I’m fairly exhausted. It’s midnight. Getting resident card take longer time than I expect it to be. I am in the country where I have no family, friends, or relatives. A country with different primary language than the language that I already know. Work was packed. There’s exam coming in few days. Had to do some paperwork related to my resident permit and finding a new house as my temporary one will be expired soon.
Dear my future self
If you ever in the same situation again it’s okay, the whole universe just teach you that there’s a lot of things that out of your control anyway. You’re probably start panicking thus it will get the best of you to mitigate the problem.
Do you still have sufficient backup card that can be used in the country? Good then.
How to mitigate your problem and getting your bank account opened even with the temporary one. Go to the bank and see if they allowed foreigner without SSN yet. If they allow you to do that then praise the God and don’t forget to ask the rules that applied towards your non-resident bank account as well as how you can convert it to the resident one once you get your SSN.
Now, just in case call the government medical service provider. Is there a way for you get a medical attention if you’re sick and haven’t received your SSN?
Now is time to secure your housing. Do you still have the phone number of the bank? Try to call it, ask them if it’s possible for you to increase the withdrawal limit for that time only, so you can pay for the rent.
If you manage to get it then reward yourself.
Wost case scenario you’ll still be able to pay the rent in installment instead of one time pay.
If not then ask your future landlord if you can pay it in installments instead of paying the whole sum in front. Probably ask your coworker to help translate the language if they’re not using English as their primary language. Thank the God since you’re still able to use both of your home country and your temporary account to pay the rent, so it won’t take a long time to pay it. Just try it otherwise you may regret it in the future.
If they don’t allow you to do that then you’re probably in real shit’uation if it’s really difficult to find housing in the country. Worst case you can try to find another temporary one, praying that if one day you need to move then you need to route all of your mailing into the new address, which will take sometime and not ideal since you’re still dealing with the resident card paperwork and it will be kind of difficult to find some place if you don’t have the resident card yet. Ask your employer in any case they have a way to help you with this.
What did you learn up til now?
You probably need to be more aware about unpredictable situations and how to deal with it in any case shit happened.
Now remember the things that you still have right now:
- Temporary bank account with some ID that you can use as a replacement for your social security number
- Insurance where you can still go to private medical service in any case you’re sick
- Your passport, praying that some of the landlord will allow you to rent only based on your employment pass, temporary ID issued by the bank, and passport
- Your employee pass, as your main identity in the country
Life is still not that bad, isn’t it?