I Got a Temporary Part-Time Job! But First... Part 1: Advanced Italian Bureaucracy for Foreigners

I have not added many posts in 2 months.  This is in great part due to an exciting new development.  I was offered a lovely, very part-time and temporary English teaching position at the High School where I did my volunteering this Fall.  Whereas my position is compelling, getting through the bureaucratic hurdles to start it was draining.

First, the fun part!  I am an esperta madrelingua for a Cambridge English B2 Test-Prep course after school from Jan-May this year.  I have 22 delightful students once a week for two hours on Tuesday afternoons.  I work with lovely colleagues at Liceo Copernico, I get to learn lots, and make a contribution I really enjoy- it's a joy in every sense!  

There's an interesting context to the position, too- it is a project of the PNRR, Piano Nazionale di Ripresa e Resilienza.  The plan is co-sponsored by the European Union, and plays out on several fronts: Innovation, Green Revolution, Infrastructure & Sustainable Transit, Education & Research, Inclusion & Cohesion, Health, and Energy (non fossil fuel, non Russian).  It's inspiring to think my weekly classes are part of a future- and sustainability-oriented multinational collaboration.  

I will share more about my classes in the coming weeks.  But for now, the less-fun part.  I was invited to apply for the position about a week before Christmas.  Here's a quick tally of the things I (initially) had to do in order to start the position on time:

• Verify that I can, in fact, work in Italy before I receive the physical, plastic card for my permesso di soggiorno (applied for the first week of November, not yet ready 6 weeks later)- All official Italian websites agreed, I can!  Luckily I also had my codice fiscale (like our American Social Security number) from 2008.
• Complete application, including a survey of my experience for the point-based selection process
• Quick, write a resume in the European format in Italian (see first page below)
• Ask my teacher, Corinna, to proofread my resume- Grazie, Corinna!
• Go to the high school and officially upload my application materials.

Whew!  All done before the Dec 23rd deadline.  I was feeling pretty good.  This is the land of bureaucracy, so I saved a little room in my heart for possible additional steps.  It's a good thing I did, because I found out on Dec 30 that there's an electronic ID card I need for the online time-tracking system for a position that accesses EU funds.  I just needed to get that.  

Here's the next quick tally of the things I needed to do to get my electronic ID, part 1:

• Go online to get an appointment to get the electronic ID at the Comune (City Hall, main local government office, located in Piazza Maggiore)
• Swear a little, because the soonest appointment available was for almost two weeks later
• Go to the Piazza Maggiore Comune office first thing in the morning anyway, and ask if I could be helped in advance of my appointment time given that this is for a project of the PNRR.  The answer was Si
• Find out that before I can get an electronic ID, I need to get la residenza in Bologna.  "No problem," said the woman helping me, "you just need to go to another office a couple of km away, they're open right now, see you later."
• Go to the via dello Scalo Comune office, chat with someone who said "We're closed right now, but you can come back tomorrow first thing and one of us can help you."  I asked him to preview my documents, just to be sure I had everything in order.  He did, and said, "You're all set!"
• Go back to the via dello Scalo Comune office, and hear from a colleague of the person who spoke to me less than 24 hours prior that I can under no circumstances get La Residenza and therefore not the electronic ID without first getting the physical, plastic card for my permesso di soggiorno.  I tried quoting from the website and the colleague who had helped me the day before.  No luck.
• Go to the Questura per immigrazione (State Police Headquarters for Immigration) to see if I can speed up the permesso di soggiorno.

See you soon for Part 2: Privilege & Racism in Italian Bureaucracy