Shock has subsided

It’s been at least 24 hours now, and the shock of what happened last night has subsided a bit. Sometimes when I stop what I’m doing, I can still feel a sense of stress. I think I stress more because of the unknown. Before this happened, I was pretty confident that the application was going to get approved. But now that this has happened, so much weighs on what happens, and I can’t even begin to think about what we’ll do if the application is rejected.

Last night my partner rang her mum and told her what had happened. Her mum’s partner has a friend who works for immigration. She had him ring us today, and after the conversation we had, I began to feel a little better. The guy told us not to stress. He said for us to focus on this application, and if it doesn’t get approved, that we have 28 days to lodge an appeal. The appeal then goes to the tribunal, and if all goes well, the denied application can be overturned. It costs 1400.00 to appeal. But he said that it can take about 6 months for the appeals process, but I think during that process I’m still allowed to be in the country. But if I can’t work for another 6 months, that is going to be extremely hard on my partner. We’d manage, but it’d be extremely tight for us.

The guy just kept saying “don’t think about that right now, think about what is in front of you.” I told him that I was afraid the immigration officer was going to see “unlawful for over 60 days” (it doesn’t look as bad if you’re under the 28 days of being unlawful) and won’t look further beyond that. He said “no, it’s not going to be like that.” He said that immigration is interested in finding out the truth if something like this comes up. He talked about how the visa was tricky and that this sort of stuff happens. He said a few times not to stress. He then told me that I should write a statutory declaration about what happened. I told him we’d written something yesterday while at DIMIA, but we didn’t know the exact time and dates stuff happened. He said the statutory declaration may help our case because it’s a legal document. Hopefully in a few weeks time, we will get a letter from DIMIA and if they request more information, we’ll give them that letter. If they don’t request more information, and we have an interview, I’ll be the letter with me. It’ll look like I’m really trying to explain myself.

Everyone that I’ve talked to has given so much support and words of encouragement. Some people say that if things are meant to be, it’ll all work out. And when I hear people say that I think to myself “why would it NOT be meant to be, with all of the obstacles we’ve had thrown at us thus far?” To us, we’re meant to be, but to who, are we not? Fate has brought us together, would fate tear us apart? I don’t know, and I’m scared to know. But there is nothing more I can do. So I just have to sit on my hands and hope to the high powers that be, that this goes in our favor.

-current mood-MORE CALM