All Shook Up

The course of true love never did run smooth. And truer words were never spoken.

On Wednesday I received my visa application back with a big red rejection! According to the Clearance Officer I had not provided enough information on certain points such as how much money Marco makes, etc. Of course, this was complete baloney as I sent in everything requested on the British Consulate General website (also verified over the phone). Naturally I had an emotional breakdown and bawled like a baby. Then I did a rather smart thing, if I do say so myself.

I recently joined a website called UK Yankee. It's sort of an online support group for Americans who have moved, are moving, or are thinking about moving to the UK. One of the guys that posts there, Garry, is an American who now works in London as an advocate for people who are having immigration/visa problems. I immediately sent him an email asking for help. He replied a few hours later and asked me to call him as we needed to talk. Both Marco and I called and here is what we found out:
1. Marco is not a British citizen, nor is he what is considered a "permanent resident" of the UK. He is instead an EU (European Union) citizen who is exercizing his rights under EU Treaty Law to live and work in the UK.
2. Because of this, British law does not apply to him, and therefore he can not sponsor me to enter the UK on a visa.
3. HOWEVER, EU Law does apply to him!
4. EU Law states that he has the right to bring family members to live with him. While a fiancee is not considered a family member, a spouse is.
5. So, we have to get married somewhere OUTSIDE the UK, and then he can exercise his EU Treaty rights to bring me home with him.

So, all that boils down to now we have to figure out when and where we will get married and all that fun stuff. What our best options are. It irritates me mightily that the British Consulate totally misled me and kept my money under false pretences. Garry is going to think about possible options to try and get my money back. If we'd have known about this sooner, it would have saved us a lot of time, money and frustration. But that's the way the cookie crumbles.

We still hope to get married in August, it's just sort of up in the air right now since we just found all this out on Thursday and haven't really had time to talk about options. I will keep you all posted on further developments. AND KEEP PRAYING, THINKING GOOD THOUGHTS, AND CROSSING VARIOUS BODY PARTS! :)