Is there another avenue you could explore to get the final push?
I suppose I could find another lawyer and see if the results are different, but I my best guess is that the issue is 10% being 'out of sight out of mind' with my lawyer and 90% the absolute overwhelm of the foreigners' office here in Regensburg. So my first strategy is to eliminate that 10% doubt by being horribly pushy with my lawyer. I've fairly warned him, though I'm quite sure he didn't really take me seriously. But the thing is, 90% of my professional occupation is asking people for favours over and over and over until they ghost me (poor outcome) or they give in and give me what I want (good outcome). I have a decent track record. So I simply need to apply it to Herr Janson. Added plus is that the 20 minute walk to his office from my apartment is a good wee walk for Carbón, so we can have a double-benefit.
I've already asked about applying at a jurisdiction outside of Regensburg and that would mean finding another lawyer plus re-applying, and getting to the bottom of the pile once again. A possibility, but not ideal.
And you at least have means and a job. Imagine being a destitute refugee. You’d think the bureaucrats would try to work harder and faster to finish all the work. I can’t bear it. I imagine a row of desks of useless clerks shuffling papers and taking tea breaks without caring that their (lack of) actions affect people’s livelihoods and their lives.
Having a means and a job in this case has meant me going to the rock bottom of the priority list. And yes, that's as it should be, up to a point, which is why I've not screamed loudly over the last five years. Refugees are the priority because they need things: housing, medical care, school for children, food support. I don't need any of that, and in fact pay taxes (a lot of them) to Germany.
I truly don't believe there are rows of useless clerks wasting their time. There are few of them left and they are epically snowed under. The job used to be a good one, they were in a good location in a nice office, and when I'd go in they generally tried to be helpful and friendly. Now they are in the basement of a shabby building with no windows, stuffy air, and what seems like more security guards keeping people out than people inside actually working the cases. You can feel the misery and in some case the rage of people waiting in line for hours and hours and days and days on end. It sounds like pure hell to me and I'm sorry for the workers. However, I still need my darn residence permit so I can't just keep thinking, "Oh poor them, I won't bother them until things get better." It's clear now that things won't get better anytime soon, all of my 'polite waiting' has gotten me nowhere, so we need to find a way to make it work now with the existing system.
f it's anything like our structures, I suspect civil servants and administrators are already over capacity and understaffed, doing as much as they can in a creaking system. Mostly it's down to individuals working their socks off that the whole set up hasn't imploded by now and is still crawling by. Hellish frustrating all round.
Exactly.
I guess at I euro and hour, you aren't making much money for him, so I guess it is a case of camping out on his doorstep? Making rock up with a sleeping bag and ask questions like " Do you have a shower?"
Ha, it may not be 1 Euro per hour, but let's put it this way: when we passed the moment the number of hours he'd spent with me multiplied by his hourly rate was greater than what the agreed flat rate was (i.e. when he netted zero), I stopped counting. We passed that moment in January of 2019. So...yikes.
I'm totally open to increasing his fee and thought about mentioning it to him this last meeting, but decided to stay mum on that for the next few weeks to see how the wind blows.
Can you imagine if I turned up in pyjamas? "You said we were so close to getting approval, I thought I hang out in your extra office until you get the documents because I'm really so excited that it's finally happening! I'll just make myself at home, m-kay?"
seriously though, I know how difficult and wearing this has all been 
Great news Carbon ask you ML for a sausage for tea x