BSN

(please note this post is a late translation of the BSN Italian post from 21st October)

It's here...finally!

My BSN has finally arrived!

This means that I finally EXIST. BSN ergo sum.

I can open a bank account, subscribe to a mobile service plan, get a Health Insurance, go to the doctor...

I know this kind of "bureaucratic" posts is not very popular, but I am posting it for someone who, in the future, might need to go through this process.

If you move to the Netherlands from another country, you have to register within 5 days after your arrival. You need to register if you are staying in the Netherlands for at least four months within a period of six months.

You have to register personally. Your partner and children also have to attend, if they are moving with you.
 
Documents needed for a BSN application:

• valid identification (ID or passport)
• a lease or deed of your house. If you do not have one of these documents, you must have written and signed permission from the owner of the property, together with a copy of his or her ID.
• a recent birth certificate (when born abroad)
• a wedding certificate (if and when married abroad)

If you do not have EU/EER nationality, you need to apply for a residence permit at the Naturalisation and Immigration office (IND).

If your stay is shorter than four months, you can apply for a ‘Sofi-nummer' (Tax and Social Security number).

To find out where you should go to apply for the BSN, google the website of the municipality where you are going to live, or check this link.

It's a good idea to call and schedule an appointment in advance, so that you won't have to wait. On the agreed date, just show up with all the documents and in 15 minutes you will be out again!

From the day you apply for the BSN, a countdown is started: for example you have 4 months to get a health insurance or apply for the 30% ruling.

The BSN is issued within a few weeks, but waiting times change a lot between cities: while Amsterdam is super fast (many acquaintances reported they got it on the very same day of the application!), in Utrecht I had to wait for 15 days. Keep that in mind when planning your relocation, as without the BSN you won't be able to get paid, and many companies have tight deadlines for your data to be inserted in their payroll.

The BSN is nothing more than a number. Weirdly enough, it will be sent via standard mail, not e-mail. It's sad that they are waisting such a useless amount of paper in a civilized country like the Netherlands...but in this respect the country is not as advanced as I would have thought...for example they do not separate their rubbish! And, they always ask you if you want a receipt in shops, but they'll print it anyway, and throw it away if you say "no"...what is this???

Lol, enough for today, see you soon!

Ready, set, GO!

 

Today is the big day!

I'm in Milan waiting for my flight to Amsterdam.

I'm bringing with me a huge luggage and a trolley with anything I might need in the next few weeks (basically: heavy shoes! Jumpers! Wool, wool and more wool!). You should have seen me dragging around these 35 fashionable kilos, it was something worth seeing.

Giuseppe left me at the train station in Bologna, and H. is picking me up at Schiphol airport. It's strange and cute that I already have someone waiting for me :)

It's time for my adventure to start!!!

Linda

-1...

The countdown is almost over...tomorrow I'll be in Utrecht!

I already closed my luggage and checked all the entries in my to-do list. Except one: I have to stock up on cuddles until the very last moment.

I already know getting some sleep will be hard tonight.

Home sweet home!

Some of you may have heard it already, but here is the official announcement:

I FOUND A PLACE TO CALL HOME! :)

I am renting a room in a super duper cozy apartment that I'll share with a Dutch girl. The first month we'll be three, cause the girls were so kind as to welcome me in their house before my room was free. This pretty much sums up how lucky I was.

But it does not stop here, as H. (the girl whose room I am going to rent) is also picking me up at the airport. She's an amazing young woman, strong and positive, with whom I immediately felt at ease, even if we never met. She even invited me to her farewell party on my first weekend in the Netherlands (she's going to be working for an ONG in Africa...I told you she's cool)... The world is really showing some good love to me lately.

I feel really lucky. I haven't arrived yet and I already feel at home.

Of course I am a little scared, too...afraid of all these novelties, of the grey weather, of being separated from my love. This is why I can't wait for my new life to begin, to get over with all this anticipation. But I know I'll feel nostalgic of so many things: having breakfast with my colleagues, laughing at lunch time, going home with Giuseppe, cooking for two and watching a movie nestled in his arms. All things that is breaking my heart losing.

I take comfort in all the nice things that have happened and are bound to happen to me, and looking at my new house's pictures. I am posting one in case you're curious, and I promise I'll take more pics when I am there :)

As for our apartment in Italy, we are still looking for new renters. If you happen to know someone who might be interested, please share my contacts!

Linda 

Goodbye...

What shall I say? May I shed a little tear?

Yesterday has been my last day at work. Tuesday will be my first day in the new office.

I'd never thought so many people were supporting me. I'd never expected so many emails, cheers, hugs and "I'm sorry you're leaving". I'd never imagined I left my small mark on that big blackboard.

I'd never thought leaving would be so hard.

The word cloud you see below has been created with all the nice messages I got today from my colleagues. Not my idea, I stole it from someone I very much admire, although I realize now I never told her clearly enough. I would have linked her post but I cannot find it anymore. Thanks Carlo, you rock.

House Hunting

Although I still don't have a roof over my head (but wait, as there's something brewing!) and I can't therefore consider myself a pro in this activity, the last frantic days of house hunting have given me enough knowledge of the Dutch estate market as to be giving some advice to those of you who are out there exploring this world too.

Let me tell ya: it's a big bad world.

• it's expensive
• it's VERY expensive!

But don't give up: the Netherlands are full of international students and expats coming and going, and there's a big turnover both for rooms and apartments. You're also very likely going to move to some of the big cities like Amsterdam or Utrecht, not in the boondocks! The market will be full of opportunities there and you'll surely find your perfect match.

The main difficulty is finding the right channels for your hunt. The websites and resources we use it in Italy (like Bakeca, Kijiji and the damp estate newspapers out for display at news-stands) are not in use in the Netherlands.

I called for the help of friends and acquantainces living in the Netherlands and they suggested a few websites that I could use. Below you'll find a list of those that I've come to try (in order of preference) and a short review!

Real Estate Websites

• Kamernet.nl: THUMBS UP! On Kamernet I found a great variety and quantity of valid, redent ads, in line with my budget and taste. Signing up and viewing ads is free, but you need to pay a subscription fee to contact the renter (from a minimum of 21 € for 15 days to a maximum of 36 € for 60 days). It is worth the cost, cause all ads are REAL, posted privately, and for all budgets.
• Kamerhuren.nl: works like Kamernet, meaning that ads-viewing is free, but there's a fee for reacting to them. There is no subscription and you pay per reaction, but to get the renter contacts you have to send a sms from a Dutch mobile at the advantageous price of 1,50 € per sms. To sum it up, it is not easy nor convenient, unless you already have a Dutch phone and a lot of money and time to waste. It appears to me that is also not as popular as Kamernet, there are less ads and more dated. But it's still worth a glimpse, if you should find something you really like then 1,50 € it's a cheap price to pay.
• Pararius.nl: you will find a lot of ads here, but they are all managed by real estate agencies. If you like estate agents you'll be pleased by this site, where contacting them is free (although visiting the place may not be - some agencies require and advance payment). I personally don't like estate agencies, but if you are interested these are their prices:
• Equavalent to 1 month of rent
• Mediation fee (Equavalent to 1 month of rent)
• VAT 19% (calculated on the service fee)

• Erasmusu: specialised in rooms in shared flats, focused on students but also useful for young workers who wish to find a cheap accommodation. Subscribing is necessary to react to ads and costly (much more than Kamernet): starting at 15 € for 5 days, and up to 60 € for 6 months (hope it doesn't take 6 months to find a room...).
• Rent Student Room: a sort of forum where registering and answering to posts is free. Rooms are posted on the site and users can react to them in a thread or by private message.

If you are looking for a temporary accommodation, you may find something on Airbnb too. Many of the rooms and apartments posted are by people who wish to rent their place while travelling or away.

This is quite common in the Netherlands, where people have an open and pragmatic mind, and think it is a waste to leave the house empty when they could raise some money out of it. On the contrary, in Italy we are very attached to our house and rarely ready to share it with anybody!

If you are lucky enough to have some local acquaintances, don't forget to tell your friends that you are looking for a place to stay and ask them to get some information for you: word of mouth is the best way to get top apartments and prices.

Another possibility is to check if there's any Facebook page dedicated to expat in the city where you're going to live, they may help you with your hunt or at least suggest neighbourhoods to avoid.

Finally, as suggested by my friend Gaetano, try to google "free rental service" + the name of your city. You may find some other websites offering agency-free rentals. You never know...

Glossary:

TE KOOP = for sale

TE HUUR = for rent

If you know about other channels and resources please tell me and I'll be happy to add them :)

Linda

11 days to go

Here I am with some updates!

I guess the last two posts were a bit boring for those of you who are not looking for a job in the Netherlands and are only here for a sneak peek into my little adventure...today, to make up for that, I'm telling you what's been going on over the past days.

I am leaving on Sunday September 29th, from Milan, flying Easyjet. It's a journey of hope, with 2 luggages, 1 train, 1 bus, 1 flight, and 1 more train.

I can hear you say now...."what on earth are you doing this for?!"...ehrm...you're right :(

Sometimes I am so stingy (especially when it comes to flights) that, just to save a few bucks, I can embark on journeys that would make Frodo shiver. On top of that, 3 days after the booking I was quite disappointed to find in my inbox the KLM newsletter announcing seasonal offers on flights to Amsterdam. Ouch.

But let bygones be bygones, I've stocked up on books and I have enough readings for all that traveling. However, there're still many entries on my to-do list!

First: find a house. Initially I wanted to start looking for an apartment once in Utrecht, so that I could see the neighbourhoods and be aware of distances, etc. Therefore I booked a flat for 2 weeks on Airbnb. Sadly, it is a bit costly...I tried to look for something cheaper, and I was even willing to share a flat with a woman, her two children and another tenant, but things didn't work out and I "fell back" on a more expensive solution. This miniature studio, with burners in the middle of the entrance/living room/kitchen and no extractor fan, clearly has a high opinion of itself and adjusted the price on its ego, not size.

Second: get my documents in order. I started to get information on the bureaucratic steps I need to take to lawfully live in the netherlands, and I found out about the existence of this mystic number: the BSN (Burger Service Nummer). Despite the name, it is not Mc Donald's take-away line, but the expat's holy grail in the Netherlands. Without the BSN in the Netherlands YOU DO NOT EXIST. You cannot rent a place, open a bank account, work, get paid, or go to the doctor.

Our good-natured fiscal code is no match.

As you might have grasped, getting a BSN it's a necessary step for any other task, and the sooner you get it, the better. I then started to chase this magic number, and I found to my surprise that one of the requirements is being in a rental contract. Ah-ah. Loving this catch-22 situations.

I asked my temporary Airbnb host to sign me a document where he declares that I live at his place, and of course he turned me down: off-the books sublet is not just an Italian plague.

All right. After this I started looking for a different accommodation where they would let me register my contract. Waiting until I found a final accommodation was not really an option, as this might take some time and in the meantime I would be unable to open a bank account and receive my salary. Also, as I am quite restless, I already had scheduled an appointment with the Utrecht Municipality on the day after my arrival, to register my BSN. I didn't really want to reschedule that. So there I was, quite in a hurry to find someone willing to declare that no, Linda does not live under a bridge.

Luckily enough, one of my future colleagues is a super duper nice Italian guy who is really helping me a lot with my relocation. He asked his landlord if I can register my address at his place, and the landlord said YES! See how nice people are in the Netherlands???

Now I feel relieved!

The adventure got a happy ending, but I still learnt a lesson: do not wait till the last minute, start early instead!

So I had a second thought on my house-hunt project and I started looking for a long term accommodation from Italy. I was happy to find that rental prices are not as high as I had feared: I mean, they do ARE high, but not as high as I had figured.

Let's say that if you are willing to share a students' house with 3 other people, you might get a room starting at 300 € (of course it's not the Hilton and it's not Amsterdam). The closer you get to the city-center, the higher the number of housemates, and the cuter the room, the higher is the price you'll have to pay. Still the budget I gave myself (which, to be honest, was scaring the shit out of me) is now looking more than adequate and this is heartening.

A few notes on house-hunting in the Netherlands:

• You do not get many replies (so far I only got 3 replies out of the 20-something applications I sent). Is it because Italians are not regarded as good housemates? Why, when we know how to make pasta and other such stereotypes. Meh.
• Visiting a house before renting it is a girlie thing. There is even a "viewing" field in every ad, and very often the answer is "NO". Ain't pics enough? Get lost. I must admit I am not so annoyed by this habit, as it comes in pretty handy when you look for a house from abroad.

On Saturday I had a sort of Skype interview with the owner of a flat where I might rent a room. I thought it would be something of a chat, just to avoid exchanging emails, but it ended up feeling as a test. When we hung up I was quite tense. They were lovely, but had I knew that the call was so important to get the room, I would at last straightened my hair...

Soooo....here I am, fingers crossed, hoping I get the room... Pleasepleaseplease say yes!

The location is great, the house is super cute, my hopefully future housemate is a stunning blonde and a sweetie, the rent is fair, everything is perfect... There is only one tiny downside to this is place, and that's that it is only available in November, which means I should start looking for another temporary accommodation for October, but they were kind enough to say that I could stay at their place for a few days before I take the room...

Guys, please, cheer on me!!!

Sorry for the extra-long post. I'll try to write less but more often ;)

Until next time!

Linda