solution left, until... 


Either winter is coming - or the local press.

Just recently, a tent has been discovered in a forest area here on the main island Tromsøya. It was "full of trash", and inside the tent, there were also found some educational books from the university, so there was amongst others the assumption that a student was living there. I don't know if it has ever been revealed who lived there, if it really was a student, but when I searched for the corresponding article, I stumbled on another article with a similar content from over three years ago, so abandoned tents seem to be a recurring topic in the local press in Tromsø. Since years. I don't know if the persons living in the tents really abandoned their improvised homes or if they felt ashamed of their improvised homes being suddenly a topic in the local press (which might have deterred them from returning there). In any case, it underlines how desperate the housing situation in Tromsø really is. And in connection with that, the final question in the older article ["Synes du det er greit at folk telter over lengre tid i Folkeparken?"; in English: "Do you think it's ok that people are camping in the public park for a longer time?"] seems "a bit" inappropriate to me. Some people really don't know where to stay otherwise and probably feel bad enough already because of that very fact.

As for us, we were just extremely lucky that we never had to live in a tent. Although everything regarding the finances were put in order and although we used all the sources available to find an accommodation months prior to our move, it was just pure luck that we found a place to stay at shortly after we had moved to Tromsø.

I will never understand why e.g. universities offer more study places than there are housing capacities in a city. In the end, it just casts a damning light on the city, if not even on the entire country (especially for exchange students who never find a place to stay and are, in the worst case, forced to quit their studies).

In the print issue Nr.5/2015, Northern Norway's biggest student magazine "Utropia" dedicated not only one but two articles to that topic. In one of these two articles, some students and professors tell about their alternative forms of accommodation, and I especially liked the statement of the biology student Torgeir who owns and lives on a sailing boat and amongst others refuses to stand for the real estate market situation in Tromsø: 

"Thinking, for example, about a young couple with children, I think the housing situation in Tromsø is not acceptable at all, as a student one should feel responsible for that, I am glad not to contribute to this market."

A lot is built in Tromsø, and even containers have been set up for incoming (exchange) students, yet things seem to develop very slowly. And in connection with that, it appears a bit weird to read headlines such as "Asylsøkere i Finland må bo i telt" ["Asylum seekers in Finland have to live in tents"] in the local press in Tromsø when you know only too well that "Studenter i Norge må også bo i telt" ["Students in Norway have to live in tents, too"]. 


Monday 23 November 2015

Office catastrophes in Norway - Part 1 & 2

Ok, I'm afraid it's time to broach the issue of something that is - to put it mildly - not so rosy about living here in Tromsø / Norway. I announced it already a few weeks ago and I decided to make a written series out of it since all of those incidents in one text would simply become too much text to read at once. 

In case you don't know me (in person) or in case of this post being the first one you are reading on this blog, please check out the post with some background information about us and the reasons why we moved to Tromsø in the first place. It might help in order to get a better overall picture. 

For those of you who might consider the title as exaggerated: It isn't. It really isn't. Even if Part 1 and 2 seem to be relatively harmless, they are getting a whole different meaning after experiencing Part 3 and especially Part 4. 

So, let's start with Part 1... 

When moving to Norway with the intention to stay longer than three months in the country, one has to go to "Skatteetaten" ["The Norwegian Tax Administration"] and register there. This is what I was going to do within the first week after our arrival in Norway. While my love was busy with sitting in the first lectures of his host university in Tromsø, I went to "Skatteetaten", in order to get myself registered. 

At "Skatteetaten", while waiting for my turn, I checked out the books and brochures displayed on the shelves. One specific book called "New in Norway" was not only available in Norwegian and English but also in German, Polish and Lithuanian. 


And already on page 10, it describes our case... 


"Family members entitled to residence permits" are amongst others: 

"Cohabitants over the age of 18, when the couple has lived together for at least two years and intends to continue their cohabitation." 

We were familiar with this section already months before we moved to Norway since this case applies to us. We lived together for three years in Finland before we moved together to Norway. In addition, my love is a Finn, so not only an EU citizen but a Nordic citizen, while I am a German citizen and thus an EU citizen. Within the Nordic countries, a Nordic citizen enjoys even more benefits than an EU citizen does, so our move should have been even easier than for a couple which holds EU citizenships but no Nordic citizenship. 

When it was my turn, I introduced myself to the lady who served me, including my intention to register myself in Norway on the basis of family immigration. Her first question was: "Are you married?" I replied: "No, we aren't, but we don't need to be married since we already lived together for over two years in Finland, and that is enough in Norway to be approved for a family immigration." While saying all this, I also opened page 10 in the "New in Norway" book. Without any emotion on her face, she just replied: "Yes, that's right." However, she requested that I would come back at some other point together with my love as it was apparently not possible to register myself without his presence. And she gave me a form to fill out at home for the next visit. 

You might think that this first part is not even worth to be mentioned as the only thing that seemed to have happened here was her not knowing the regulations about family immigration respectively knowing it but asking for a marriage certificate anyway. Well, back then, I would have fully agreed with you, but already after the second part, this first part will be looked at in a different light... 

So, here is Part 2... 

Just a few days later, I went again to "Skatteetaten", this time accompanied by my love. And this time, we were served by another lady, so the beginning of our conversation including the way I introduced myself to her was identical to the previous time, including her first question: "Are you married?" 

Ok, so the part that followed then was identical to the previous time, too: I had to explain to her what is amongst others written on page 10 in the "New in Norway" book. Fortunately, she acknowledged the facts and rules quite quickly, too, and she also confirmed that I could be registered now directly at "Skatteetaten". 

Now this is a part that needs a little explanation: A Nordic citizen - so a citizen of the Nordic countries Finland, Sweden, Denmark (including the Faroe Islands), Iceland and Norway - can go directly to "Skatteetaten" in order to be registered as a resident in Norway. The biggest advantage of that is the fact that the registration is handled right away. Who is not a Nordic citizen, needs to go to the police first. This is where the immigration office is located, and getting an appointment there is a matter of months (!). Since I still hold a German passport but have otherwise everything based in Finland, including a Finnish social security number, I was wondering if I could be registered directly at "Skatteetaten", too. 

The lady who served me the first time just gave me the corresponding form where I could fill in everything including my Finnish social security number. The lady now also agreed, saying that I have lived so many years in Finland that I can be treated like a Finnish citizen. She also acknowledged it on the basis that my German passport was issued nearly three years ago at the German embassy in Finland's capital Helsinki and that my German passport states Turku / Finland as my home municipality. 

So, everything seemed to be perfectly fine. Both my love and I could be registered directly at "Skatteetaten" and leave. And we did so and left. 

And then I did something that turned out to be a huge mistake: I wondered if the lady was going to register us as temporary or permanent residents in Norway as I did not want to be registered as a permanent resident in Norway. Our residence in Norway is of temporary nature, that was pretty clear from the beginning, and with still being a German citizen but a permanent resident of Finland, things are already quite "multinational", so I had no need to involve a third country into that chaos, at least not more than necessary. And so we went back to "Skatteetaten", in order to clarify this point. As I said: It was a huge mistake. 

First of all, after we returned, the lady started to panic, realising "all of a sudden" that I was holding a German and not a Finnish passport which resulted in me not being able to be registered directly at "Skatteetaten". I was at a loss for words since we just talked about all that, especially about my German passport being issued in Finland and stating a Finnish city as my home municipality. I also reminded her of that, but she was just panicking and ignoring my words, acting like it all didn't happen just a few minutes ago. So she was not even apologising to me for her mistake. Instead, she struck out my information on the form, stating that I would need to book an appointment at the police. Then she copied my passport, stamped and signed the colour copy and said that this copy should speed up the process for my registration at the police. At least that was a nice gesture, but nevertheless, I was quite stunned by all this. Where has that lady been with her mind when she served us!?! Where has that lady been with her mind while working in the service of the Norwegian government!?! 

All of us are making mistakes every now and then, also at work, but the whole way of this incident was just completely weird. And in the end, she answered our question with: "In Norway, there are no such things as temporary and permanent residency." 

Later on, when we did a quick research on that matter at home, that information of her turned out to be wrong, too. 

So, after this second part, you might realise that even the lady in Part 1 did not know that a German citizen should go first to the police in order to be registered as a resident in Norway, even if that German citizen is a permanent resident of Finland and thus a permanent resident of a Nordic country. Otherwise, she wouldn't have given me the form to fill out in the first place. So, both ladies didn't seem to know about this regulation. And both ladies needed to be taught about what's written already on page 10 in the 135 paged "New in Norway" book, available in front of them in five different languages including their own mother tongue Norwegian. And the second lady even claimed that there were "no such things as temporary and permanent residency" in Norway. 

Yes, all of us are making mistakes every now and then, also at work, but what these two ladies in their 40s delivered at "Skatteetaten" was a series of mistakes and misinformation. Two visits, two different ladies and partly the same mistakes and misinformation. I guess it's needless to say that our first two impressions of the work performed in Norwegian offices, on top of it at highly official authorities, were anything but positive. To put it mildly. And yet these first two impressions are nothing compared to what's going to follow in Part 3 and Part 4... Brace yourselves for those parts! 

By the way, I booked an appointment at the police / immigration office shortly after that second visit at "Skatteetaten". The earliest possibility to register myself in Norway turned out to be on 16th October 2015, so two months (!) later. And nowadays we are not even sure if one would have ever realised that I could not be registered via "Skatteetaten" if we wouldn't have returned because of that one question I had (and which has been answered wrong anyway)...


Sunday 8 November 2015

The reasons for our move to Tromsø / Norway

Before I'm going to broach the issue of those things which are not so rosy about living here in Tromsø / Norway, I thought it could be helpful to provide some background information about us and the reasons why we moved to Tromsø in the first place...

I'm originally from Hamburg / Germany and I have lived there all my life before I moved to Helsinki / Finland in August 2009, due to a university place. During my time in Helsinki, I met the love of my life, a Finn, and after three years of living in Helsinki, I moved with him to Turku / Finland in late summer 2012, due to his university place. At the end of the year 2014, we decided to move abroad, so he can seize the chance of having an exchange year during his studies while I would regain job and career opportunities which I simply didn't have in Finland and increasingly craved for. 

We received a list of places in Europe where my love could spend his exchange year, including Germany, the Czech Republic and the Nordic countries Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Iceland. Unfortunately, the cooperation with our original favourite, the University of Aberdeen in Scotland, had been cancelled in the meantime. 


Germany has never been up for debate since I'm originally from there and turned my back on that country for many good reasons. The Czech Republic has never been an option for us either, amongst others because I don't speak any Slavic language such as Czech which would have been quite an obstacle when searching for job and career opportunities in the Czech Republic, especially since English language skills are not as common there as in e.g. the Nordic countries. And so only the other Nordic countries were left.  


Basically everyone I talked with guessed that we would go for Sweden. It would have made perfect sense since both of us speak Swedish and I'm known for having a strong affinity to Sweden, but since both of us suppose that we will end up in Sweden sooner or later anyway, we decided that this exchange year should be used as an opportunity to live in a country we would not have moved to otherwise. Quite quickly, the decision was made in favour of Norway, amongst others because of its local language. Understanding Swedish enables one to understand Norwegian, too, while understanding Icelandic and Danish is a bit trickier. And the decision between Trondheim and Tromsø was made even quicker, solely based on the fact that the last letter in "Tromsø", the "ø", looks exotic. Yes, believe it or not... ;o) 

So, in August 2015, after three years of living in Turku, we did not move to Tromsø because of the mountains, the stunning landscape or the illusion of Norway being a picture-perfect country to settle down in happily ever after. We moved to Norway mainly out of pragmatic reasons. The mountains and the stunning landscape just came along with the package. And as for the "picture-perfect country to settle down in happily ever after": There is no such thing as a picture-perfect country in this world, and "settling down happily ever after" has never been our intention when we moved to Norway. Indeed, it's left open how long we are going to live here as we moved to Norway not only due to my love's exchange year but also because of my job and career opportunities. And if we would have fallen deeply in love with the place we live in right now, we might have reconsidered our intention of not settling down here happily ever after - but that clearly has not happened.