Wait for it

The only thing I seem to be doing is waiting, waiting for everything, waiting for our solicitor to get back to us about our application its been like at least 2 months since we heard anything. I keep joking hes sitting in his office getting fat. Then my boyfriend goes mad, saying i am making it worse, we should never of hired the solicitor in the first place that's just my opinion.

Another thing i am waiting for, well not really waiting for a such but I know its going to happen and it definitely will. I am going to finish college at the end of August and go out into the big bad world and hopefully find a job. I wish i could stay in college for another while... I'm only 22...

Although as of last night the job front has slightly improved, I saw a staff wanted sign in a Casina which is about 5 minutes away from our apartment, so i just dropped in my CV this morning so now I am sitting beside the phone waiting for word...

 
Another thing that I am not particularly waiting for, but i know its going to happen is some of my Chinese friends moving back to China, its inevitable.

The next thing i am waiting for is something i am actually waiting for and looking forward to. My friend came back from China about two weeks ago and told me they bought some gifts for me :) and I met them last week and when i arrived in the city centre they said Damn I forgot to bring your gift.... So I am still waiting to receive my gift lol.

Actually that's not the only gift I am waiting for, another friend from Malaysia came back to Ireland a couple of months ago and we met up and he was really excited to see me and lost my gift... then he told me he has other gifts at his house for me and he will give them to me next time... but the next time just hasn't come round yet..

My boyfriend bought me a new (well new to me) IMAC wow very very fancy! but i still haven't been able to use it to like access the internet yet because it needs some system repairs. Hes been saying hes going to fix it ever since he bought it... hopefully it will be worth the wait.

I am sure there's loads more things I am waiting for... but these are the ones that have come to mind now.

Que sera, sera

I'm back from my brief blog hiatus, I just had to take some time out mainly because we had to move house and it took us awhile to get the internet set back up. First things first we didn't end up moving in with my boyfriends friends. I think we made the right decision although our new place is quite small. Its essentially a studio apartment. Its rather basic and I'm surprised we were able to find a place for all of our 15 bags of stuff.

Yes 15 bags! My boyfriend couldn't believe it, before he used to be able to move with just 2 bags, he couldn't understand how I could possibly have increased it to 15. Its surprising what people accumulate over a year.  We brought clothes, laptops, shoes (obviously) and then I don't know what the hell all the other junk was!

Although I said I won't be going on holidays this year.... because I will be stuck in summer school... I have managed to squeeze a short break in! I will be going to Tuscany, Florence in Italy for 10 days with  my family! The funny thing about my dad picking Italy is that, My boyfriends sister lives in Italy. I have never met her before though, but my boyfriends hopeful that I may be able to meet up with her while I'm over there.

A few weeks ago I mentioned that my boyfriend was trying to find a new job and may have to move to another town... however he fortunately found another one close by so that didn't happen. but sadly there's rumors going around that the boss of the new restaurant has huge debts and could close at any minute. So he may have to go job hunting again. Just as we thought things were settling down.

Also we finally submitted our application, its all signed sealed and delivered and we have decided whatever will be will be. If its successful we will start planning and saving to go on a trip to China, If it is unsuccessful we will move to China. and apply again from there. My boyfriend is preparing for the worst and has been trying to force me to speak Chinese with him which is really difficult since I am still more or less at beginner level anyway Wow! big choices and decisions. 

However on Friday we realised there is another complication with the application, We have to submit more docmentation @.@ Including my passport which I am not very happy about, apparently they will send it back as soon as they have finished examining it. I am worried I won't get it back in time for my holiday The holidays already been paid for and we must submit these documents within 21 days. The solicitor told me that I should get it back after 7 days. But its not guaranteed. Hope for the best.

The Americian Dream

About a month ago Vodafone lowered the price for calling America, Naturally my boyfriend was delighted, his cousin lives in America and he hadn't heard his voice for almost 8 years, obviously they chatted on QQ but chatting on the phone is a bit more personal and special. 

The first time he rang him, He stayed on the phone for almost 3 hours in the middle of the night if you don't mind. My boyfriend is definitely a night-owl, more about that another day. After he got off the phone he was dying to share all the news, and accidentally woke me up. 

His cousins story is quite sad really. In 2002 he started the impossible task of trying to move to America. The whole process took 3 years and a lot of money. To be honest  I don't really know the full details but from what I can gather whatever agency helped him, were exploiting some loophole in the American law. He arrived in America with no English and no clue what to do and was detained in prison for a month given a solicitor who I presume applied for asylum. Which was successful but resulted in him losing his right to go home to China and then return to America. To be honest I can't make heads nor tails of it.  But this is all i know and I didn't want to pry any further since it was so late at night.

But not being able to return home wouldn't be as bad if he was a single man and free to search for a girlfriend to keep him company, but that wasn't the case he left behind a wife and child. I can't imagine how that must of felt. I said to my boyfriend "why doesn't he just return back to China and give up on America?" My boyfriend said he (strongly influenced by his parents) has a dream to be successful in America and set up a business and save lots of money. He hasn't achieved that yet. He is working as Chinese take away delivery man and earning just about American minimum wage.

So obviously 5 years is a long time to be away from your wife and missing out on your sons life must be tough. Which makes me think a phone call once a week just doesn't cut it when your married. Which leads to his cousin's next big plan. He wants his wife to move to China and leave their son with his grandmother. This doesn't sound too bad... but the worst part is the only way to get her there is to use a tourist visa and once that expires to allow her to become an undocumented person. They will live there for the next 8-10 years. I just thought it was a horrible thing for a husband to insist that his wife to do. The life of an undocumented person is far from desirable. I think it's really selfish of his cousin Then my boyfriend said he hasn't had sex for 5 years, doesn't he deserve a normal life living with his wife? 

I just feel sorry for their son, who's had an absent father for the first 5 years of his life and now he's going to have an absent mother and father for possibly the next 8 years. Theirs only so much a grandmother can do. 

Photo from here

When is it time to give up on your dream? When is enough, enough? 

Birds of a feather flock together

I can not express how angry I am. It all started on Sunday night up until then myself and my boyfriend had been satisfied with our solicitor. We had our list to get through to complete the application. We were happy we had set aside time to complete our two relationship history segments.

 

Sunday night all this had gone our the window. One of his "friends" I use the term friend really loosely as i don't really see eye to eye with this guy. Rang my boyfriend and told him that another friend who was applying for a visa here was successful, It was a completely different situation than ours. I won't bore you all with the details.

Then my boyfriend got it into his head that our solicitor was no good and we have to go and see that one because he had won a case. I explained that all solicitors win cases on a regular basis. Just because he won one slightly similar to ours doesn't mean he's going to win every case and besides most solicitor firms have at least 4 solicitors working for them so the chances of us getting the same one as the friend of a friend is rather unlikely would he listen? No of course not stubborn as a mule.

He went frantic trying to get the number for that solicitor... tried every friend he knew, except for the one right beside us. Then without asking me booked an appointment for 3'oc without asking what time my class is at? or thinking will we have time for lunch?

Before we went to bed last night he said we should leave for the city centre at 12 tomorrow. Sure enough i woke up at 11 and told him its 11 then i went back to sleep woke up at 12.30 told him, he wouldn't move then finally 1.30 he got up slowly brushed his teeth washed rushed me out of the house then we missed one bus. Then he started panicking oh were going to be late blah blah. I said thrust me solicitors always run behind schedule. Would he listen no! of course not ringing them up please hold our spot blah blah and then all the complaining that we got off at the wrong spot... No we didn't then he didn't get proper directions then ringing his friend oh what a mess. By 3.10 I was getting really pissed off and had no mood to help him. I wanted to go into the meeting and say nothing.

But of course not I had to answer all the questions explain all the situation while he sat like a mute. Then we came out of there with a new list of 16 things we must include with the application and approximately 13 of them we don't have. So wow a very productive day! The rest of the stuff we got for the application we might as well throw in the bin.

So naturally after we finished in the solicitors my spirits had completely dropped. I wanted something to distract me, my class couldn't do that. Then when I was waiting for the bus to go home, I rang my former classmate, because he always has something funny to say but I rang him and he didn't pick up... Then I felt guilty.. I only ever call on him when I'm down or lonely or bored. But once things are going well i forget about him...

The I word

The I word- Illegal cropped up yesterday, I don't know why but Ireland and Irish people are absolutely obsessed with labels, Everyone has to fit into some nice little category. Why can't someone just be a person and not labeled by the various stamps they have attained?

 

Yesterday I was in the sitting room and my Mom suddenly said "There seems to be a lot of Chinese men around the town these days, I take it he (My boyfriend) is Illegal?" It wasn't a question it was a statement. Anyway I quickly explained in fact he isn't illegal, Which in fact is not entirely true... I like to say he is in the Limbo position He is neither illegal or Legal a such he is just here. My Mom just doesn't get it, Immigration is complicated stuff. 

Our A word the Application requires a lot of tedious work. We keep coming across blockages on the way. Currently we are looking for a snooker club for him to join and there is none in Bray so we had to give that up. Our next option is a badminton club, which also isn't looking good. As my dad is in a badminton club and my boyfriend doesn't want to join the same one as him. So that requires more research. Another option is a basketball club, if we can't find one of them then we will have to widen the search again.

Another aspect of the application is the money transfer from China which proves my boyfriend is being supported by his family. Everything requires some sort of proof.

It's a really good thing that i am such a good secret keeper!

The applicationn

We first commenced on our well Li Huang's visa application process at the end of October, 2010. At the beginning we were incredibly naive and thought it would be reasonably simple! boy were we mistaken BIG TIME!!! I did some research on the internet and found a list of requirements.

1. Details of your immigration history in this State
2. Your current legal status
3. Your original marriage certificate
4. Detailed information regarding your relationship history and the context in which your marriage took place
5. Evidence of your current address of your joint habitual residence
6. Your original Passport and Birth certificate
7. Your Irish national spouse’s original passport and birth certificate
8. Other supporting documentation – Photographs
9. Accommodation details: Rent Book, Joint Tenancy Agreement/ Proof of Home Ownership, Utility Bills, Financial Statements, letter from Community Welfare Officer/Social Worker or Tax Credit form from the Revenue Commissioner

After i completed this research we reassessed the situation and realized in hindsight... its not going to be as easy as we thought and it was definitely going to take more time... the website suggested half a year minimum! this absolutely horrified us and also another requirement was that Michael must not work!? and i am in full time college and not working... We didn't know how we would be able to continue living together... resulting in us being unable to apply at all..

So our next step was to visit MRCI Migrant Rights Information Centre. We spent a long and quite stressful day in Dublin trying to get a meeting with them. We thought they may be able to help us... but unfortunately they cater more towards... People with a working visa as opposed to ex students... and our meeting there left us feeling rather shell shocked and more discouraged than we already were... we started to feel so anxious and almost decided to abandon the whole application. According to the person we met we need some sort of sponsor for Li Huang, who could financially support him during the application! who could we ask to do that?? and no Irish social service could support us... basically we don't exist.

Anyway as a result of the meeting we were strongly encouraged to hire a good solicitor. Which we believe we have... so a day later we met the solicitor. Which resulted in us getting yet another list of requirements we need for our application. These were even more difficult than the ones i found before! Altogether there was 11 but some of them had sub parts or included getting numerous items.... We are still struggling through this list.. i don't have the list handy but this is a basic outline. i think I'm forgetting something....

1. Relationship account from both parties.
   
2. Copy of wifes passport
3. Copy of wifes birth certificate
4. copy of marriage certificate
5. A job offer
6. Letter of reference from past landlords
7. Photos
   
8. Character references from friends
9. Character references from people in the community
10. Your passport
11. Your birth certificate
12. Financial statements, utility bills.

The paler green ones are the ones we are still in the process of doing the darker ones are ones we have almost completed... for me the application is like a project or a thesis its slow and takes time.

At the moment were currently working on the financial statement and utility bills. Believe it or not the apartment doesn't have the internet yet and we don't get ESB bills so we actually have no bills so we thought the internet is the best way.. hopefully we will get that organized by the end of January that's our aim. We have a joint account set up so we are going to use that to pay the bill.

Were also busy compiling all our photos and printing them out most of them are on the computer. ultimately the application is just time consuming and expensive.