HESSEN LANDTAG INVESTIGATION NEEDS TO DEMAND A REVERSAL

September 14, 2009



Vorsitzenderinnen des Petitions Ausschusses
Landestag Hessens
&
Auswärtige Amt
das Hessisches Ministerium des Innern und für Sport,
Postfach 31 76,
65021 Wiesbaden


Dear Hessen Landestag, Petitions Committee Chair, and Auswaertige Amt,

I apologize for writing in English this time, but my German writing is not up to par with my nativel language, English.

I, Kevin Anthony Stoda, am enquiring about the status of the investigation that you have been undertaking since July 2009 at my petition. In this letter, I am asking for a decision in favor of my wife, Maria Victoria M. Baradero of the Philippines, in her request to receive a German spousal visa to come and live with me in Germany as I have had a working visa here since the end of March 2009.

Note: According to most common interpretation and judgements, I earn enough money to support my wife. However, my wife and I have been denied this right to union for many months now.


PURPOSE REVIEWED

This letter is a follow-up (in English) to the German letter I sent on July 17, 2009 concerning my request to petition the Hessen Landestag to look into „the aribitrary and peculiarly incomplete system of analysis and calculation of income, etc.“ used by the Wiesbaden Integrationsamt (under the direction of the Innenministerium Deutschlands) to reject my wife’s, Maria Victoria M. Baradero of the Philippines, visa application on June 23, 2009.

As you know, I had basically been told in writing by the Wiesbaden Integrationsamt on June 23, 2009 that my wife’s application would be turned down because I earned approximately 147 Euros to little. The Wiesbaden Integrationsamt had made this calculation using Innenministerium calculations, which obviously ignore sums of money, which include annual income from my fathers estate which run between 5,000 and 15,000 dollars in this current 2009.

Note: I now expect the exact sum to be over 10,000 for the year. This sum will be passed no later than October 10, 2009. If the sale of a house goes through, I will receive more financial support or income. I had also indicated in my letter to you of July 17 that there were other sources (and likely sources) of income, which had been ignored by the Innenministerium calculation model, employed by the Wiesbaden Integrationsamt.


SINCE JUNE, 23rd 2009

In July two measures were taken which have led the Wiesbaden Integrationsamt to reconsider my case.

First, my wife, Maria Victoria M. Baradero of the Philippines, who was still living in Kuwait where we had met (in 2005) and married (2008), filed for the German Embassy of Kuwait to review her case. For me, this meant acquiring dozens of pieces of paperwork related to my father’s estate in the USA. I provided the German embassy investigators with an exhausting amount of material over the internet. In mid- to late- July, the embassy sent the results of its investigation back to the Wiesbaden Integrationsamt. However, to-date the Wiesbaden Integrationsamt has made no decision based on the German Embassy’s recommendations.

Second, in July I also filed a petition with numerous groups including the Hessen Landtag and with the Innenministeriam of Germany.

I noted that the denial of my right to bring my wife, Maria Victoria M. Baradero, was costing me much more than the supposed 147 Euros that the Wiesbaden Integrationsamt said „ I needed to cough up“ in order to be permitted to bring my wife here.

Let me explain. I currently give my wife, Maria Victoria M. Baradero, anywhere from two-hundred-fifty Euros to four-hundred-fifty Euros each month in the Philippines (and even more when she still lived in Kuwait through July 21, 2009)


August 2009

I enquired in writing several times in August whether the Wiesbaden Integrationsamt had reconsidered my wife’s visa application. I only recieved one reply from them. That e-mail stated simply, „Be patient, Mr. Stoda!“

In August I also received a letter from the „Petitions Ausschuss“ of the Hessen Landtag, stating that an investigation was on the way.


September 2009


In contrast, to the fairly frustrating preceding 6-months concerning my wife’s being prohibited from joining me in Germany, the last two weeks in Wiesbaden have brought me some hope—but still no answers or decision from the Wiesbaden Integrationsamt came to me concering the reconsideration of my wife’s visa request from April 2009.

The first good news in early September 2009 was that the Finanzamt in Wiesbaden approved my request to add my wife’s, Maria Victoria M. Baradero, name to my paperwork with their office.

Moreover, in the first week of September, I was also able to change my own visa at the Wiesbaden Integrationsamt, so I can now potentially undertake additional freelance work for the rest of the year and potentially earn 147 extra Euros in a month, i.e. as soon as I can find some part-time teaching or training work.

The next week, an even better event occurred in support of my wife’s cause when I took my story of Maria Victoria M. Baradero’s having been denied entry to Germany for 147 Euros by the Integrationsamt to Wiesbaden Einwohnermeldeamt (Residency office for Wiesbaden).

The officials at the Wiesbaden’s Einwohnermeldeamt suggested I return to the Finanzamt Wiesbaden and request a change in my Lohnsteuerklasse (Tax Classification). This is because those taxpayers in Germany who live intentionally alone (through seperation or divorce) pay more taxes generally than those living with their legally married partners.

The next day, after my visit to the Wiesbaden’s Einwohnermeldeamt, I went to the Finanzamt Wiesbaden for the second time this month. To my pleasant surprise, the Finanzamt Wiesbaden was ameable and agreed to change my tax classification as of September 2009 through the end of 2009. (The caveate here is that my wife should show up in Germany by no later than December 31, 2009.)

In short, both the Wiesbaden’s Einwohnermeldeamt and the Finanzamt Wiesbaden have in September looked into the matter, and they both agreed that it is not my fault that the Wiesbaden Integrationsamt, using a questionable salary and income calculations’ methodology, has kept my wife from living with me.


WHAT DOES THIS CHANGE IN TAX STATUS MEAN?

Well, as is well-known, Maria Victoria and my change in tax classification in Germany as of this month means that I now will receive nearly 240 Euros more a month home as of September 2009. Most importantly, this sum of 240 Euros exceeds the litmus test set by the the Integrationsamt in Wiesbaden, set on June 23, 2009 of 147 Euros monthly.

This is why I now turn to the Petition investigation, which I had personally requested in July from the Landestag Hessen.

Would you please write or direct the Integrationsamt in Wiesbaden to assist my wife and me at this time? In this directive or recommendation, please ask the Integrationsamt in Wiesbaden to immediately agree to allow my wife fly to Germany and enter Germany on a spousal visa as soon as possible?

I thank you sincerely for all your help in this matter. It would be especially wonderful if she could arrive before the National Unification Holiday of Germany on October 3, 2009.


Sincerely,


Kevin Anthony Stoda
Oranienstr. 62
Wiesbaden
Germany