Here’s a brief history of communication technology. First there were smoke signals, then ravens, followed by posted letters, telegrams, faxes, and finally, email.
Unfortunately, the IND (the Dutch Immigration and Naturalisation Service) stopped clocking these changes after 1840. Newsflash! We are no longer living in colonial times.
Now, everyone talks about the pain of Dutch bureaucracy, but the IND’s choice to communicate using the postal system rubs salt in the wound.
After taking an (infamously) long time to process claims, a caseworker drafts a letter, prints it out, PostNL collects the letter, the letters are sorted through, the postman delivers it, and finally, when your hair starts to turn grey, you find the letter in your postbox.
And God forbid your letter was sent on a Friday. Then it would reach you by Tuesday — tops.
So, this is my plea to the Immigration and Naturalisation Department of the Netherlands: Please stop sending important correspondence by post. Perhaps dare to try that exciting new invention called “e-mail” instead?
How my anger unfolded
Back in December, I sent an online appeal to the IND about an unjustified gap in my residence status in the Netherlands.
As though my objection letter was critical to national security, the IND uses an encrypted mail service to send important documents. I followed the intricate process to a tee.
Now, if I send an online appeal, a girl expects an online response — alas, not with the IND.
A month passes. There’s no notification on any of my government portals: MijnIND, MijnOverheid, nor on my email, where I received confirmation that my email was sent.
Well-acquainted with the government body’s processing times, I decide to wait longer.
Two months later, I open my postbox to find a soggy pile of paper and ink: the official response to my appeal.
The letter was dated exactly 25 days prior to the day I opened it. And it had experienced its fair share of Dutch rain.
But it gets better. The content of the letter? Not a reply to my objection, but a request to resend my appeal by post within two weeks. A deadline that had already passed.
At this point, it probably would have been more efficient to send a pigeon.
Tech-savvy government
I refuse to believe that a government that gave us DigiD, a one-stop secure login for almost every public service, cannot figure out how to send a letter online.
In most cases, residents can log into MijnOverheid (MyGovernment) and open the Berichtenbox (MessageBox), where official mail from tax authorities, municipalities, and other government bodies appears neatly and securely in one place. I love it.
Who banned the IND from this feature? Immigration letters are almost always sent by post and are not consistently available through MijnOverheid or even the IND’s own portal, MijnIND.
I notice that people’s opinions around immigration are regressing hundreds of years. But surely our digital infrastructure does not have to follow.
Bureaucracy is already slow. It does not need the added suspense of a letter wandering through the postal system while someone’s residence status hangs in the balance.
What the IND says about this
There was no way on God’s green Earth that I was printing my original email, signing it, stuffing it into the soggy envelope the IND posted me, and trekking to the post office on the slim chance they would reopen my case after the deadline had passed.
So I gave them a little phone call.
Luckily, the telephone operator was a sweetheart. (Sometimes when customer service reps hear you speaking English, you can kiss justice goodbye).
She promised to explain my situation to the civil servant handling my case and confirmed I could scan a signed copy and upload it on the IND’s website.
When I asked why all IND letters are still sent by post, she told me, “It’s very old school, but unfortunately, it’s just the way we work… We always send written letters by post.”
I pushed further, asking why the MyIND portal exists if they don’t use it. She patiently replied, “Sometimes workers upload letters to the portal, but not all of the case owners have access to this.”
With the amount of taxes we pay in the Netherlands, I figured government bodies would run flawlessly.
However, now I see that they are as dysfunctional as any other workplace. Some staff have access to the portal, and others don’t. Some are just as baffled by the rules as we are.
Maybe next time I’ll try sending the IND a smoke signal.
How do you feel about the posted letters? Tell us in the comments.
This article lacks a lot of data that IND considers. Not every user of IND has access to MyGov. Yes, IND can split clients who have access to MyGov and no. My POV on this article, its written one sided…