It's been a long, I shouldn't have left with... (if you know you know)

New York, New York
Nashville, Tennessee
Long Island, New York

It's been far too long since my last post, but it was because of a whirlwind of events the last few month!

Since April, Sam and I started a petition for my return to the UK, and with an unimaginable amount of signatures and exposure from Time 107.5 FM radio station in Romford, we quickly got a response from immigration. And the best part was that I actually received an apology from the immigration officer I spoke to.

It turned out that I was rejected by mistake the second time we applied for my visa from the US. The officer who viewed our application failed to check with the reasoning for our first application rejection (only rejected because we applied when I was still in the UK). The second rejection was because the officer determined Sam and I's relationship to not be genuine (yes I know, absolutely laughable). The month of May was an absolute celebration with Sam coming over to visit me in New York, and finding out together that I would be back in the UK in the following weeks. I spent loads of time with family and friends and just in complete eagerness to put the last 6 months of misery behind me.

In all the stress of the 6 months being stuck in New York, I learned a lot about myself (lots to time to reflect on life). Mostly the fact that I don't always deal with things in the best way. I looked back at my time in New York, and although I did some amazing things and traveled a bit, on the down time I wasn't taking care of myself. Major stress is not something I had ever really had to deal with, so I never really understood how to cope with it then. It felt like my life was taking huge steps backwards. But now I feel as though a massive weight has been lifted and I can settle into my life. I have a new appreciation for the time I have in my life, and what I do/who I fill it with.

When I got back to London in May, I started the application process to begin teaching. The paperwork took longer than I ever anticipated. I mean I actually had to go and get ink fingerprints done and send them off to the FBI as part of the background check. It was an intense process that basically has taken up to this week to finish up. So unfortunately I was unable to start teaching for the duration of the school year, but luckily the agency I am working with has been incredibly helpful and caring to my situation.

 

It really felt as though everything was beginning to fall into place. I had three really great opportunities come my way for this fall (one including a reality tv show). I was able to take a couple mini getaways to Scotland (to see the Spice Girls), and Germany (for a potential job opportunity). It just felt so nice to have options and thinking about the future.

 

I was only back in London for 2 months before it was time to head back to New York for more celebrations with family and friends. It was satisfying to know that it would just be a visit, and there wasn't any pressure of dealing with immigration on the way back. I landed in New York and a couple days later I was straight off to Nashville for my bestie's bachelorette party. Flew Back to New York for my niece's first birthday party, got to see a lot of friends in the weeks between, and ended the month with my other bestie's wedding, and Sam and I's 2 year wedding anniversary.

I am beyond ready to see what the next few months back in London will have in store for me. But most of all I am very eager to start my career after A YEAR of unemployment.

There is certainly lots more to come!

A bump in the road...

   
     Last week was a crazy busy week so apologises for not being so regular with my postings. But I've got a few posts coming within the next few days because I've done a bunch of exciting things I'd like to share. To catch you up a bit on whats going on. Since being here I have applied for a spouse visa so that I can start actually settling into my new home. If getting all the paperwork sorted and providing enough information wasn't hard enough, Sam and I unfortunately received a rejection notice from the U.K government for my visa. So what does that mean now? Well it means that hefty application fee we had to pay goes right into the pocket of the government and we basically have to start the application process all over again. That's the nice version of it.

     After being extremely down and frustrated we looked into getting a solicitor because clearly we had missed something. The hard thing is that we actually did nothing wrong on paper. We filled out the forms correctly and provided a lot of information. We even sent them our bank statements with highlights of where I was getting paid regularly from the Department of Education. The solicitor told us that basically the people who work for granting visas only accept a bare minimum of ways information is presented to them. Basically we needed to provide original pay slips as opposed to bank statements. Which is ridiculous because they show the exact same thing! The most annoying part was that because of the lack of information on the government websites and the information and vague information we received on the few phone calls that we had with employees to make sure that we had everything we needed, it still wasn't presented to us fully. The major reason of the rejection of my visa was that I wasn't actually allowed to apply for the visa while being in the UK. Which also does not make any sense to me.

     So now what will happen is I will have to return to New York for potentially 6-8 weeks submit my application while there and stay until it is granted. The unfortunate part of that is since I won't be leaving until November 20th (we booked flights for thanksgiving thinking I would have my visa by now) it leaves the possibility of not being with Sam for the holidays and being apart for a long period of time. The situation is very bittersweet because on the one hand I'll be home with my family and friends and be back in my home state of New York, but on the other hand I'll be worried about my visa being granted and know that my life in the U.K isn't progressing how I had planned. I really thought by now I would be starting my career in the UK as a teacher (that the country is in desperate need of). It's just a very confusing and frustrating process, especially when you're in a obvious legitimate relationship and just want to start your life together. We expected it all to go smoothly with the visa since Sam and I did all the paperwork for his visa in New York on our own and it was granted (although the process takes MUCH longer).

     We're choosing to stay on the positive side of things and just looking at this as another bump in the road to us getting the life we've planned for one another. I'm looking at it as a massive vacation in New York to do the things that I have always wanted to do without having the amount of free time that I will have now. I'd like to plan some trips to my friend on the West Coast, blog about my favourite places in Astoria Queens and spend some much needed time with my family and finally get to meet my little nugget niece for the first time.

     I really hope that in writing this post I have given people a little insight to what it's like to have a international relationship and even though Sam and I put on a good face and look like we're always happy, we do have our struggles. Although it may not be with each other it is with the life that we share. I also hope that maybe someone who is reading this will be in a similar situation and get some information on how to go about getting their visa the right way without having to sell a kidney on the black market to pay for all of the ridiculous fees. Although it will be hard for me and Sam to be apart for so long at least we know that when I return to London we will have everything sorted and FINALLY be able to begin an actual life in our new home.