Immigration Tribulations

So…. getting to the UK has not gone as smoothly as we hoped it would go.

My spousal visa application was denied by the British Consulate!!

First of all, I want to thank Dell for being so helpful. When David first came to me with the possibility of this move, I went to work the next day and spoke to the senior manager of the Dell expat program, as well as my own managers. My own managers immediately started looking for new roles in the UK for me. They sent out notes to their contacts, which landed me an interview and then a job with the Audit organization in the London office. The expat program lead started putting together a tax and visa package for me. Dell hired a Big 4 accounting firm to do our tax equalization and an immigration law firm to guide me through the visa process. Everything seemed to be running smoothly… until a couple of weeks ago.

We bought our plane tickets back in May to leave the US on Friday, July 2. However, I had to have a biometric test (fingerprint scan and photo to get on the grid) and the earliest appt I could make was Monday, June 28. David and I flew back into Austin on Sunday night from Scotland. I woke up Monday, gathered all of my documents together, obtained the biometric stamp, and then over-nighted everything to the British Consulate in NYC. Then we hopped in the car with Kirby for the 9-hour drive to El Paso to drop off my new car and the pup at my parent’s house. It usually takes about 24-48 hours to review a spousal visa so I was hoping the consulate would overnight my passport with the visa stamp back to me by Friday morning before our flight at noon. We knew this deadline would be tight, but we were hopeful.

The good news is that FedEx did overnight everything back to me on Friday morning. The bad news is I have a big red X in my passport stating my visa application has been denied. Thursday evening the lawyers called me and let me know the bad news. It turns out, when we were in Europe the week before, the customs agent in the UK stamped David’s passport with a “visitor” stamp instead of a “resident” stamp, thereby negating his residency. So if David was technically not a resident in the consulate’s eyes, I could not get a spousal visa.

The lawyers advised that I not travel to the UK on Friday because it would not only draw attention to David’s inaccurate stamp, but the customs agent may not believe I was going over as a visitor for a couple of weeks and then returning to the states to re-apply for a visa. If I wasn’t convincing enough, they would be forced to deport me. DEPORT ME! Can you imagine? The most ridiculous part of this story is that David is going to England to open up an office and provide jobs to the Brits. I am going over WITH A JOB to pay UK taxes and be a productive member of society. It’s not like we’re a couple of jobless, homeless, young adults wanting to travel the world to “find ourselves” or something. The UK should be welcoming us with open arms as far as I’m concerned.

Unfortunately the consulate did not see it this way. Luckily, David eventually did get to the UK on July 3 (after a 6 hour flight delay due to Hurricane Alex in Houston). The law firm had called the Chief Immigration Officer at Heathrow Airport to let her know the background of our situation. She was totally understanding and logged David’s issue into their record books. So when David walked through customs, he got his passport stamped with the resident stamp (how anybody can tell the difference between those stamps is beyond me, by the way). He visited the UK branch of the immigration law firm that Monday to get attorney-certified copies of his passports. The copies were then over-nighted to NYC. I had another biometric test last Tuesday, and then we waited...

Unfortunately, a second application takes twice as long as the 24-48 processing time of a first application. So the earliest I could get my passport back is today. And guess what?! I RECEIVED MY VISA TODAY!!!! YAY!!

I was so disappointed to not be organizing furniture with David at our flat and meeting my new team at the office last week, but it is also nice to spend quality time with my family and Kirby in El Paso. I won’t see my parents or Elizabeth again until next June when they come to London to visit and I will not see Kirby until he flies over to the UK to join us in November.

My new managers have all sent me notes of encouragement and told me not to worry about calling into meetings (which would be around 3AM El Paso time with the 7-hour time difference). They let me know that there would be plenty for me to do once I arrive, and to keep up the good attitude during this difficult process. It is a huge burden off my shoulders knowing I have a great work group in Europe. I cannot wait to meet everyone in person and thank them for their support!

Until then, I will continue to sleep in a little later than usual, check emails by the pool, cook yummy dinners with Mama, and take long walks with the dogs in the evenings.