I am a "legal alien" again!

Yay.....we picked up my new resident's permit today. Unlike the first one, which I received within three weeks, this one took over three months! AND it arrived just two days before my current one expires - phew! The good news is that it is valid up until March 2012 so we won't have to worry about renewing it every year. And I think after living here for a period of five years I can apply for permanant residency. The bad news is I will have to live with the stunning photo you can see here for the next five years :-/ Due to all the new "big brother" rules you can no longer smile or look remotely human in passport or official identity photos!

On a related issue, there is a very heated debate raging here at the moment about dual nationality. With the newly elected parliament come two members who have dual nationality, and therefore, hold two passports. The extreme right wing "Partij voor de Vrijheid" is calling for a motion of no confidence in these parliamentarians and demands that they give up their non-Dutch passports. As far as I can tell the arguments are based solely around some kind of loyalty issue - apparently if you have two passports you are deemed not to be a loyal Dutch citizen and are unable to fulfill the duties for which you were elected without some kind of conflict of interests. But, unfortunately, maybe the issue is being used by those who just don't want Muslims in the government (the two people in question are of Turkish and Moroccan descent). It's a difficult subject and I can see some valid arguments on both sides. However, if I ever decided to try to get a Dutch passport and was forced to give up my Australian one, I don't think I could do it.

Alli xxx