My New Norwegian Home

I can't believe I haven't said anything about this when it happened as it's a huge part of being an expatriate in Norway ..... my application has been approved! Now that it's not a worry anymore I guess posting to tell about it slipped my mind. It only took 2 weeks at that! After reading some things other expatriates have said about their own horror stories with getting the residency application approved, I was expecting things to take no less than 6 months. However, the problem we had was getting my correct birth certificate, which took many tries. First, I did the search over the phone and the gentleman over the phone sent the search to the wrong state - I later got an email saying they failed to find my birth certificate and when I called back I was told the money was not refundable. The second time, I was sent the WRONG birth certificate. The third time, I was sent the correct birth certificate, but we had to also send a pre-posted envelope with it to the Secr...

As it's been a bit of a hectic week, I have a lot to update on, but first and foremost the most important thing, the application is turned in. We were able to hand in everything except the apostille on my newest birth certificate which we are still waiting for. We did e-mail the UDI about this situation and had to write a formal letter explaining why we don't have it yet. After turning in all the documents my husband was complimented on his organization skills (his OCD tendencies do come in handy at times) and we were told since we have a straight forward situation it might not take too long for me to get a residency permit. So that is wonderful news as we were at first thinking it could take around 6 months - which it still very well could of course if something goes wrong! Once the apostille is mailed back to us, we just have to turn it in for further documentation. As I've received the wrong birth certificate in the beginning, I was able to give that as documentation...

Amidst all the paperwork we are pleased to have finally received our new and improved marriage license in the mail. The one with the required Apostille stamp on it as our regular one doesn't work when completing UDI information. UDI is an important part of being an expat and living in Norway. It's especially important everything is done right. I've decided to document everything with the UDI process because I think a lot of people in hopes of moving to Norway and some expats who have already moved find this all a bit confusing. Believe me, it is confusing! I just hope to share some of my own experiences with this as I know it's probably the same as a lot of expats and I think it's something we can all learn from. Right now it's actually funny to try to explain to people how all this works. We are legally married, but there's a catch to it.... I am legally married in the United States, BUT I'm married to an unknown person. I am not married in Norway...

Any immigrant coming to Norway will certainly be aware of the three letters UDI and all that it means. UDI is the directory which all our documents and applications for residency or work permits are sent to. I'm sure in times to come I'll be posting a lot about this. Arild and I thought we'd have no problems and sail through the application process quickly as we meet all the criteria and we were told we should be approved in a fairly short amount of time.  Our first problem arose just the other day when we received a letter in the mail stating our marriage  license and my birth certificate both need an Apostille stamp on them to ensure they're both authentic. The raised seal on both documents isn't enough proof, so both documents need to go through the state Apostille departments in America.  No problem for our marriage license. I called about my birth certificate and was told my birth certificate is out of date. I almost laughed when I was told that...