A Glimmer of Hope??
My partner and I have yet to hear from immigration. We both were hoping that we would have heard something by now. But of course, we’re talking about a government agency here. The government is going to take their merry time and they’re going to make us sit and sweat. Often at night, I will be lying in bed and ponder upon the idea of “just what are they doing during all of this time?” I know there are a lot of other cases, but our case seems so “clean cute.” Of course to them, it’s not. But it’d be just easier if they went ahead and granted me my visa. But I can understand that DIMIA is doing their job, and there isn’t anything we can do.
My partner has a friend, who knows someone who used to work for DIMIA. He now has his own law firm, and if we have to go to the appeals process, we’ll more than likely be going to him. But this lawyer, as well as my partner’s friend both said, the WORST thing you can do, is ring up DIMIA and badger them about your case. We were given our case officer’s number, but we’re only supposed to ring them if we have a question regarding something we had to do, like in our letter. I often wonder if they give out the phone number, just to see how you’ll respond to it. Whether you’ll ring, or whether you’ll just sit tight. DIMIA gets utterly annoyed when people ring them and hound them about a case. I know I should just be happy that I’m still here legally now, and any day that we don’t hear something is yet another day we get to stay together.
I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this, but oh well if I did. The gay male couple that we’re good friends with, the Aussie guy (who works with my partner) told my partner and interesting story. He has a friend who is from the Phillipines. This man is straight. Over 8 years ago, this man came to Australia on a 3 month tourist visa. He ended up overstaying his visa illegally of course, for 8 years. He worked under the table, cash in hand..so of course, how many immigration rules was he breaking? He ended up going back to the Phillipines, on his own accord. He built a house, stayed there for 9 months or so. In the duration of that time, he got himself an immigration lawyer. A few Sundays ago, our friend heard from this guy, saying he was now back in Australia. I’m not sure if he came because he’s in a relationship, but nonetheless, he was able to get back here to Australia.
Now how the heck was he able to do that? Aside from being illegally in Australia for over 8 years, he worked illegally as well. Now look at my case. I was illegal for 67 days I believe. But in that time, since January 2005, I haven’t worked. My case seems far less harsh than what this guy’s case was. But yet he managed to get an immigration lawyer to find a way to get here. What happened to the exclusion period? Did this guy, because he was straight, get married, and was able to come because he now had a “spouse?” How unfair is that? If my partner and I could get married here in Australia, we would, and this wouldn’t even be an issue. But yet it is, and yet it angers me and frustrates me that he was able to find a way to get here after being illegal for over 8 years. But at the same time, it gives me a glimmer of hope, because if he was able to find a way to come back, DIMIA HAS to look at my case no so harshly, don’t they? I know, I’m only wishing here, but it seems to make sense.
Then yesterday my partner was talking to a friend on the phone. Her friend is from work, and is just about ready to have a baby. She’s known me for quite some time, and wrote us a statutory declaration (affidavit) for us for our application and knows all what is going on. She was telling my partner, that she has some friends, who went through the same process as us. Now, I don’t have all the details or circumstances, but from what my partner said…it was a lesbian couple, they went to New Zealand just like we did. They ended up having some confusion with visas as well. I don’t know if the one was unlawful or not, but I’m assuming so. The woman was able to stay on a bridging visa, and after 3 months of waiting, they finally heard back. And the woman was able to get her residency.
So I’m thinking to myself “Oh God, 3 months, I don’t know if financially we can afford it.” But the thing is, we can. It’s just that without me working, we’re only living off of one income. And as managable as that is, we were both hoping I’d be working by now and we’d be able to start paying off my partner’s house. But the way I see it, 3 months down the track, we’ll be in debt, but as long as I’m able to stay, that’s all that matters. Because once I get that visa, I’ll be able to work, and we’ll be able to pay off the debts. The thing with my partner’s mortgage on her house, is she lives off of credit. She doesn’t have a monthly statement she has to pay or anything like that. So worst comes to shove, if she has to get more in “debt” she can. Because once that visa comes through, we’ll be able to pay it back very quickly. I try to tell myself that, that way I don’t freak out because my money is running low. I brought a considerable amount with me when I came back in September. We had the knowledge though that it would last me for a year. We didn’t think we’d have these complications.
I just hope that this stuff is the most of our worries. That DIMIA isn’t skeptical about our relationship, and that’s why they are taking so long. Even though we had a lot of evidence to prove our cohabiation and commitment to the relationship, there were not a lot of financial evidence that we could have used. But we stated that once my temporary residency went through, we’d change all of that. Even though we both know we’re in a committed relationship, having joint bank accounts and having all the bills in both of our names, it didn’t seem logical. Not logical, for the simple fact that we didn’t want DIMIA to know what we were doing, not yet at least. Even though my name isn’t on every bill, we always pay ½.. Whether DIMIA decides to believe us, that is their choice. We have the gas/electricity bill in both our names, but a lot of the bills, I wasn’t able to get my name in. Like my mobile phone bill, and the tv/entertainment center credit card, because I didn’t have enough “proof of ID” points or I didn’t have an income, it wasn’t logical to try and get my name on the account. But once I’m made a residency, I may get more “proof of ID” points.
But after hearing these two stories, as I know every case is different, it does give me a glimmer of hope that just maybe we’ll be okay. I have a gut feeling that we WILL be okay, but yet the realistic part of me is still skeptical. And it’s not a bad thing that I’m being skeptical, it’s just that I guess a part of me is always going to be on edge until we find out.
-current mood-HEART hurts, think I have heartburn at the moment.
My partner has a friend, who knows someone who used to work for DIMIA. He now has his own law firm, and if we have to go to the appeals process, we’ll more than likely be going to him. But this lawyer, as well as my partner’s friend both said, the WORST thing you can do, is ring up DIMIA and badger them about your case. We were given our case officer’s number, but we’re only supposed to ring them if we have a question regarding something we had to do, like in our letter. I often wonder if they give out the phone number, just to see how you’ll respond to it. Whether you’ll ring, or whether you’ll just sit tight. DIMIA gets utterly annoyed when people ring them and hound them about a case. I know I should just be happy that I’m still here legally now, and any day that we don’t hear something is yet another day we get to stay together.
I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this, but oh well if I did. The gay male couple that we’re good friends with, the Aussie guy (who works with my partner) told my partner and interesting story. He has a friend who is from the Phillipines. This man is straight. Over 8 years ago, this man came to Australia on a 3 month tourist visa. He ended up overstaying his visa illegally of course, for 8 years. He worked under the table, cash in hand..so of course, how many immigration rules was he breaking? He ended up going back to the Phillipines, on his own accord. He built a house, stayed there for 9 months or so. In the duration of that time, he got himself an immigration lawyer. A few Sundays ago, our friend heard from this guy, saying he was now back in Australia. I’m not sure if he came because he’s in a relationship, but nonetheless, he was able to get back here to Australia.
Now how the heck was he able to do that? Aside from being illegally in Australia for over 8 years, he worked illegally as well. Now look at my case. I was illegal for 67 days I believe. But in that time, since January 2005, I haven’t worked. My case seems far less harsh than what this guy’s case was. But yet he managed to get an immigration lawyer to find a way to get here. What happened to the exclusion period? Did this guy, because he was straight, get married, and was able to come because he now had a “spouse?” How unfair is that? If my partner and I could get married here in Australia, we would, and this wouldn’t even be an issue. But yet it is, and yet it angers me and frustrates me that he was able to find a way to get here after being illegal for over 8 years. But at the same time, it gives me a glimmer of hope, because if he was able to find a way to come back, DIMIA HAS to look at my case no so harshly, don’t they? I know, I’m only wishing here, but it seems to make sense.
Then yesterday my partner was talking to a friend on the phone. Her friend is from work, and is just about ready to have a baby. She’s known me for quite some time, and wrote us a statutory declaration (affidavit) for us for our application and knows all what is going on. She was telling my partner, that she has some friends, who went through the same process as us. Now, I don’t have all the details or circumstances, but from what my partner said…it was a lesbian couple, they went to New Zealand just like we did. They ended up having some confusion with visas as well. I don’t know if the one was unlawful or not, but I’m assuming so. The woman was able to stay on a bridging visa, and after 3 months of waiting, they finally heard back. And the woman was able to get her residency.
So I’m thinking to myself “Oh God, 3 months, I don’t know if financially we can afford it.” But the thing is, we can. It’s just that without me working, we’re only living off of one income. And as managable as that is, we were both hoping I’d be working by now and we’d be able to start paying off my partner’s house. But the way I see it, 3 months down the track, we’ll be in debt, but as long as I’m able to stay, that’s all that matters. Because once I get that visa, I’ll be able to work, and we’ll be able to pay off the debts. The thing with my partner’s mortgage on her house, is she lives off of credit. She doesn’t have a monthly statement she has to pay or anything like that. So worst comes to shove, if she has to get more in “debt” she can. Because once that visa comes through, we’ll be able to pay it back very quickly. I try to tell myself that, that way I don’t freak out because my money is running low. I brought a considerable amount with me when I came back in September. We had the knowledge though that it would last me for a year. We didn’t think we’d have these complications.
I just hope that this stuff is the most of our worries. That DIMIA isn’t skeptical about our relationship, and that’s why they are taking so long. Even though we had a lot of evidence to prove our cohabiation and commitment to the relationship, there were not a lot of financial evidence that we could have used. But we stated that once my temporary residency went through, we’d change all of that. Even though we both know we’re in a committed relationship, having joint bank accounts and having all the bills in both of our names, it didn’t seem logical. Not logical, for the simple fact that we didn’t want DIMIA to know what we were doing, not yet at least. Even though my name isn’t on every bill, we always pay ½.. Whether DIMIA decides to believe us, that is their choice. We have the gas/electricity bill in both our names, but a lot of the bills, I wasn’t able to get my name in. Like my mobile phone bill, and the tv/entertainment center credit card, because I didn’t have enough “proof of ID” points or I didn’t have an income, it wasn’t logical to try and get my name on the account. But once I’m made a residency, I may get more “proof of ID” points.
But after hearing these two stories, as I know every case is different, it does give me a glimmer of hope that just maybe we’ll be okay. I have a gut feeling that we WILL be okay, but yet the realistic part of me is still skeptical. And it’s not a bad thing that I’m being skeptical, it’s just that I guess a part of me is always going to be on edge until we find out.
-current mood-HEART hurts, think I have heartburn at the moment.
posted by Gaylicious© at Sunday, November 06, 2005
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