I'm Not Doing That Now.....

Today I went to Immigration at the police station to check on my wife's and child's renewals as they should be ready. Isn't it great that if approved, my wife and child gets the privaledge of living with me here for one more year!?! Whoo hoo! Oddly, I am a permanent resident and my child was born on the Dutch Side. Would it not make more sence to coordinate the expiration of the family residency as a whole? I guess barring that I chase her off for some other reason, I get to live with my wife for at least one more year......That is, if her papers were approved.

Aha! Nobody in line. Not a soul. I approach and am overly friendly wishing her a Good Morning (don't do that and you get nowhere on this island.)

[Side Bar, Announce Good morning from rise and shine time until 11:59, then it is Good Afternoon until 5:59, on to good evening and then good night. Local mannerisms basically stop at that, but don't do it and you will get nowhere; except to get someone to Chupps their teeth at you]. Hey its a start. Anyway, back to the papers.

All powerfull Immigration Lady (playing solitare on her computer): "We're not open for that."
Me: "um, ok, what are you open for? Sign says Open?"
A.P.I.L. "Reentry permits"
Me: "i understand, but since there is nobody here (and you are only playing solitare...wait, can't say that) would you be so kind as to check on these two numbers in your computer to see if they are ready?"
A.P.I.L. "Only reentry permits. Come back at 2:00."

WHY?!?!?!?! Why does it have to be so difficult? It would take her all of 10 seconds to type in the number for the system to tell her the status of the request. If it was lunch hour, hey, I understand, if there was a line of people waiting for reentry permits, bummer for me. But not a soul was around. So, I do what you can only do. Bite my tounge and head to Green House for a Margarita.

Inspiration

I must give credit of being my inspiration to starting a blog, to Paul Keyser, a medical student here on St. Maarten. My wife and I find ourselves drawn to his blog frequently to read about his latest ranting about his run in's with Tel-Em, his POS Blazer, and the CW (as in Crack Who..., well you know...), and his twisted view of life in general on the island. We crack up constantly at his postings. Paul, if you ever read this.......Be very thankful that it is only Tel-Em you have to deal with and not our other highly qualified and fully supportive and ever so helpful civil servants. I can only imagine the fun you would have with them.

St. Maarten's BERMUDA Triangle

Once you get sucked into the trifecta of inefficiency, you may never make it out sanely. My advice. clear your schedule, put some beers on ice, get something good to read, and disappear into a lesser known triangle.

Back Story....

There is going to be a lot of back story to get everybody caught up as to why I would bother spending the time ranting about the process to get my workers residency and work permits. I am a...Lets say foriegner, and have been living on St. Maarten for 15 years. My company has upwards of 80 employees, many of whom need thier work permits and residency renewed every couple of years. For those of you who know what it is like to go thru the process just for you or your family, imagine what it is like to keep up to date with so many people with papers expiring at different times of the year? It is a full time job just standing in line and gathering documents. You would think that there is a special line or window to assist companies with large amounts of people...But no! Get up at the crack of dawn and get in line each time one of the staff needs their papers renewed. Like we have nothing else to do to running business.

It is important to note that all of my workers are on the books and all of the various taxes are paid. I do not believe in skirting the system, but I do wish that all of the taxes I do pay would at least buy me the courtesy, respect, or efficiency from the pit bull with the 8 inch nails on the other side of the counter sending me back yet AGAIN because now I need another 5 Fls stamp ($2.77). Oh the joy!

Hello World.....

A blog about living and working in St. Maarten? How interesting could that possibly be? You know it is comical that the actual purpose for this blog may be more of a sort of a diary to cover my a** in the event of a visit by our friendly immigration officers aka. "the man".

By documenting the teeth-pulling, line hopping, document gathering, early rising to get a number, sometimes in a funny, yet truthful manner. I can one day look back to all the time wasted standing in one line or another just to be told that the lady I need to speak to is out sick. Come back next month. Oh yah, your papers expire in two weeks. Sorry.

Who knows this blog may also help those who do not know where to start, what to do to begin their life laboring in paradise. In the interest of not stepping on any toes (ie. prompting a visit by "the man"), names will be changed to protect the guilty.

Let the lines begin!