Me and Gandhi, we're tight.
THREE HOURS. Count 'em. At the Italian Embassy today. Standing waiting for someone to deal with me. So here's the deal -- they give you numbers (I was # 97, they were serving #43 when I went in), but they give anyone coming in to pick up a visa preference (which I'm sure I will appreciate when it's me. But for the moment, it was a looooong morning.)
The Upshot: At the present time, I seem to fall through a crack in the system (meaning there isn't a law that says I CAN'T do what I'm asking to do, just that there isn't one explicitly written that says I CAN, so it relys on the ever-hard-to-come-by-in-front-line-employees INTERPRETATION and JUDGEMENT. Sigh. You can get a work visa to be paid by a company outside Italy, but only if your company already has Italian offices (huh?!?!). Soooooo, they don't know what to do with me. Instinct (and years of dealing with bureaucracies) says that I just need to find someone enabled with judgement. I can't register our company in Italy because it would be 3 years before they could get work authorizations for anyone not Italian. I could go through Guido, but I hate to have to drag someone else into the mix: I have a house, health insurance, and a company willing to support me full time...! The immigration system commentary that could be made on this point is multitudinous (broken systems, etc etc.,), but will go unspoken for the moment; subject of a later rant.
There are other options to work around the system, and I'm confident I can make it work, but this means I have to go to the provincial labor office and obtain an authorization from them then bring that back here to the consulate ... (INSERT GIANT TIME SUCKING SOUND HERE).
Got back to the office - deflated but not defeated - and my horoscope was:
"Many people will be competing for the same result, and only a small number will be able to attain it. Such odds don't scare you though. Gandhi said, "There would be nothing to frighten you if you refused to be afraid." Yeah. You go, Gandhi! Italywon't know what hit 'em.
The Upshot: At the present time, I seem to fall through a crack in the system (meaning there isn't a law that says I CAN'T do what I'm asking to do, just that there isn't one explicitly written that says I CAN, so it relys on the ever-hard-to-come-by-in-front-line-employees INTERPRETATION and JUDGEMENT. Sigh. You can get a work visa to be paid by a company outside Italy, but only if your company already has Italian offices (huh?!?!). Soooooo, they don't know what to do with me. Instinct (and years of dealing with bureaucracies) says that I just need to find someone enabled with judgement. I can't register our company in Italy because it would be 3 years before they could get work authorizations for anyone not Italian. I could go through Guido, but I hate to have to drag someone else into the mix: I have a house, health insurance, and a company willing to support me full time...! The immigration system commentary that could be made on this point is multitudinous (broken systems, etc etc.,), but will go unspoken for the moment; subject of a later rant.
There are other options to work around the system, and I'm confident I can make it work, but this means I have to go to the provincial labor office and obtain an authorization from them then bring that back here to the consulate ... (INSERT GIANT TIME SUCKING SOUND HERE).
Got back to the office - deflated but not defeated - and my horoscope was:
"Many people will be competing for the same result, and only a small number will be able to attain it. Such odds don't scare you though. Gandhi said, "There would be nothing to frighten you if you refused to be afraid." Yeah. You go, Gandhi! Italywon't know what hit 'em.
posted by Viaggiatore | 5/04/2005
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