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My first visa—that is the “you’re legally allowed to stay in this foreign country kind,” not the platinum kind—in Germany was so easy, I barely noticed it was happening.

Janet, my host mother, and my boss when it came to au pairing, drove me around the city so that we could collect all the paperwork we needed.  She’d already arranged for my health insurance, the paperwork for which we filled out at home and mailed off.  Once the company confirmed that I was insured, we had the first bit of paper that we’d need to convince the German government that I was legit.

Then she printed out a contract that I signed, detailing my duties as an au pair (this already being laid out by the law for her—one required day off a week, 285 euros payment each month, food, accommodation, and the health insurance), which I signed.

The last step was to drive to a photo booth at the train station to take the passport-sized photo that would appear on the visa itself.  Afterwards we drove all the paperwork over to a small office located nearby, filled out a couple more forms, and went home.  They’d call in a couple of months, they said, to let me know if the visa had been approved.  In the meantime it was fine for me to stay and begin au pairing.  It was that easy.  We didn’t even have to wait in line.  I look back now, two visas later, and wonder how it was possible.

In December the Auslandersbehorde called Janet to say, “Hey!  You’re in!  Come pick up your official little piece of paper.”   Although I highly doubt there was much excitement in the actual voice that said it.  The Auslandersbehorde isn’t a place very concerned with customer relations.

This time we drove to the larger Auslandersbehorde in the middle of city, a place whose waiting rooms I later came to know quite well, all four rings of them.  We got a number and waited, finally getting ushered into an office shared by two women.  The one assigned to us had a large pink sticker printed out, which she adhered to two pages of my passport.  Then she stamped it, handed to me, and that was that.  I was legally allowed to stay and work, as long as it was only as an au pair, and only for Janet’s family.
Otherwise, the little pink piece of paper said, my visa would be null and void.

Though I’d already been in Frankfurt for almost three months I felt excited and relieved.  It was official, no one could tell me to go home, the whole surreal experience of tossing myself headfirst into another culture and language suddenly felt real, legitimized, ridiculous as it was, by that little piece of pink paper with its official government stamp. Well if this little piece of paper says it, it must be true…