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.