Bring on the Night

or well, lets say, at least one is interested, which is enough for me to ramble on. ;-)

Today someone planted a finger in a sore wound of mine: My ability to keep you all posted on mine and C.’s situation. As I wrote earlier, C has now returned to China. Not because we wanted it to be this way, but in short, to save 51.000 kr (about 8.400$). See C.’s visa only lasted 3 months, and we knew this beforehand. The Danish law is strict in this regard, and no extending is possible. So all senses told us that it would be best to do it this way.

My logic says it is wise, but right now my heart is not so sure.

Now the situation is like this:

Every morning I get up early and talk to C on MSN. It’s really great that we can see each other, and talk about everything. The downside is actually the same: We can see each other, talk, but nothing more. Kinda hard to explain if you haven’t tried it or similar yourself. Web cams are a blessing and a curse. Still we have no better alternative, and in the end we are happy to have this opportunity.

Guess I should tell a little about why the situation is so difficult (but solvable if we follow the rules and have good patience).

The Danish law says that when a foreigner (from selected countries, herein China) comes to Denmark and the couple is not married, the Dane has to provide a bank guarantee of 51.000,- kr (more about this later). This guarantee will be released when you can prove that your visitor has left the country again. In our case, C had to scan her flight tickets and passport/visa stamps send these to me, so I could provide these for the embassy, and so they could send these to Denmark again to the Danish Emigration Service (Danish: Udlaendingestyrelsen). Of course she could have send the pictures to the embassy directly, but since her English is limited, I handled all papers. These were sent in the period between Christmas and New Year, and I have still not heard from The Danish Emigration Service (DES).

Meanwhile C. and I have worked on a new Visa from March. It cannot be any sooner, because the law prohibits this. The rule is that over 6 months, you cannot stay in Denmark more than the 3 of them. Getting a new visa is easier than the first time, since we are now married. This time I do not have to provide a bank guarantee, and therefore the papers do not have to go through DES to be accepted, hence shorter handling time. However, there is still some paper work to be done. The first visa required the following:

– Passport
– Visa application
– 350RMB handling fee
– Flight tickets
– Insurance
– Invitation letter signed by me declaring that I would pay all C.’s expenses in the period.
– A personal visit to the embassy by the applicant.
– A bank gurantee of 51.000,- made by my bank to ensure that Denmark would have no extra expenses on the visitors account.

This time it was easier. Since we are now married, 2 of the steps were not necessary: The Invitation letter, and the bank guarantee. Or so I thought. I am a very thorough man, when it comes to these things, and some may even call me neurotic. Neurotic enough to investigate these things with the embassy. After a few mails I was told that a bank guarantee was not necessary, and the invitation letter wasn’t either. The personal visit by C. was unfortunately not discussable, so even though I hated it, C. had to go to Beijing alone.

Having taken care of everything, C. went on the journey to Beijing. Her hometown is close to Harbin (note: close by Chinese standards), and this spells a journey of 12-16 hours each way. First by bus to Harbin, and then train for 12 hours. Resting assure all papers were ok; she jumped on the train, and arrived in Beijing the next morning in the embassy’s office hours. She went to the Visa Officer at the desk only to be met by a demand to show the letter of invitation. The letter we were told was not necessary. Panicking because she had already bought the return ticket to the train, and not completely understanding what was wrong or how to fix it, she did the only thing she could do: call me.

In Denmark this was 2.30 in the morning, and I am not sure I could spell my own name, but still we decided that I should call her back and talk to the embassy’s employees on the phone.

I asked if the person in the other end spoke Danish, and this triggered a fast hand-over of the telephone. Fortunately I got the same person that had answered my questions about the visa. He very fast understood the situation, and I could hear him say to the visa officer at the desk that the papers were all right. Needlessly to say both C. and I was relieved. C. could now catch her train, and I could go back to sleep. Well, back to bed anyway, because I did not sleep very much after that phone call.

Oh yeah, did I mention that C stood up the whole way in the train from Harbin to Beijing? She had a few small “sit downs” because some people with seats felt sorry for her, but that’s all. Try making a fat westerner do that, and you will hear some real whines. When she went to buy the ticket no seats was available, so she decided not to delay the journey (like most western people would do), but bought a standing ticket.

After C. returned home again safely, I got a mail from the embassy that they needed the Letter of Invitation anyway. Doh!

Fortunately the same scary email gave me 2 good messages as well. I did not have to get the letter stamped by an official at the courthouse to prove my signature (300,- kr = 50$), and I was informed that the visa application did not have to go through DES. This means a much shorter time before the visa is ready.

I have sent the signed letter, and have recently heard from the embassy that this part is now ok. All we need now is to provide a copy of the insurance papers and the flight tickets. So this is what is hot in this case right now as I write. Both C. and I are looking into prices for her return about 23. March.

Now, all seems good in the visa business, and it is. But visa s not all that we are going for at the moment.

Since a visa is only temporary, we need to think ahead, and apply for a permanent stay for her too. We do this at the same time, and it is a much trickier business.

There are two reasons to why we do this now, and not while she is here again: one is that there are a lot of talks in the Danish news about tightening the law for foreigners even more. Should this be a fact, it will be from around March this year. If we apply for permanent stay before this, we should be not be affected by this law. Furthermore, I had hoped that maybe the application for permanent stay would be handled faster, and maybe, just maybe, C. could come here before 23. March.

Unfortunately I am still waiting for the DES to release my first bank guarantee, and for strategic reasons (and common sense) I want this to be released before the next step. Even though the DES by law cannot take this money because we now file for permanent stay, I do not trust them enough to say they will make an error in this regard. In the end they cannot take the money, but if they do so anyway, it may take me a lot of time to get it back, and meanwhile we are stalemate in the money/permanent stay situation. Yes, I may be cautious, but the horror stories I have heard about DES, have given me plenty of excuse. And by the way, I have to put up a new bank guarantee of about 54.000,- kr shortly after the DES have accepted the application for permanent stay.

The wait for the release of the current bank guarantee delays the application for the permanent stay, so now my guess is that the earliest time C. can come will still be around end March no matter what.

So right now I wait for some papers with C.’s signature for the permanent stay, and a letter from DES saying that the bank guarantee is freed.

When this is ok, I must complete the last part of the paperwork, and send the application for permanent stay. Sounds easy from now on, right? Well – you’re wrong. The standard papers for the application is in 26 pages, and has 3 supplements as well. All-in-all about 35 pages. These are a mix of questions (most of the pages), and stuff to read and sign. No need to go into details, but lets just say that not much is left out. I can mention “funny” questions and demands like:

– What are the names, address, marriage status and birthday, of C.’s father and mother?
– What are the names, address, marriage status and birthday, of C.’s siblings?
– Have you been married before?
– Sign that DES can demand a DNA test to make sure you are not sister and brother.
– Sign that you are not brother and sister (or in any kind of “naughty” family relation you can think of).
– Note what school and what years C. went to in her whole life.
– Note what work and what years C. had in her whole life.
– How big is your home (number of rooms, and their size)
– My income (provide copies of the recent 3 months pay slips).
– Bla bla bla.

Well, you name it, they ask about it.

I think I used about 4 hours on this application already. This included filling out forms, and making a list of things to include and remember. Then I have not included the many hours I have used with C. going through what I needed her help with, or the time I used looking for supplement papers.

In the end I suspect the whole application to be about 45 pages long including my supplement papers of pay slips, and so on.

This is where we are right now. Not a happy place, but at least there is a little progress, and we now have a date on which she can return when we provide flight ticket and insurance. But the paper work is far from over yet as you can see. I will try to inform when there is a small change, if I find it blog worthy ;-)

Meanwhile my wonderful wife is beyond my reach. Not really a situation I would envy anyone else and not anything I can do much about.

I miss her very much.