I’m curious to hear opinions on how bureaucracy/inefficiency impacts day to day life. We often hear how Western Europe is horrendous with being able to get things done efficiently- but I’m curious to hear for Europe as a whole, are there any exceptions? Would like to hear about the “less popular” expat locations in Europe.
For activities such as getting internet set up in a new flat; or having the heat break and needing the repair company to come look at it- which countries in Europe would be the most efficient?
This is triggering flashbacks of when I had to convert my Singapore drivers license to a local one in Belgium.
They confiscated my original license, made me wait for 11 weeks without the right to drive, and then at the last minute wanted my former employer in Singapore to confirm that I was in fact living in Singapore when my license was issued there.
To this day they still hold my Singapore drivers license, because “You can only have one license”. I won’t tell them about my three others I guess.
Oh I had to turn my USA one into an Austrian one. Took me three appointments and seven months!
First issue, I didn’t have an Austrian background check because I had only lived here a few months. I had both the FBI and state level checks from the USA but those didn’t count because I didn’t have a visa to stay in Austria. I didn’t have a visa because I’m a dual US/Austrian citizen. But my background checks did not mention the Austrian passport, so they needed to use my US passport plus my visa. Which, again, I did not have.
Finally I got an appointment with the chief of state police and he helped get that sorted. Then he realised that marijuana was not included on the very specific list of illegal substances I had no convictions for. Which is because MJ is legal in Colorado. I had to explain that and promise I would not smoke weed in Austria.
Then, he saw I actually had a weird license class. It was just for driving larger trucks (ranch/farm kid) not semis or commercial vans. So THEN I had to beg them to just issue me a normal class B license, and promise I would only drive normal cars.
That’s enforced pretty strictly in the US and Canada, since neither country has a national ID system, so a driver’s license is pretty much the de facto ID and proof of provincial/state residency.
But I figured in Europe where national ID cards are a thing, that would be much more relaxed, but I guess not.
Hold on you had a Singapore license!! And they took it? Wow- that’s like confiscating two gold bars!!!