Our Visa Process

The Visa (Some Background Info on that Journey)

I wanted to write a post about what is currently going on in my life. Many of you know the business side and heart of what I am doing, but me and my husband have been facing some pretty big obstacles the last 3 months- still trying to reach our 'happily ever after' even after the wedding and honeymoon.
As many of you know, his is English, we have a flat together in England- but I'm American and had to leave the country to come back to America and apply for a UK Settlement visa.

It has been a long, expensive, confusing, expensive, stressful, and expensive process... (Did I mention expensive?!)
And I'm going to explain a little bit of what we've faced, and it's going to seem hard- truth is, it has been hard- BUT... I want to explain this so I can continue into where we have found goodness through it all.

We started the visa application process in May (keep in mind this is also when we were planning a wedding involving bringing friends and family across the Atlantic- as well as not being in the same country as the wedding itself).
We paid a couple hundred dollars for something called a Health Surcharge (health insurance), and in June I was able to print out the 74 page application and fill it out (luckily I had someone who sat down with me to help me read through it).
Then I applied from within the UK in July, paying well over a thousand dollars for just the application fee- and having to travel 2 hours to Liverpool. We were suppose to get an answer in 2 days, but after needed more documentation we had to send more things to the office and wait.
After 10 days with no answer, and no way to contact them, I traveled back to Liverpool to find they had lost my documents.
They found my documents while I was there and reviewed them, then found out that we still did not have the right funds needed for me to get the visa. That was a hard day for us- as they told us the application would be denied if we did not withdraw it. In both options we would loose all the money we spent on the application.

After crying and praying, I walked back in and we chose to withdraw it.

We continued with the wedding, and left for America 5 days after that happened.

It was the most amazing week, and day of our lives- and this was because I literally had to choose to lay the visa situation down, and not worry. I wanted to travel home with my husband, to our flat, but I no longer had a visa, and we weren't sure they would let me in on a visitor visa since I had already been in the UK for nearly 2 years.
It was a big chance, but I knew whatever the outcome, God had it in His hands and we would miss out on our wedding celebrations if we worried about it.

Flying back to England, I did worry though. I was more nervous than anything- but luckily I was also a bridesmaid in a wedding in September, and I had purchased a one-way plane ticket home in October. So I got back into England because of those two things.

The reason we purchased the one-way ticket, is because we knew we would need to re-apply for the spouse visa (and yes, repay all those fees) and I could no longer apply from within the UK because I was now a tourist there, and not classified under a charity worker like I was before. Also, in October we would have all the documents needed (because Shanen had to be working at his job with a certain salary for at least 6 months, and that was the 6 month mark)

We also chose to go with Solicitors because everything people were telling us from others applying to the UK is that Solicitors will get your visa for you, and it's very hard to get it on your own (because of all the paperwork and documents needed- and like we found before, it's very easy to miss something in it all). After weeks of trying to find a good solicitor, we went with a big company called Barlow and Spencer, and paid close to two thousand dollars for their services.

I can definitely not recommend these solicitors. After paying, we faced problem after problem with them.
However, after a lot of work on our part- constantly tracking them down as they missed appointments, correcting several mistakes for them as they got our names and dates wrong, and couldn't remember what country I was originally from- we finally got that one letter we needed from them saying they support our application and we why I should receive a spouse visa. I am believing after all that work, and stress- it helped in the end.

I didn't want to write this for anyone to feel sorry for us, because to be honest, we have been so, so blessed through this difficult process. It's been hard- but God has been faithful, and we have seen him provide in so many ways! Especially the creative ways which I love! So thank you- for all of you that have supported us in one way or another, even just with words and prayers, or from buying our artwork or music- it has ALL helped us so much!

And in the end- My visa came through just in time, and after many sad and hard tears those 4 weeks, I burst into happy tears in the middle of Earth Fare when the news came.

It was a Christmas Miracle.

It happened so fast and so unexpectedly (we had paid for UPS tracking on my documents when sending them to England, and back to America, and the tracking number still said the documents hadn't left England, yet they were home in my mothers hands when she called to tell me they arrived that Friday!)

As I paid for my salad in Earth Fare, still with tears of joy in my eye as I called Shanen crying with good news- I immediately booked my ticket the next day to begin my travels back to England.

It was all filled with so much favor on the journey home, it was incredible. It was a huge breakthrough, followed by much-needed rest and joy.

I'll write more about that journey (with pics) in my next blog.

But I just wanted to write this one for anyone else going through a visa process like ours... there is hope. It's hard, but it is worth it. <3 nbsp="" p="">