Sarah received a letter from the Dienst Persoonsgegevens (basically, the local council) yesterday, informing her that she can come in and pick up the extension to her residence permit in a couple of weeks. It referred to a prior letter from the IND (the Dutch immigration service), in which Sarah was supposedly informed of the IND’s decision to extend her resident permit. Oddly, we never received that letter. Perhaps it will yet come and someone somewhere is simply behind on his paperwork.
Nevertheless, the important thing is that the IND has apparently decided to grant Sarah a five year residence permit, so she doesn’t have to deal with them again until August 2011. By that time, she’ll be able to obtain a permanent residence permit or even citizenship, if she so desires. This is fabulous news, not least for me, as I’m the one who has been filling in the forms, collating the supporting data, writing explanatory letters, etc. That’s one less thing to worry about.