A REALLY long story short… this is the story that never ends!
We thought we’d have it all worked out last Friday at our appointment at the UK Home Office, but when we got there, we were told we were following the wrong procedures. Against months of advice from UK Embassy call center operators, we were filling out forms as if Keith was English. But since he’s Dutch, it’s a whole different department and set of forms.
It’s very frustrating. A Visa 6 months ago for $850.00 we’re not sure we even needed (we’re writing to get our money back!), a few lost days off from work here and there for meetings, shipping charges to get bank statements rushed over here from the States… lots of hoops jumped through for no reason.
And now… even though this next process will be free (and we were expecting another $1,000 fee) it can take up to 6 months. This means I can’t work for 6 months but I can stay here while they process it, even though it may take longer than my current visa which expires July 23rd.
It’ll all work out… it’s just a very frustrating process full of people that don’t know what they are talking about when we call for direction and leading us down the wrong path.
At least this new visa we are applying for is for 5 years instead of the one we thought we were getting for only 2 years!
We’ll keep you updated!
P.S. We went straight from our frustrating and disappointing interview appointment down to England’s south shore to Dorest county where my cousin Debbie and her husband Guy live… check out our 4th of July photos in our album called “Summer 2009”