Bureaucracy Abhors Creativity

Learning Patience and Numbers Amid Red Tape

Have you ever encountered rules that left you scratching your head? Whether it's paperwork at home or abroad, share your experiences with unexpected bureaucracy!

I’ll go first…

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I was registering for a writer’s residency and the payment form had two options:

• I have been accepted and am making a deposit

• I have not been accepted and am using the wrong form

Being me, I laughed before realizing that they are there because enough people must have confused the words “application” and “payment.” The over-confident American side of my brain might think that’s just sad, but having moved to a new country where I am not fluent in the language and can’t discern between soap and surfactant, I’m changing my stance.

Yesterday, we had appointments to register with the municipality of Rotterdam, something you’re meant to do within your first five days but we figured they couldn’t count days they weren’t open.

I have since learned to question my assumptions.

To properly register with your Dutch municipality, you need to have a landlord and a formally arranged lease - all for tax purposes, of course. Our landing spot is not one that will allow for this so we have to register temporarily as “non-resident residents” which basically means we exist in the system but have no address, and they would send any formal communication back to our US address.

It’s a half-step forward.

In order to do anything with the gemeente (municipality), you need an appointment (duh). It’s rather slick the way it all works, you get a personalized QR code to bring in with you and scan upon arrival. From there, everything works a bit like a deli might, if they offered passports and resident registrations instead of pastrami on rye. If you’re thinking of the American DMV, you’re missing the delight of a properly-oiled Dutch machine.