A long way to go

NO LUCK, the second morning in a row. Bleary-eyed, I hit F5 again. In the preceding hour, I had refreshed the page at least 360 times. Yes, I did the math. It took the webpage slightly below 10 seconds to reload. With my watch and phone handy, I was able to keep tabs on the time.

Armed with anecdotal information from social media and subsequent confirmation from an immigration caseworker — there was no information on the Poznań foreign office website — to be able to collect my Polish residence permit card, I had to make an online appointment between 5-and- 6.30 am. 10-minute slots between 8.30am and 3.10pm weekdays are made available in the 1.5 hours of early mornings. However, there’s a catch. Although the caseworker said that slots are added for the following 10 days, they are, in fact, added only for the 10th day. Also, there’s no point logging on to the website Wednesdays or Thursdays (or 10 mornings before a public holiday) because the foreign office, understandably so, doesn’t work weekends (or national holidays).

Given the high influx of foreigners — one of the highest in the EU in recent years, according to Eurostat data — that have migrated to Poland, the 10-minute appointments get booked in seconds. Quite literally.

In a stroke of luck on my third groggy morning, I was able to book four meetings in a frenzy of excitement. When I didn’t receive a confirmation email afterward, however, much to my chagrin, I was told the system had crashed and that none of my four meetings got booked. Go through this whole rigmarole “again!,” I heard.

Living in Poland for over eight years had taught the slightly impatient me that patience is a virtue. I remember the times when the Poznań foreign office didn’t have the possibility to book appoints online. The only way to make an in-person appointment was to stand in a queue for hours (over four, sometimes) and wait your turn. Then came a ticket machine from which you had to get a number on a piece of paper and wait your turn. Again in a line. Despite the teachings, my latest experience with the foreign office was surely a test of patience. The waking up early part wasn’t as bad. The Polish-only website for foreigners (oh, the irony) crashing down often or the captcha failing every other try was way worse. While I could still travel outside of Poland without a card, its lack meant additional hassle at the Polish border.

And while I got my card after having waited for it slightly over seven months — some foreigners have waited for over a year to get theirs — if Poland wants to make its residence permit application process more efficient, it has a long way to go - SD