After spending five hours and walking all around central Sibiu, I have successfully registered as a Romanian resident. Now they can't send me back to England after three months!
As I've come to expect in Romania, the registration process involved lots of rubber stamps on documents and required a lot of patience on my part. I thank God that He gave me lots of patience!
I arrived in Sibiu around 11a.m. today (Thursday 26th August) and followed the road to the city centre. I had been told to go to the "Prefectura" so I asked for directions from my friend Mihai, leader of the Sibiu-Agnita Railway restoration team who happens to live in Sibiu. He said that the route towards the city centre would take me right past the building I was looking for. Sure enough there it was, so I took the first turning right to look for somewhere to park my car. About 200 metres along the road I found a space just outside the University Lucian Blaga. This is easy I thought. Five minute walk to the "Prefectura", check the signs outside the two entrances. One was Passports and Driving Tests the other was Driving Licences. No mention of Foreign Citizens so I went into the Passports door. Asked an English speaker in the queue if this was where I could also get Resident's Permit but he didn't know. Queued up for about 15 minutes in a rather small, overcrowded and stuffy area for the window which had "Informatie" above it. When I finally got near enough, I called across to ask if I was in the right office. "Just a moment" was the reply. Five minutes later, after he had finished issuing passports to a family of four, the official called me to the window ahead of the next person in the queue. He told me I should go to the Police Headquarters in Strada Revolutiei and wrote on a piece of paper the name of the department I should ask for.
Forcing my way through the now larger crowd of passport applicants, I found some space in the entrance hall to get my map unfolded and find Strada Revolutiei. It was about 10 minutes walk to Police HQ but once outside, the road junction didn't seem to match up with my map! Fortunately there was a policeman on the corner who spoke reasonable English and instead of just directing me, said that he and his female colleague were going in that direction so they would walk with me. I had a police escort to within a 100 metres of their HQ! On the way Mr Friendly Policeman asked if I was married and when I said "I'm a widower" he said he was sorry to hear that and asked if I would be looking for a Romanian wife! This seems to be the reaction of many I meet. Are they perhaps trying to find a husband for their unmarried sister?
At the Police HQ I was directed to a door which said "Serviciul pentru Strain", the French equivalent "Bureau des Etrangers" and the somewhat strange English translation of "Foreign Office". No queue this time and after handing over my passport, the contract for buying 130 Roandola to prove I had somewhere to live and my European Health Insurance Card, I was asked obvious questions such as what was my reason for coming to Romania and was I able to support myself financially. I had brought with me some of the documents and receipts relating to my ongoing company registration but they needed more information about my bank accounts. I was asked to fill in a form (a remarkably simple one for Romania), then told to go to the local branch of my Romanian bank for a statement of my accounts after which I was to go to the Primaria (City Hall) in Piata Mare to pay a registration tax of 4 lei (80p). Why can't this tax be collected by the "Foreign Office" at the Police HQ? Don't they trust the police to pay it into the county coffers?
The branch of Alpha Bank was about 10 minutes walk from Police HQ but, needless to say, in the opposite direction to Piata Mare! Obtaining a print-out of my account balances was easy and quick, for a change. Piata Mare was 15 minutes walk back along a pedestrianised street lined with bars, cafes and restaurants. In Piata Mare itself there was a lot of activity in preparation for a Medieval Festival due to start at 9p.m. this evening and run until midnight on Sunday 29th. Unlike all the other Primaria buildings I have seen, the one I was looking for did not have Romanian tricolour and EU flags over the front door which was just a tourist information office. I had to ask where to find the Tax Office, the door of which turned out to be round the corner and actually facing onto Piata Mica. Fortunately no queue here either and I left five minutes later with a receipt for my 4 lei tax which I would now take back to the Police HQ, another 15 minute walk.
By now it was 1:30p.m. so I bought a "sandvich" (spelt with a "v" - it's not a typing error!) which is in fact a decent size bread roll with ham, cheese, peppers and some relish plus a few chips! On the way back to Police HQ was a small park so I was able to sit on a bench and enjoy my lunch - excellent value at only 90p and very filling.
Back at Police HQ around 2p.m. I had my photo taken with a digital camera linked directly to the police computer and gave a specimen signature on a digital pad, also plugged into the computer. I handed the print-out of bank balances to the official who was handling my registration. "This is not enough, we need 'Extras de Cont' (statement of transactions)" he informed me. Actually this was probably my fault because he had written "Extras de cont" on a piece of paper which I had failed to pick up and take with me. So it was back to the bank again, who quickly furnished the required statements as efficiently as before.
This time I decided to fetch my car from where it was parked outside the University Lucian Blaga and drive back to the Police HQ. Being unfamiliar with the road layout, I ended up in the wrong lane and unable to get back in the right lane because of a long traffic island. I had to turn left instead of right but thought, "Oh well, I will take the first right and go round the block!" However, I had reckoned without a one way system which, after making the first right turn, then prevented me from going round the block. I could only turn left which meant I was heading away from Police HQ. Still, I had some time to spare as I'd been told to come back in three quarters of an hour with my bank statements. Eventually I got back to a junction I recognized from my trips to Sibiu airport and was able to turn left onto a garage forecourt and exit back to the city centre.
Arriving back at the Police HQ, I was able to park just across the road and after handing over the bank statements, a certificate declaring that I had been registered as having "the right of residence on Romanian territory" was finally handed to me. Oh no! They had put my address as 130 Laslea so I had to explain again that I lived in Roandola which, although it is administered as part of comuna Laslea, is a seperate village 6kms down the road. Whilst the amendment was being made by his assistant, the chief of the "Foreign Office" was chatting to me and once again when I said I was a widower, asked the inevitable "Will you look for a Romanian wife?" He then added "It is not right for a man to do the washing and the cooking - it is woman's work" which sums up the male attitude to women in Romania. Perhaps he also has an unmarried sister!
Finally, around 3:45p.m., I had my certificate of registration but by the time I left Police HQ, my plan to do a bit of sightseeing in Sibiu was completely scuppered. I just wanted to get back home. However, I did find a very scenic way back to Roandola by turning off the main road and following a minor road signposted to Agnita. It ran through a deep valley and on the climb out of the valley, I came round a bend to be met by a wonderful view of the Fagaras mountains in the hazy distance. Romania's two highest peaks, Moldoveanu (2544m) and neighbouring Negoiu (2535m), were easily distinguishable above the rest of the range. The road was unfortunately still under reconstruction for a four or five kilometre stretch - which in Romania means you are driving on uncompacted hardcore at no more than 15kph. Still, the views more than made up for the very slow progress. Certainly a route worth showing to Casa Cristina guests - once the road is properly surfaced, hopefully before the 2011 season!
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