Yesterday we went to get our TIE cards sorted. These are the new residency cards for non-Europeans, which, of course, we are now. Our residency cards were due for renewal in November, so now, instead of having the residency cards for Europeans we now have cards for ‘third countries’. While on a day to day basis this doesn’t mean anything different, it’s a reminder that our freedom to go anywhere, work anywhere and live anywhere in Europe without limits, is now well and truly over. Progress in the eyes of some, I guess.
The process was very straight forward and we were both in and out within 20 minutes. I wonder if Covid has had an impact on things like this where, in the past, people were just inclined to turn up and then mill around for a while, now everything is by appointment. We had to give our fingerprints and this was done digitally, which is something we haven’t had to have done before.
The officer doing the interview was very nice, but when we spoke about it on the way home we realized that he was probably asking us some questions to prove we were who we said we were. For example he asked how far away we lived and what sort of size the village is.
So we just have to wait now for our new cards to be created and delivered, and we’ll be good to go for another 10 years. I wonder what that will bring!