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Superstition

Posted by Claudia Moser on 7:36 PM in ,


Song motto:


As a foreigner, administrative issues in Germany are a challenge. You have to understand / speak German very well (not only for the discussions held with adminstration clerks, but also since most of them have accents!), to be very patient, to try to grasp the rules and fulfill them without getting irritated.

When Peter and I decided to get married, we were planning with a summer wedding but ended up in November. Reason? We underestimated the paperwork needed to get married in Germany especially for foreigners. But we did get married and I did learn my lesson. If something sounds easy at the beginning while dealing with townhall, finance department or any other administration offices, do not believe it, there is always something lurking around the corner. You might called me superstitious but I would say I am a realist!

So here we were with another endeavour, registering our car from Romania to Germany. I calld, got myself informed and thought I knew what I need to prepare. How less I knew, so at the beginning of October I got a very calm lady explaining what I am missing and what I need to bring forward for this registration.

One month of to dos, of getting papers in original (!!) from Romania, going through technical inspections and this morning I had the list ticked. So I thought, well, let's give it a try, most likely she forgot to tell us something.

Seven thirty in the morning, we with my bags packed for Estonia, Peter with lots of work activities in his head, thus, not very confident or enthusiastic. And guess what? We had ALL correct papers and she pushed us to get it registered. Somehow I could not believe it, I was still expecting the but ... But no, nothing came! Just German numbers for our car and happiness on both our faces.

If I still keep my belief? Oh yes, this was only the exception to confirm the rule, but boy am I happy! :)

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11 Comments


@Karen - indeed, we are both immensly relieved today!

Anonymous says:

We found it within five minutes ;-) It is very nice :-)

T&M


Sounds like a lot of red tape!!

Kathy
http://gigglingtruckerswife.blogspot.com/


I'm glad to hear it's not just France that has loads of paperwork and red tape!


It's nice when something works out for a change isnt it :)


It is so nice when something goes that way that it should!


Yay, glad you got your car registered! :)


That is great. It is so disappointing when you do paper work and find out it isn't good enough.


Expect the worst and be pleasantly surprised when the best happens :-)


Hi Claudia. I'm so glad that you had good news about the car. Bet you couldn't believe it for a moment! Don't you just love it when that happens though, especially when you're all prepared to be disappointed! Good post.


@T&M - thank you!
@Kathy - red tape indeed!
@Emma - well I guess it is everywhere!
@Luan - wonderful :)
@Laura - still happy to see the new plates
@Bibi - me too!
@Belle - very frustrating!
@Sarah - so true!
@Diane - I was very suprised and wondering what will happen next.

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