As required for my work permit three months ago, I worked really really hard to finish my master thesis. I have a full time job during the day and have to work my thesis on the evening. For the last three months, those are the only things that I did.

But I managed to finish it 🙂

Last month, August 24, I finally submit my master thesis document via post.  I managed to set a date for my master thesis defend on September 19. A week later, I got a temporary letter stating that I have done all the courses including the thesis and got all the 120 credits out of 120 credits.

I and my wife went to the immigration office on 2nd of September since our temporary permit would end on the next day. But what we got was the worse treatment that we ever had in Germany.

The woman in the immigration office rejected the letter from the university. She didn’t believe the letter and maybe thought that I just made up that letter. She said that it is impossible that a master program have 120 credits. She shouted at us and abandoned any explanations that we gave.

The worse part, she decided to send back our documents back to Bremen! She said that we had to move back to Bremen since we are students from University of Bremen.

We are not allowed to stay in Berlin

We tried our best speak German so language was not the problem. My wife was almost speechless and I was trying my best to stay calm. I explained that I was done with my study and now got a job in Berlin since June. I showed her every document that I got including my latest pay slip. She just didn’t care. A colleague of her joined the debate and also shouted at us.

After about 15 minute debates, I gave up. She gave another 30-days temporary permit for us to move back to Bremen.

We were very disappointed. We were thinking to give up our stay in Germany and go back to Indonesia. I can bare rejection (I heard a lot of horror stories about German immigration) but what I didn’t expect is the disbelievement and some shoutings.

After a week, we calm our head and decided to do our best effort. Luckily the HRD manager from the company where I work is willing to help us with this issue. She contacted the immigration office Bremen, and the guy from Bremen said that our document should not be in Bremen since we stay in Berlin. So he will send back the document back to Berlin as soon as he gets it. FYI, sending a document between immigration office could take more than 1 and a half week 😯 Until now, we still don’t where our documents are.

Stay Positive

That’s the best we can do. On September 19, I finish my master thesis defend. Just last Thursday, my wife managed to finish her master thesis document and I got a temporary master certificate stating that I got M.Sc degree 😎 Now, I more get time to sketch, update my portfolio, blogging, start my next game project, and of course, play games. I am playing Final Fantasy Tactics A2, a present which I gave for myself for finishing my thesis.

We are still in Berlin. Next week, we are going to go to the immigration office, maybe the one in Bremen or Berlin, depends where our documents are. We just do our best, pray to God, and whatever the result, we believe that’s the best for both of us.

Today is 8th August 2008, the beginning of Beijing summer olympic 2008. I was stunned watching the opening ceremony on TV. It was the most beautiful opening ceremony I’ve ever seen in my life (the second one is the Seoul Olympic in 1988). It’s really really beautiful and calming. I think it touches something deep inside me, I even got some tears in my eyes…

In the last 4 years, I’ve watch several opening ceremonies: World Cup 2006, Winter Olympic Torino 2006, and the UEFA Euro 2008 Austria-Swiss. To tell the truth, I was not really impressed by them. Maybe my expectation was too big. Or maybe Asian is quite good managing something big, colosal, and beautiful.

Well, that’s just my preference 😉

Today is also my lucky day. I finally finish my thesis documentation after working on it for the last one and a half month. It was really hard days since I have my full time job and have to do my thesis on the evening. And also in the weekend. It’s really tiring but that’s the only way for me to get my work permit.

That’s why I didn’t update both my Blog and portfolio for a long time… Sorry for that.

I hope I can get everything done: my thesis defend, my master degree, and our work permit in Germany, before 1st of September. That’s one of my wishes for this amazing and beautiful day.

I didn’t know that getting work permit in German is really this hard. It’s been 3 months and I haven’t got my work permit yet 🙁

It’s quite surprising for us. We did a consultation with immigration lawyer a week before I applied my work permit. The lawyer said it won’t be a problem for us to get work permit. The job requires skilled worker (J2ME programming), I have 3 years experience on J2ME, got a bachelor degree in Informatics Engineering, and currently finishing my master thesis in Digital Media in Germany (it’s our third year in Germany). My wife also has the same qualification like me, and she even speaks better German than me.

The problem is not in the immigration office. In fact, they are really helpful. They respond all my e-mails (in English!!). We went to the immigration office in Berlin and it’s far nicer than the one in Bremen. The person are so kind and friendly (including the security guys).

The problem is on the Arbeitsagentur (the state job agency). The immigration office has to send my documents to the Arbeitsagentur and wait for their approval. Normally, it takes 3 –4 weeks for the Arbeitsagentur to approve the document, or 2 weeks if they reject you. Even the person in the immigration office was confused that there’s no answer yet from Arbeitsagentur, even after more than 2 months.

So on the last one month, me and the HRD person from the company have been in contact with the Arbeitsagentur. It’s quite hard to work with the Arbeitsagentur. The response was quite slow, hard to find the contact person, and they keep on asking for some extra documents.

They keep on arguing that I have to finish my master degree first. I found it untrue because I know some indian friends who managed to get work permit (after dealing with them for 3 months) while finishing their master thesis.

Fortunately, the person at the immigration office is really kind and aware of our problem. She gave us temporary permit for 3 months as students, which means I can start working in the company immediately while waiting for the permit approval, and also finishing my thesis 🙂 We were so happy when she gave the permit because my student permit was supposed to ended on May 31st. Otherwise, I have to go back to my home country. At least, our financial problem will be solved at the moment.
We really really hope to get our real permit soon. We love Germany, we have close friends and good memories here, and it feels like our second home country.

This issue has to be changed since almost 95% of foreign students in German choose to work at other country or go back to their home country after finishing their study (Spiegel, August 2007). I find it kinda true since only a few of my foreign friends can get a job in German. Maybe it’s hard to get a job here, or maybe the horror stories about German bureaucracy?

I guess we are still lucky.