Paperwork

I'm not sure where it is more difficult to get residency, Denmark or the US. No problem for me to move back there, of course, but it is a bit daunting to get a residence permit for K (even though we're married and have been together for almost six years). It's not as simple as just going to the embassy and saying, "We're married. Give her a visa." Have a look at the requirements.

If you don't feel like reading it, I'll summarize. For me to be able to bring K into the country, I need at least the following:

- 54,148 Danish kroner in my bank account
- a permanent address (a 3 year lease or owned property)
- a job
- proof that we've lived together for at least two years

There are several other little niggling demands, but you don't necessarily have to satisfy them all. Each applicant is thoroughly scrutinized and a decision is made based on overall "merit". So, as long as we've satisfied a good portion of them, we'll probably be good to go. At the moment, the only problem for our decided timeframe is the fact that we couldn't get an appointment at the Danish Embassy in London until June 14th. This might mean that Kristen will have to stay here a little longer or we put off the move until August or September. We'd rather not do this because in terms of jobs for me, we need to strike while the iron is hot. Plus, it's not economically sound for us to stay here longer. The sooner we get out, the better.

This all seems pretty daunting, I know, but I have a few ideas and some tricks up my sleeve, so we might just be able to pull this off.

-RP-