MRW I finally get the visa which will allow me to stay in this country with my husband after waiting and worrying for 13 months.
Posted Dec 29, 2015, 11:58 AM UTC
32133
Congratulations, that is a HUGE deal. I am also currently studying in a country where my bf lives. I landed a 1-year internship that guaranteed me another full year with him but it'll be ending mid 2016. If I don't get sponsored for my work visa, I am not sure what I will be doing. :( We are not married or engaged, so things will be hard.
7
Thanks! I know how that feels. Do you guys already live together? In Belgium, you can apply for a family-reunion visa if you have been living together with your partner for a year. You don't have to be married or engaged or anything. I know it's not an option everywhere, but it might be worth looking into (if you haven't already). Anyway, I wish you luck!
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Sorry to hijack but I just realized how amazingly considerate of people's life choices that a family reunion visa allows for partners to stay in the place of their choice without forcing unions on them. I'm so touched! Belgium, you stay you.
3
Yeah, Belgium's often the butt of jokes in Europe, but it's actually a pretty neat place. Here's another thing that really blew my mind as an American: in Belgium, they think that health care is a basic human right, which means that you are required to have health insurance, but it's on a sliding scale: the poorer you are, the cheaper your health insurance premiums are.
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Nice! Congratulations! I've been waiting for 5 months for my temporary stay permit. After I was supposed to get a 'decision' on 22/12, which was 'we have nothing for you now', I feel my wait shall be much longer.
4
Ugh, that's so frustrating! How much longer do you think you'll have to wait?
2
I just got another letter telling me I'll hear back on the 22 of February. We shall see.
2
Good luck!
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Hurrah! Waiting on visas is terrifying and frustrating. My spouse visa took forever to process despite being a very simple one, and I was freaking out every day I had to wait. Here's to some peace of mind for you!
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Thank you! I think it's going to take a couple of days for it to really sink in. It's like my head knows I don't have to worry anymore, but my body hasn't processed it yet.
5
It takes time! The best part of my visa is that I get to skip the non-EU lines now whenever I enter the country and saunter up to the counter. Feels pretty good!
3
That's awesome.
3
congratulations!!! visas suck.
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Thank you. Lord do they ever suck!
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Oh dear god, yes they do.
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Yay! Congratulations!!
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Thank you!
1
Still waiting for my permanent residency. I don't think it's going to go through because other people who applied the same time as me are already on the next stage of application and mine is still sitting in the review stage. It is super stressful. I hate it.
2
Oh no! That's so awful and stressful. One of the hardest things about living in another country is how much power bureaucrats suddenly have over the big, basic parts of your life--like if you get to stay in a place that has become home. I hope you get your permanent residency card and you haven't heard from them yet just because they're being slow for some dumb reason, and not because they're going to turn your application down!
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There's a good chance they'll delay it because they took so fucking long to get to it that my medical expired before they could review it. What sucks is calling in to check gets us nowhere either. It's a fucking endless loop of being transferred to idiots that don't know their foot from their face and then we eventually get hung up on. Fucking bureaucrats.
2
Yeah, that really sucks. Here the deal was: if they reject your application, they send the local foreigner's office a letter before the pre-determined deadline. If they accept your application, they send nothing. So there is no way to speed up the process or ask them where they are in the process, because the only answer was: wait until Dec 29th to find out if you can stay or if you are going to be thrown out of the country.
2
I'm on a visitor's visa at the moment. It expires in another six months. The country granted me an extended stay because we had proof of applying for my PR. The issue is that Canada is so backed up and messed up in terms of immigration services that people literally do not know what it going on most of the time. It's just frustrating because I really, really need to work but I can't. We are officially talking about moving back to the states and just trying to get jobs back in my home state.
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I just got back to my SO's home country after our own immigration/visa boondoggle a little over a month ago. I know the stress well... super happy for you OP.
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Thank you! I hope your visa troubles are sorted out for now!
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Just mailed out the application for my residency card, so things are hopefully on the up and up.
2
You go girl! I got a visa to live with my bf :) which country are you living in now?
Belgium! Land of beer, french fries, chocolate, and bureaucracy. And they eat waffles for dinner!
I'm in Poland! Land of... Poles. Haha. Oh, and pierogi :) come visit sometime and I'll set you up with some awesome polish cuisine!
I saw some pictures of Poland the other day, and it was surprisingly beautiful! I'm not sure why it was surprising, actually. I guess I just hadn't thought much about Poland before that.
Haha, I felt the same way the first time i saw it, too. I've been meaning to see the crooked forest but my bf says it's in the middle of butthole nowhere and it's not that great. I'll go eventually, whether he likes it or not :p
On mobile so here's a link to a photo: http://i1189.photobucket.com/albums/z422/curiousplaces888/crookedforestgryfinopoland3.jpg