James' interview (and ours) with Immigration was yesterday in Minneapolis.
They separated us (him, and the us), and asked questions about our relationship now, and our relationship in the past; from how we met, to what day garbage day was in the house we shared, to what colour the bedroom walls were and more.
He was VERY nervous, you could almost see his heart pounding as we came out of our meeting and sent him in, kissing him on the lips, he looked like a deer in the headlights. (he is a worrier, over-thinks things, gets very flustered under pressure, and while confident, questions himself at the first indication that he may be incorrect.) Luckily we had a very nice woman who knew our lawyer well. (the lawyer sits in on both interviews)
They approved him, so now he is a "free man", he says, because he can travel outside of the USA now) - but he's ours, hahahaha!.
He wasn't allowed to leave the country until this momentous occasion (as per immigration law one is not allowed to leave the country while their petition is pending). In two years we have to file another set of paperwork (and pay more fees) to be approved for 10 years; but that's nothing compared to the money, paperwork, and diligence (extensive proof, letters from people who know us as a couple, photos, receipts, ect, a folder detailing proof of "a" relationship) that was required for this first step.
We hugged our lawyer goodbye at the train station. She was probably our best decision ever; worth every penny and restored our faith in lawyers.
We've learned a lot about immigration process through this experience. It's amazing what people will go through to legally be in this country...for whatever reason they choose to be here - and also no shock that some (many) choose to go about it illegally. It's both expensive, and a paperwork nightmare, even with English as a first language. One wrong step and you can be banned from the states for years.
*sigh of relief*
Now...on to the rest of our life.
Showing posts with label Immigration. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Immigration. Show all posts
Wednesday, May 15, 2013
Monday, April 29, 2013
Hired!
So, we got the job.
We knew we would.
The only interview we've had that didn't produce a job in the last year and a half was for a temp agency, and we're sure we were just a required number on their books.
We start next Monday, after the background check, which will come back fine since the last seasonal job we had around Christmastime cleared just fine.
This one is (seasonal) for 6 months or so, but with a company that has room for advancement. We're hoping while we're in University (classes start the end of August) we can continue to keep coming back to this job in the spring-summer until we graduate and then move up.
The pay is great, the hours super flexible (three days a week, if we want), and it involves no customer/patron contact. It'll be perfect...hopefully.
It feels really good. We were starting to get stressed, since we're not eligible for unemployment benefits or anything, and our savings accounts were starting to get lower than we're comfortable with.
In other news, James' interview has been set with immigration; after the error they made, it was scheduled quickly, and so soon we'll be having a stressful interview to see if he gets to stay in the States. We're optimistic. He's nervous and keeping his expectations low. Hopefully it goes well. We have about two weeks to go before that happens.
This feels like it's going to be a good summer.
Or at least a good day. (because let's not get ahead of ourselves).
We knew we would.
The only interview we've had that didn't produce a job in the last year and a half was for a temp agency, and we're sure we were just a required number on their books.
We start next Monday, after the background check, which will come back fine since the last seasonal job we had around Christmastime cleared just fine.
This one is (seasonal) for 6 months or so, but with a company that has room for advancement. We're hoping while we're in University (classes start the end of August) we can continue to keep coming back to this job in the spring-summer until we graduate and then move up.
The pay is great, the hours super flexible (three days a week, if we want), and it involves no customer/patron contact. It'll be perfect...hopefully.
It feels really good. We were starting to get stressed, since we're not eligible for unemployment benefits or anything, and our savings accounts were starting to get lower than we're comfortable with.
In other news, James' interview has been set with immigration; after the error they made, it was scheduled quickly, and so soon we'll be having a stressful interview to see if he gets to stay in the States. We're optimistic. He's nervous and keeping his expectations low. Hopefully it goes well. We have about two weeks to go before that happens.
This feels like it's going to be a good summer.
Or at least a good day. (because let's not get ahead of ourselves).
Tuesday, April 2, 2013
Immigration Stand Still
Saturday we went and picked up the mail from The Mother's house, we haven't changed the address on everything yet, it being merely a month since we moved out, and we actually don't have a mailbox - and the USPS, in some cases, doesn't actually recognize our house address as existing... something about town street name changes not being properly recorded with city hall or something. We'll get it fixed.
Anyway, we picked up them mail and low-and-behold James FINALLY had gotten a letter from immigration about his interview. Or so we thought...
The letter was in our name so we opened it excitedly, and before our eyes could reach the second sentence we saw the word...
He was surprisingly calm as he took the papers from our hand. He scanned the letters flipping them back and forth in his hands, confused. We snatched one back from him and took a closer look, really paying attention to ALL the words this time...focusing.
He had allegedly missed his interview date in November. They said they had sent the letter out in October, and they were just now, the last days of March, telling him he had missed it.
He had just had a meeting with his lawyer the day before, who had figured they lost his paperwork, because she said his interview should have happened by now, and he had been checking the online status every other week since October, and it never indicated an upcoming meeting, or anything pending. So right away we knew something had went wrong.
He e-mailed his lawyer immediately, and we waited.
Yesterday she replied that she contacted them immediately because she was supposed to have gotten the letter about the interview too, and she hadn't. She had gotten the Petition Denial letter on Saturday and copies of all the other correspondences since the applications had been submitted. She also said she had heard about this happening before, and that the case should be re-opened with no problem. There is a 30 day appeal deadline. So, there is still hope.
The biggest concern is if they try to charge us more money for their mistake. We've already spent nearly $6000.00 dollars in application fees and lawyer fees...and we really don't deserve to have to pay for something that is not our fault in the very least.
Anyway, immigration. It's not easy, it's full of loop-holes, and traps, and costs a lot of money. It's not really surprising that people try to get around it; but if you ever do it, the cost of the immigration lawyer is ABSOLUTELY worth it.
In the meantime, we wait...some more. July will be one year since he filed the paperwork. The biggest deal was that his dad was sick in December, and he would have loved to fly home to see him, and his brother got married this past weekend, and he would have loved to be there; but until his petition is approved he is not allowed to leave the country. After he gets approved he gets to stay for two years before another interview and is free to leave the country, but until then...he's at a standstill.
Thursday, August 16, 2012
Busy Times and Backaches
Warning: this post contains a swear word *feigns shock*
We actually got up by alarm clock today. It's been awhile for that. It's been almost a year (come October), from my recollection.
James had a government appointment (they wanted his fingerprints), and we ran errands. Once he is finally cleared to stay in the United States we'll be sharing with everyone the steps it takes to be a resident (not a citizen) of the United States. There's a lot. We'd (probably) never do a similar deed. But, well...we suck; but people who look down on permanent residents (people here, legally, from foreign countries) - well, they suck even more.
People actually PAY crazy money (more than $5,000 to do it right the first time) and go through tons of hoops and paperwork to be in this country. As far as we can tell, despite this being our home country, and therefore it is HOME, it is not any better than other developed countries we have lived in. You should respect immigrants.
In addition to the two and a half hour round-trip, for a 5 minute appointment, we ran errands locally, picked stuff from one of The Mother's gardens - she has two, one is offsite (not at the house), they total 3,600 sq feet - and canned a bunch of produce that has been backing up.
But who wants to read an entry about gardening and food, right? (fuck you)
Tomorrow's agenda is more canning: beets, more green tomato mincemeat, and another first, Mango Chutney. James' favourite sandwich from a shop back home is Melted Brie and Bacon, and it has Mango Chutney spread on it, so we're going to learn to make it, one of a few things we'll be learning to make over the next year to help chase his homesick blues away.
We'll keep you posted on our recipe creations where that is concerned. It makes us feel like our culinary arts education is not going to waste.
We tried a new recipe today, we'll save sharing for another day.
This weekend we'll be going to see Baby Brother, and then The Father, who will hopefully help us look at our newest property find....we won't jinx it with too many details yet.
Busy times.
We've had a mid-back backache for nearly 24 hours now, we never should have started in the kitchen this afternoon when we got home from errands with the nagging pain already present, now it's growing worse, and we're getting (more) irritable...so it's time for a Gin break.
Cheers to Thursday.
~ Frank (et al)
Tuesday, August 14, 2012
Yesterdays
All that is needed to know about yesterday (we had a tough relationship day yesterday) is the stress of our living conditions sometimes has an effect on James. Not that he dislikes living with The Mother - but he's a 36 year old adult man, and is living in the United States because he loves us, and wants to be with us, not because he desired at any point to move to the United States. Quite the contrary, actually. Plus all the other factors, like he's not allowed to work (yet). He's so far away from the home he knows and loves (England), even though he's here now, and we will build a home together, it doesn't yet feel like home for him.
There are also thing about being in a relationship with someone who has DID that aren't always easy - according to him...*shrugs*....we don't always understand, because we think we're as normal as females are, generally speaking.
We're written about some of the issues before (we're pretty sure), and so has he, when he used to blog.
We still don't think we're worth it, and some of us know we aren't.
It can be very lonely for him here, he had gone off Twitter about eight months ago for various reasons, much to our displeasure, because being in a fairly remote area of the United States Twitter is a real form of socializing for us, and him. Not to mention all the people he knows are either in England, or on Twitter.
Last night James (The Boyfriend) decided to come back to Twitter again, for a few reasons. We hope he stays this time, but he's got short patience for people on the site, especially in regards to how they interact with us, but hopefully being back with his own group of friends there will overshadow the bad parts.
Meanwhile, we're taking a road trip again this weekend to look at a new piece of real estate that hit the market today. We can't stop looking just because we're waiting on the one we have had our eye on, that needs to reduce in price a bit more...it's been two months since something has come on the market in our specifications range, so we have to try and keep our mind open to the possibilities that are presented. We're still hopeful for the Weeping Willow property, but we have to stay realistic...and we only have about another month or so before we have to move out of The Mother's house. So there's that.
There are also thing about being in a relationship with someone who has DID that aren't always easy - according to him...*shrugs*....we don't always understand, because we think we're as normal as females are, generally speaking.
We're written about some of the issues before (we're pretty sure), and so has he, when he used to blog.
We still don't think we're worth it, and some of us know we aren't.
It can be very lonely for him here, he had gone off Twitter about eight months ago for various reasons, much to our displeasure, because being in a fairly remote area of the United States Twitter is a real form of socializing for us, and him. Not to mention all the people he knows are either in England, or on Twitter.
Last night James (The Boyfriend) decided to come back to Twitter again, for a few reasons. We hope he stays this time, but he's got short patience for people on the site, especially in regards to how they interact with us, but hopefully being back with his own group of friends there will overshadow the bad parts.
Meanwhile, we're taking a road trip again this weekend to look at a new piece of real estate that hit the market today. We can't stop looking just because we're waiting on the one we have had our eye on, that needs to reduce in price a bit more...it's been two months since something has come on the market in our specifications range, so we have to try and keep our mind open to the possibilities that are presented. We're still hopeful for the Weeping Willow property, but we have to stay realistic...and we only have about another month or so before we have to move out of The Mother's house. So there's that.
Monday, July 16, 2012
Normal Life
We just want to start our "normal life".
We appreciate The Mother allowing us to live in her basement, with James, for the three months we have been here over the past 9 months...but we really feel like we've overstayed our welcome. We've taken to spending more time in the basement, in our bedroom, and we've gotten a "request to be out" date of October...which, while not intentional we are sure, has added to our stress.
We can't rent, as we have no income/credit history in the United States...having lived and worked in Canada since 2004, up until last October; and since the area we want to move to is not within even four hours of our current living area...long-term employment is not possible. And James can't work until his paperwork to stay in the United States clears. The money we have saved need to be re-invested in one of the two distressed properties we love that are currently on the market.
Waiting for the two properties that fit our needs, and wants, to fall in asking price is killing us. We've been in several bidding negations with one. Each has so much work to do, and with winter, despite the high temps, right around the corner...it's making us, we and James, nervous...nervous for the things that need to be done to distressed properties that has sat empty for a year, to make it ready for living in through a cold winter (insulation upgrades, furnace checks, so much).
We just want to have a normal life, with the man in our life, and start a home again. It's been nine months since we left the last place that was our home. We miss having a home. We miss being a functional adult. We miss...that little bit of "normal".
Monday, July 2, 2012
A Slice of Good News
We had a meeting with James' immigration lawyer today and she's decided to change the type of filing she is doing on his behalf, and we agreed with her opinion.
As of right now we no longer have to go back to the UK in August, and James will be a legal alien of the United States in under 6 months, at which time we will take a trip to the UK to visit his family for the holidays.
This means we don't have to rush to see the family members we still wanted to spend more time with, and can relax a bit on re-investing the money from our house sale, though we'd still like to expedite it, now we just have more than a month to work with.
We are sad, however, that we will have to wait even longer to visit our friend Kerry, and Serenity, and of course meet the couple of other Brits we had planned on meeting (we're lookin' at you, Matty) this time around. There will always be later this year.
This getting to stay in the United States until James' paperwork clears is good news for a variety of other reasons, obvious ones that we don't feel the need to write about; bottom line, it's a big chunk of stress pie off of our plate.
Now...back to the farm search...
[To those who wonder about our severely decreased Twitter presence, please note that we WILL return in full...we just needed a break/reduction. We have confidence that the people who matter will still remain upon our return.
For those who really can't be without us, you can find us on Facebook in the meantime...and who knows, if we crack a bottle of wine tonight, we may bust up your Twitter party. :-) ]
Monday, June 18, 2012
A Short...
Tomorrow we're going to look at a 20 acre plot of land about 5 hours from where we currently are (and visit The Father again!).
If you haven't read the last few days of posts...we're starting a farm where we can raise animals, have a garden, paint and write.
Of course that will be when we return from the year or so in the UK, but there's nothing wrong with investing in the property now. (ever wonder where our cash comes from? You need only ask, but we'll tell you...the short end of the answer is money from a terrible car accident seven years ago, that we invested in a house we lived in for a few years that we recently sold...we're not rich, we have a very small finite amount of money, we've paid off all of our debts, and choose to invest in wisely at each opportunity)
We're hoping for a good deal, and a happy investment.
And yes, that new face avi we've been using occasionally on Twitter is our face.
If you haven't read the last few days of posts...we're starting a farm where we can raise animals, have a garden, paint and write.
Of course that will be when we return from the year or so in the UK, but there's nothing wrong with investing in the property now. (ever wonder where our cash comes from? You need only ask, but we'll tell you...the short end of the answer is money from a terrible car accident seven years ago, that we invested in a house we lived in for a few years that we recently sold...we're not rich, we have a very small finite amount of money, we've paid off all of our debts, and choose to invest in wisely at each opportunity)
We're hoping for a good deal, and a happy investment.
And yes, that new face avi we've been using occasionally on Twitter is our face.
Sunday, June 10, 2012Travel Journal Entry: Heading Home... There's lots to write, but it's late. We stopped at about 11:15pm at a small (population: about 800) mountain town for the night, the headlights on the car are weak, and it's less than thrilled with the nearly 4000+ miles we have put on it in the last few weeks. Not to mention James called pulled over in Pennsylvania a few hours ago...so, it's best we stopped the night. Rest. Tomorrow we're back on the road, hoping for a better day. Spending this much time in such close quarters with someone, no matter how much you like/love them...can't be healthy. Certainly gives you a lot of time to talk though...or not talk. We'll hopefully be stopping to meet Single Mom Date (@SingleMomDate), the woman who introduced James (The Boyfriend) to us over a year ago, tomorrow. We owe her dinner and a hug. We've got about three nights left before we finally get near enough to home to breath deep. It will be nice to be back in our own bed, to hug our cats, to cook our own food, to sleep...for a long long time. It's just a month and a half before we have to leave for the UK/Europe again with James. We're already exhausted just thinking about that trip. We're exhausted being us. ~ et al Thursday, May 10, 2012A Review and a Word on Minding Your Own Business
Our blog post today will be here: http://ourfrankadventures.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/green-room-colchester-england.html - it's a review of a restaurant we ate at in Colchester called The Green Room...full with pictures (food porn!) and all.
We were thinking of doing a blog post about recent immigration issues we're going to have to deal with, so that James can eventually be here with us permanently (so we don't have to keep going back and forth between countries). It wasn't the greatest of news we got today, we'll have to write about it tomorrow. We're exhausted what with the meeting with the immigration lawyer, and James is having some pain issues from the vasectomy he had before we left England and that's concerning me, and then we landed on a blog (one we have actually visited a few times, that tries to disprove Dissociative Identity Disorder) because we were doing a search for a recent Dr. Phil episode about DID that a friend from Twitter was asking about - she's busy and we wanted to try to search for the YouTube links for her, if there were any - we don't actually plan on watching much of it, we live with it and don't feel the need to concern ourselves with the woman and what people are saying. Anyway, most people will have an opinion on it, of course, like it affects them personally or something, and it's likely unless they live with it, or know someone who does/has, they will have nothing but negative things to say about it. We don't need negativity. We've got someone who creates our own for the system to deal with (not to mention the fantastic world of Twitter). Like with anything, if mental health issues don't impact you personally, for instance if you deal with it, or a loved one does, then why worry about and judge how other people's lives and brains. Do you live in their head, experience their day-to-day struggles or triumphs, have you had the past that they have had? Probably not. Definitely not. So why try to make their life more difficult. ~ Frank et al Tuesday, January 17, 2012Credit Ratings Perpetuating Poverty How things can change in eight years is amazing. Being outside of the United States for that long really shielded us from many of the issues that have grown, and started to loom, over the years. Imagine our surprise when James (our Boyfriend), while reading forums about job prospects for immigrants in the United States, found that many people on the forum, not just immigrants, had been denied employment due to their not bad, but lack of, credit history; and then last night over Christmas gift opening (yes, we celebrated three weeks late) Angry Brother mentioned how last year he had been denied a job because of his poor credit history. Let us get this straight. If you lose your job and have a difficult time finding a new one, get chronically ill, or fall on some bad luck, and are unable to pay your bills on time for a few months, therefore degrading your credit rating, then you will have a harder time finding a job? If you are homeless, below the poverty level ,or new to this country - meaning you probably don't have much of a credit history to being with - then you have a less positive outlook for gaining employment, or bettering your economic stature? Let's be honest, with the unemployment rate, and financial and economic climate of the United States, many of these unfortunate situations are entirely plausible. That sounds like a dangerous downward spiral, if you ask us; but then, we're no expert.  Yes, the ability to carry a good credit rating can be an indication of the level of responsibility and maturity of a human being, theoretically making them a good, or better, candidate for the job; however, sometimes life throws you a curve ball - the realities of life and government - and when forced to prioritize bills, chances are water, heat, electricity and food (survival) will come before a credit card payment (not survival), even though the defualt of a credit card payment will be detrimental to your credit rating much more quickly, because credit card companies are likely quicker to take action on bills in default than are utility companies. So how many employers are actually checking credit? In 2006 the Society for Human Resource Management, "the largest association devoted to human resource management", polled its members and had found that since 1998 there has been an 18% increase in the amount of companies/members who do credit checks (1). According to a survey by EmployeeScreenIQ, credit checks by companies had gone up by 61% between 2011 and 2012 (2). Though some organizations will allow you to explain the situation in regards to your poor credit, if you are an adequate candidate, not all may be willing to do so. It's not the people working at McDonalds, the guy bagging your groceries, or pumping your gas that have been, and are, hugely affected by this; it's nurses, accountants, managers, supervisors, professional people who, before the economic downturn, held jobs with responsibility and good pay, who lost their jobs and have struggled with lower paying jobs over the last few years to make basic ends meet, who fall short of being able to make credit card payments, or have been forced into unemployment. It is mainly these people who are now being denied jobs because they are not deemed mature, or responsible enough to be a manager; a bank teller, or work in a banking or lending institution as an accountant, a supervisor, or in an executive position; jobs involving security; government jobs even at state and local levels, even in some cases jobs in Universities. Basically any job where you will have access to funds, the personal or business information of an employer, it's employees and/or customers.  The important thing to note is that they cannot request your information without written consent, all requests to view your credit report are logged on the report. Basically they can't secretly access a credit report and deny employment without permission front he perspective employee or record of the action. Of course if you deny them access to the information if they ask, you can guarantee you won't be getting the job. While credit inquiries account for 10% of your credit score, some information located indicated that credit checks from employers are considered "soft inquiries", and do not effect your rating. The good news is that there are six states currently with new laws restricting the use of credit ratings in hiring, but that doesn't mean they can't still run credit checks though, the states of Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Oregon, and Washington (3) passed laws the end of last year restricting the practice in certain industries; and currently there are about a dozen additional states with legislation proposed and pending. Believe it or not there are actually law makers against restricting hiring based on credit reports; that means they want to make it harder for people to get jobs simply because of what might appear to be poor personal financial behavior and skills. For all the other states with no restrictions on the books, you can be denied a job for something as minor as manager of a small department store.  What's next? Medical records to make sure you're not sick too much, not "mentally ill", or have a history of health problems? At the end of the day it's just discrimination, another loss of freedom, another marker on the road to stripping away opportunity, at the hands of the people voted into office, and the people who have authority. The trick will be if it deviates, it's never too late to turn back; it's all the more reason people should be more educated, and aware, of what the people they vote into any office really stand for. Let the actions of the elected/hopefuls, let their history, their standards for human rights and freedom, be used as a credit report to determine their ability to stand office and represent the people of the community, the states and our country. Sources and Citation:
Thursday, September 8, 2011Life Set In Limbo We're in limbo. Our boss today told us that they (Human Resources) are trying to push some paperwork through (this is in regard to Fridays post, about having to leave our job, and therefore move)...some short form or something that they had used for another "immigrant worker"...he said in a week and a half, to two weeks, they will know for sure if it's been approved; but we're not feeling optimistic about it, for a variety of reason. They are trying to keep us on at work...should it be approved we are faced with a decision. We hate decisions. We fight about decisions...we all have a different idea and outlook. Do we stay, or do we go? There are many options...and we've come to peace with the idea that we have to leave, and we have someone looking at the property we own, on Saturday, who is interested in purchasing it. We have made a list, talked to James...we have set in motion the plans for leaving (which, if you know us, is a great deal of work even up to this point). Do we stay? If we stay we will keep this job, a job that is killing our back (we have major back problems from a car accident) and we haven't been there an entire month (the pain...is like someone is setting our back and neck on fire all through the day...it hasn't been this bad since March or so)...and in addition, given our job history...it won't be long until we can't contain Us at work. Yesterday we already started to visibly front (that's a DID term), things were awkward. Things have gotten even more awkward feeling as the days go by, and it's been only a month or so. We are good at what we do though, and the people we work for can see this, it's why they pushed the paperwork through anyway, even though we are on a three month probation, as anyone hired there is...we know that they wouldn't go through the trouble if they didn't have faith in abilities. Do we go? We are pretty excited about traveling around the United States, and introducing our boyfriend to America. We want to write, to paint, and work our way across the country, and we have the means to do it, if the house sells; we also want to work in restaurants around the country. It would be nice to live in the United States again, where things are affordable...and we can visit family. The Grandmother is ill, and senile...we'd like to be in the same country when it comes time to say goodbye...we never really got to say goodbye to The Grandfather (more to be written about that when the time comes). We have many reasons for going, just as we have many reasons for staying. Faced with this week and a half wait, we don't know if we should continue carrying on with our plans of moving from here in November, or if we should stay put. What does our gut instinct say? We have too many opinions, too many gut instincts. Staying would be the easy option...but we're not familiar with easy. Life is short. We've almost died once (the car accident), we've been through terrible experiences (our entire life)...to say what could go wrong would incite possibilities, but we feel like we should ask "what could go right?" (...that positive little bitch in us who wants to paint the world...). We don't know what to do. So, we're in limbo. We won't know exactly how to feel until the final letter from the government of the country where we are currently living comes in. If it's denied we only have once choice, if for some miraculous reason it is approved then we have choices. We're uncomfortable with that. Do we stay, or do we go? ~Frank et al
Friday, September 2, 2011Where We Live and Why We Might Have to Move...Again.
Here’s the thing.
We live in a country not our own, but it feels more our own than our country of birth. If you are a reader of our blog, and have actually read some of our life stories (which we need to complete yet) then you probably have figured out where we live. We're still not saying though...just because it's risky.
We have lived here, in this country, for seven years (come December of 2011). We went to school here on a study permit for three and half years, we stayed here on a work permit and opened a catering company which we’ll write about sometime in the future, then we worked at our last job, which we’ve written quite a bit about, and now this new job…a job we love, despite the physical pain it puts us through…we do enjoy it.
The work permit is the problem we are facing now, it is a type they started offering graduates of this countries Universities and Colleges the same year we graduated. This permit is not extendable on its own, which means we need a new work permit…and as far as we have been told by the Immigration Department a few weeks back.
This is also the reason we were very anxious to get a new job, because you can’t get a work permit without a job offer, and since we already live here what is better than a job offer for being eligible for a work permit than already having a job?
So we’ve been working on the paperwork, and talking with our boss about the paperwork they are requesting from his end, because the employer has to justify your hiring over that of a citizen of this country.
We’ve talked to Immigration in person and they said there needs to be a certain form filled out (something like a job market survey); our employer talked on the phone with them this afternoon too, and was told it’s not just a form; it’s an application for permission from the government to hire a non-citizen.
He seemed pretty put out that he was going to have to spend his time filling out the paperwork, and didn’t understand why they didn’t have to do this with the last foreign employee they hired, who hailed from China (this is a big place, our place of work…there are people working from all over the world). The paperwork is six pages long.
“This thing is longer than my mortgage application was”, our employer said, after he printed it off.
And we laughed it off because we had already heard the bad news we are about to share, and we were forced into a switch so we didn’t cry in front of our new boss; a couple of us DO NOT take bad news gracefully…
So what’s the big deal?
The permit expires in one month, which means in ONE MONTH we are here as a visitor, no longer able to work…so we’re going to be unemployed…AGAIN. Of course we can stay here, in this, the first place we’ve ever felt was our home…but we won’t be living in a building, we’ll be living in a box. And winter is coming, so that’s not so cool. And we are so tired of moving, we just moved into this apartment last October, and we love this apartment (we have had nearly 30 physical addresses in at least 6 states and 1 non-state).
The woman on the phone from Immigration basically told our boss this afternoon that if he had not posted the job listing in at least two places, which they require proof of, then the application WILL be denied. So, because he decided to use the government job board website to post the job listing, and didn’t post it in the local paper (which nobody reads) or on Kijiji, or some shit, we’re going to be denied our permit. (75% chance of denial, as far as we can tell)
For the first time we have a good paying job, and despite the pain we were willing to stick with it and work on some alternative pain reliever methods…and we had budgeted so that by the end of January 2012 we would have all of our debt paid off, as long as our only excess expense were a few bottles of wine a week (a bottle of what we drink regularly costs less than $12 after taxes). We gave up smoking in January, and we gave up marijuana a couple of month later (between the two we were spending over $600 a month on things we smoked) for a plethora of reasons, and we really don’t eat out, or much. Debt makes us nervous. Very, very, nervous. If you have read the stories of Us (THE CHAPTERS OF FRANK/HOW WE CAME TO BE US/ADDRESSING WE) then you probably know why from at least one of the stories.
More importantly, if this permit is denied we’re moving back to the United States by the end of the year, something we really don’t want to do…so we are probably going to be looking for a job in the United States…and we are willing to move just about anywhere. (New York and California are preferred though...maybe Chicago).
The economic state and employment outlook of the United States is really…making us feel we’re jumping from the fire into the flame…and all we want is to be in the pan. And we don’t know if we can even apply for unemployment there until we find a job, having been living “abroad” for seven years.
How much bullshit do we have to put up with? Really. It’s not as bad as it could be we suppose…we just have a “severe” mental illness, some of us suffer from depression and eating disorders, we have soon to be debilitating back pain* from that fucking car accident and we are basically unemployable.
We write though, and we paint. And if it wasn’t for those two things we’d be dead today.
At least we have our wonderful boyfriend, who is much too far away… (he iss selling all of his belongings to try to raise money to come to us as fast as possible)…
…And our family, who we called on tonight. We don’t ask for help. We never really have, but tonight I decided to tell them what we need. And we might need help. That’s what family is for, right? *sigh*
~ Frank et al
…mostly Frank…everyone is freaking the fuck out right now. Emmie really wanted to spend some time out tonight…she, Ivy and Cassandra had what they thought was a very successful day at work. Emmie is pretty good at staying on task, and great in the kitchen because burns don’t bother her as much as the rest of us, and we burn ourselves a lot.
*was also told by the boss this afternoon that we move too slowly in our job position, he is thinking of moving us to a different department…one we don’t want to move to. Of course we didn’t tell him about out back pain or anything. We’re still on probation, must’nt give them a reason to find fault in us…we have two and a half more months left of that, if we make it past the work permit bullshit.
- Is that all coherent? Does that make sense? We've had a fucking week from hell...we're going to drink a whole shit load of wine -
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