Monday, November 27, 2023

Navigating the World with a Turkish Passport: The Good, the Bad, and the Visas - Part 4

Part 4: Copenhagen


This year, shortly before summer, for the first time in my life, I made a serious attempt to buy a house. Not that I really want to own such big property, but I think unless I do this sooner rather than later, I will suffer financially in my old age, if I manage to reach old age that is. I reached out to my Danish bank to discuss mortgage. My initial conversation with the bank advisor ended with him telling me something like “Usually, we are more difficult with foreigners, but you seem ok. I can approve you for a loan.” I guess I finally made it as an immigrant after 14 years. Also, I now know how mortgage works.

 

In February 2018, I moved to Copenhagen to become an Associate Professor at IT University of Copenhagen (ITU), and to see if Copenhagen and I can satisfy each other’s criteria even though my home country pathologically doesn’t satisfy the Copenhagen criteria and I tend to be pathologically picky when it comes to where I live.

Five years later, I am still an associate professor at ITU, I love Copenhagen as I already told in the first post of this series, and, as of this year, I am also a permanent resident of Denmark.

 

Copenhagen has the sea (one year I managed to swim in from May to October), my favorite culture house (Huset), two easily accessible amusement parks (Tivoli and Bakken), 24-hour public transport, streets that I feel safe to walk on even at late hours and doesn’t feel deserted during a good chunk of the day, and a ~3-hour flight to Istanbul that doesn’t make you go through jetlag.

I live in a rental apartment that I really like, and I think my landlord is a decent human being.

Since I got my own PhD students in late 2021, I can say “I love my job” without hesitation for the first time in my life. Plus, I managed to establish a strong support system over time.

Denmark has also been the first foreign country that I lived in where some people pay attention to writing my name correctly. Not just the “ö” and “ü” in my surname, but also the “ı” in my name. To be clear, I don’t expect this from anyone. Even I write my name as “pinar” instead of “pınar” in emails. I insist on the correct form only in paper publications and presentations. But I appreciate it when people make the extra effort for this.

I don’t take any of these things for granted.

 

These five years haven’t been a smooth ride. I didn’t expect it to be smooth.

I didn’t really know anyone when I moved to Copenhagen. I had the weakest support system I ever had in my life in the beginning.

Setting up your own research group from scratch is, to put it very mildly, hard. Doing it while trying to build up a more decent support system and learning a new language is extra hard.

And they didn’t give me my permanent residency card on a silver platter; I took both the longest and shortest exams of my life to prove my proficiency in Danish at B2-level and knowledge of Danish culture/history, respectively. This doesn’t account for the time I spent studying for those exams. Furthermore, they made me go to Næstved. I wonder how many Danes have been to Næstved. For some reason someone decided to discontinue the fingerprint and photo procedures for the permanent residency cards in Copenhagen leaving Næstved as the closest location for this purpose if you live in Copenhagen. To be fair, going to Næstved is still easier compared to most people’s daily commute in Istanbul or the Bay Area.

 

Shortly before I applied for my Danish permanent residence, my temporary one was up for expiration. I had to go through the same application process twice within six months, minus the extra documents for the permanent one the first time around. These applications didn’t cost me anything in terms of money because Turkish people are exempt from payment in residence permit applications (500ish euros). I don’t know the historical reasons for this exemption, but I assume the Danes needed the workforce. On the other hand, these applications cost me a lot of valuable time and stress. I would really like to be exempt from that time and stress as well, especially after 14 years living abroad. I guess the stress side of it is in my control to some extent, but it hasn’t improved when it comes to permits and visa applications over these years.

An additional annoyance was that the expiration date on my temporary residence permit was right after New Year’s in 2022, and I usually spend New Year’s Eve with family. Despite applying for the renewal of my permit as early as I was allowed to, I couldn’t get the new one on time before my end-of-year trip to Turkey. I still traveled to Turkey, but I returned to Denmark on Dec 31, 2021, just in case. My renewed permit was in my mailbox, but it was extended for less than two years instead of the usual four due to the expiration date on my Turkish passport. I knew I was going to apply for the permanent residency soon, which would hopefully overwrite this temporary permit, so this was ok, but otherwise it would have been a “please kill me now” situation. The highlight of that New Year’s Eve was I slept though the mayhem of fireworks that usually takes place in Copenhagen on that night since I was too tired. Early next morning, I went back to the airport to do a mandatory COVID test (yes, it was still those times).

 

Thanks to my Danish residence permit, I at least no longer have to get a Schengen visa to travel in most of Europe, which is a blessing. On the other hand, I gave up my green card in early 2021. By that time, I knew I would likely not go back to the US, and, therefore, this was the right thing to do. As a result, I missed two conferences in the US in 2022 because I couldn’t get a US visa on time for them. Now, I have a US visa for another 10 years, so I am good for the time being. I don’t know if having a green card prior made any impact on the visa decisions, but it certainly didn’t shorten the appointment time and it lengthened my questioning at the airport while I was entering the US this summer for a conference. 

 

The ITU CS department used to have a coffee hour every other week. The first time I attended this coffee hour, I remember sitting there in my usual silence and social awkwardness among people that I don’t know very well yet. After a while, a faculty member approached me and started a conversation about some issues regarding the Turkish population in Germany.

I now identify this colleague as one of my favorites at ITU. I am also the kind of person who would much rather talk about the Turks in Germany than the Turkish food or the weather. However, in those early days in Copenhagen, that conversation reminded me why I wanted to move to the US in the first place after Switzerland and the trade-off I made when I moved back to Europe. My Turkish nationality gives me a heavier baggage to carry in Europe, and I am not allowed to let it go. At least, I now have stronger muscles for it.


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