6 ms·

I help people immigrate to Germany. I constantly need little "duct tape" utilities to nake immigration easier at a very low level. For example, merging your re

by nicbou 3y ago

I help people immigrate to Germany. I constantly need little "duct tape" utilities to nake immigration easier at a very low level. For example, merging your residence permit application documents into 5 PDFs under 12 MB so that the immigration office will accept them. I also made tools to fill needlessly confusing forms, to find appointments at the citizens' office, and to generate resignation letters. I also built tax and health insurance calculators. To give a broader answer, become a domain expert in something that isn't tech. You will quickly see a million small things that could be improved with a bit of programming.

okr 3y ago
Oh man. You know, Indonesia has now an online tool for "Visa On Arrival". And their demands are ridiculous and basically without help. How Do you scan a passport without reflections (at least they have a try/error mechanism and does not throw everything away and u have to start over) Or passfoto, where they show as examples profile photos, that do not look like passfotos, or all of the sudden they want the passport as a pdf and here i came to this weird 12 megabyte limit as well. And then they want to see a return flight ticket, also as pdf, and, when ya do this with your mobile phone, well, good luck. All in its infancies and super hacky. However, VoA in the airport with an officer, works like a charm. So, yeah, these "duct tape" utilities are useful.
- nicbou 3y ago
  This is very common. If the immigration offices are bad, the visa offices are even worse. It seems like countries are competing for who can make the worst experience. I imagine that one part of the explanation is that no one involved in the project will ever use what they've built.
- kirso 3y ago
  I just did visa on arrival a few days back and didn't have any issues.
cyrk 3y ago
Hey is the tax app available ? I would like to give it a look!
- nicbou 3y ago
  https://allaboutberlin.com/tools/tax-calculator https://allaboutberlin.com/tools/tax-calculator
Cheezmeister 3y ago
> I also built tax and health insurance calculators. Grumpy USA noises :D

by nicbou 3y ago

okr 3y ago

Oh man. You know, Indonesia has now an online tool for "Visa On Arrival". And their demands are ridiculous and basically without help. How Do you scan a passport without reflections (at least they have a try/error mechanism and does not throw everything away and u have to start over) Or passfoto, where they show as examples profile photos, that do not look like passfotos, or all of the sudden they want the passport as a pdf and here i came to this weird 12 megabyte limit as well. And then they want to see a return flight ticket, also as pdf, and, when ya do this with your mobile phone, well, good luck. All in its infancies and super hacky. However, VoA in the airport with an officer, works like a charm. So, yeah, these "duct tape" utilities are useful.

nicbou 3y ago
This is very common. If the immigration offices are bad, the visa offices are even worse. It seems like countries are competing for who can make the worst experience. I imagine that one part of the explanation is that no one involved in the project will ever use what they've built.
kirso 3y ago
I just did visa on arrival a few days back and didn't have any issues.

cyrk 3y ago

Hey is the tax app available ? I would like to give it a look!

nicbou 3y ago
https://allaboutberlin.com/tools/tax-calculator https://allaboutberlin.com/tools/tax-calculator

Cheezmeister 3y ago

> I also built tax and health insurance calculators. Grumpy USA noises :D