Long time no blog! I am using this time of quarantine as a way to get reacquainted with the wonderful habit of journaling and blogging with a first person voice, keeping you and me entertained in the process. You may feel like you have missed a few episodes, or rather a whole season! I will try to catch up as we go. In the meanwhile, stay safe and wash your hands 🙂
God it feels like this quarantine has been going on forever. Over a month and a half… sure, we’re on the beach, in sunny San Diego, I am with my spouse and our two Great Danes, bla bla bla. It still sucks.
Today, I had serious cabin fever. We went on a walk on the beach, and as I was handling both dogs on a leash, they tried to escape to run off to an unleashed dog. Too much weight pulling, I let go of the leashes, and they scared the other dog’s owners. I apologized profusely as they walked away yelling at me.
Coming home, all the frustration from the past weeks came up. Having to leash them in the first place, because we are in the U.S. and there are rules now. Having to go on the same walk every single day, where people are walking their dogs off leash and I have to restrain mine. Living in 300sqft during a stay at home order. Not being able to go anywhere, because now my visa has expired and I am not allowed to leave the country until I get my green card’s travel authorization.
I hate having people tell me what to do, especially when that has to do with restriction of movement. I have been freely trotting around the globe since 2003, and it is unknown territory.
After getting married, I put in paperwork for a green card, so I could stay past my 6 month tourism visa (B1/B2).
USCIS closed two days before my first green card interview. By now, I was supposed to have a travel authorization and a work permit. Said work permit would have come with a social number, so I could also build credit instead of being an authorized user on my husband’s card.
One idea was to get some kind of job in the U.S. so I could have access to credit and then consider some real estate investments.
In any case, I am now a tax resident, and find it very convenient that the IRS can find and tax me (on my worldwide income no less), but immigration can’t issue a freaking green card.
I just logged into USCIS to see that a letter sent to our P.O. box on base couldn’t be delivered three weeks ago, and it stresses me that I could get rejected because I missed a correspondence.
We can’t get letters at the RV park, and the post office personnel on base tested positive for COVID so it was closed.
I have an online profile where I have asked to be notified by email if I get something, but I guess I missed the email. Internet is painfully slow inside the RV…
One of the main reasons I reached financial independence was so I could give a big middle finger to most institutions and people who said things should go a way I disagreed with.
The silverlining is I can afford not to work, I don’t know how people who need the work permit are handling it, plus once they’d get the work permit, they’d probably not get holidays to visit family for a long time.
Before COVID, green card applications for marriage took about a year to process. If I lost 3-4 months of processing because of closures, I may not be able to go to France before next summer. That would mean almost 3 years without seeing my family and friends, because I didn’t come back last summer.
My last trip was at the end of 2018. In 2019 I had a flight to Paris, but decided to stay in Guatemala and Colorado during the summer. Then I avoided winter travel as the weather is miserable over there. And now France is talking about not reopening borders for months anyway.
I could go, as your own country can’t deny you entry, but that would mean receiving the travel authorization beforehand, and risking to be denied upon re-entry here. So let’s not risk it.
It’s like that children tale Bluebeard where the guy gives the princess all the keys to his castle except for one door, and all she wants is to open that one door.
Getting away would mean getting away from my husband’s work drama, neighbor drama, and adulting in general. I am looking at nearby national parks for a little escape in the near future. Better than nothing.