Mobility & MALAYMATRIMONEY

Three months have passed in Bergen since the launch of this project in March, which means that our first quarter is up.

As always, the first few months after moving to a new country are always taken up by various administrative and bureaucratic processes of settling into a new country. How one’s identity and personhood is established by the state — and more importantly, how long it takes to do so — differs from country to country. In Norway, here’s what I had to do:

1. Within a week upon arriving, make an appointment with the police to report my arrival. Within three weeks, I received my Norwegian residence permit in the mail.
2. I did not have to report to the tax office (Skatteetaten) too to get my Norwegian ID number (fødelsnummer); the police did that for me. This was supposed to take only 2-3 weeks, but was delayed by Skatteetaten requiring confirmation on whether I indeed wanted to be registered as a tax resident of Norway, and what’s my apartment unit number? My fødelsnummer came in the mail at around Week 6.
3. Finally in possession of my fødelsnummer, I can now open a bank account. I submitted an application with DNB, and waited for them to get back to me with an appointment time to verify my identity in one of their branches. They took almost two weeks to do so — the gentleman on the line sounding genuinely confused as to why I would choose their branch in Lagunen when I could just walk into their central branch in Bergen Sentrum (FYI: this particular branch was not in the drop-down list at all). At around Week 8, I finally verified my identity.
4. Some time after receiving my third month’s salary, I was puzzled to see that the university continued to deduct 50% for “emergency tax”. Apparently this is what happens when they don’t know what your actual tax rate should be according to your income bracket. I realized that I was busy chasing the bank account and was late in applying for a “tax card”. I proceeded to make an application by mail, all the while beating myself up for not doing this as soon as I arrived in Bergen. (I thought I needed my fødelsnummer for this, but apparently a work contract would have sufficed.) Around this time, the May 17th celebrations took place, thus derailing all incoming and outgoing mail.
5. Around Week 10, I received the contract from the bank that I had to physically sign and return — again, by snail mail — to their Oslo branch. More waiting ensued.
6. Week 12: I finally got my tax card, but perhaps it might be too late to reach HR before they pay out salaries for the month. Will my fourth month’s salary still be deducted at 50%, instead of the 34% promised in the tax card (which actually came in the form of a letter)? Wallahu’alam (only God knows). This time, I was taxed at the appropriate rate.
7. Week 14: After weeks of anticipation, my DNB debit card finally came in through the mail, along with the one-time code device. Without the latter, I cannot apply for a Bank ID, which essentially proves that you have been vetted by the state as a legitimate individual with the right to access state & private financial and civil services. Within a couple of hours, I set up my online banking environment, and my Bank ID. Everything was seamless once I had this device, which unlocked so many (bureaucratic) doors for me in Norway.
8. Week 15: And now, with the Bank ID, I was even able to open a new bank account and a deposit account for our new apartment within minutes. I was able to access my online tax account on Skatteetaten’s website, and have access to the Norwegian Personal Registry system, which are all — like my bank accounts — connected to my fødelsnummer.

That is to say: the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Action (MSCA) values “mobility” in our research careers, but I just want to make it clear just how much time, focus, and energy “mobility” actually takes away from our actual research work. Trust me — this is my fifth fellowship, and I have had to go through this process — in varying orders and procedures — in the Netherlands, the United States, France, and Japan. Fortunately, with the exception of France, I was able to get much help from university administrators who often go above and beyond to help me settle in administratively. Sometimes they may not always know all the answers, but they’re nevertheless willing to be a helpful resource in many ways.

Now that I am finally a fully registered resident of Norway, I can finally breathe a sigh of relief and focus more on MALAYMATRIMONEY, which is what I’m really here for. More on that in the next post.