NEWS FLASH!

Just a quick note: I received my actual green card in the mail on Friday, so fortunately they didn’t decide to send it to the US… Now I will just have to go sit in Immigration for my residency stamp and ID card, and then go sit in Social Welfare to get my PPS number (like a Social Security number).

I also was able to put in an application for a bank account, which should be active on Monday, so I can start receiving money, spending money, etc. through a local account. The Irish have this thing about proof of address. It’s hard to get anything without proof of address. It baffles me how you could go into a place and say, “Hi, I would like to give you money for service,” to which they respond, “we only take money from people who receive utility bills (the most common proof of residence).” I was able to use a letter from my work to get my bank account only because my employer happens to have accounts with the bank I am applying to, but otherwise proof of employment is not enough. I know the premise behind this, specifically for banks (they have had a lot of problems in the past with shady international bank dealings), but geez! I’m sure it’s only really bad because I’m a “foreigner”, but it’s still crap… In any case, it’s all working out, so I can’t complain too much…only if it’s funny…to me…at least…

It feels good to start getting things more solidified, though. Now I get to start apartment hunting, which is likely to be the least fun and most disappointing part of my immigration process, but we will leave that for another post.