On Saturday 2 September three buses full of students, along with three MEMBERS of Team Visa from SAS left FOR Utrecht to collect the residence permits.
This year the Immigration and Naturalisation Service (IND) decided to hand out the permits from a central location in the Netherlands instead of coming to our campus. Because train tickets are quite expensive and many newly arrived students have not managed yet to open up a bank account, we organized buses to travel there. After arriving at the venue (the “Jaarbeurs” in Utrecht) we discovered that a great many students had found their way there – in fact, there were so many that there must have been a total number of between 500 and 1000 students waiting at the entrance! Luckily we were able to guide our students swiftly and safely into the building with a little persuasion (and help) towards the IND officials from Zwolle. Everyone who held a yellow slip of paper was allowed in before anyone else – University of Twente for the win!
We can proudly say we were the ONLY university that had staff members outside supporting our students! The atmosphere was great, and students got to enjoy the sights of the city of Utrecht as well. Hopefully, the next (and final) trip there on the 7th of October will be equally as successful.
