if you move to another country....

[harmonicon]

.... be prepared to chew your leg off to escape the crushing bear trap that is bureaucracy.

I just found out that my appeal to have my current visa extended without having to put in a formal extension application was denied. That means that I have to get shit loads of paperwork together, and pay... and the cost? 1/3 of my monthly income.... several hundred dollars. And I'm looking at new apartments now and have to put down a security deposit soon, and I need to book a flight for my summer vacation, and have some money for my summer vacation, so that I can actually see my parents and my sister, and my nephew, who I haven't seen in a year.

Fucking Fucking Fuckers.... the British Home Office can suck an egg.

[LynzM]

1. Ugh, that sucks....

Much patience to you, dude... we're moving to Germany in September, and I'm already ready to faint thinking about the mountains of paperwork. Ugh! :hug:

[harmonicon]

3. yeah...

It's not so much the amount of paperwork as it is all the different places that the paperwork has to come from. For example: I need to send in my last 3 bank statements, and print outs don't count. I'm so glad that I hadn't switched to online banking yet - in your face, environment!!

[leftyclimber]

2. Had a similar problem in Canada.

My MP was rather spectacular about helping out once I explained how much I hoped to get to pay lots and lots and lots of taxes over the many years I planned to spend in his country, and I'd love it if he could help me do so.

Worth a try at least.... :hug:

[harmonicon]

4. yeah... I should have actually called and bitched to someone, or contacted my MP

I didn't even think of that. What is so crazy about this is that I don't pay taxes over here. I'm over here as a researcher at a university, and the university (supported by public money) pays me a bursary, and now I have to take money that the government is giving me and pay it back to the government, so that I can extend my visa, one of the conditions of extension being that I can prove that I get paid enough money to live here. Hold on... my skull actually imploded.

[leftyclimber]

5. Can you play up your research?

Is it something that will benefit the UK in the long run, either in an applied sense or in a prestige sense? That might be another card to play...

Sounds like typical bureaucratic circular logic. I'm kind of surprised your uni isn't helping you out.

The Chronicle of Higher Education has an Academics in the UK board -- some of the folks there might have some suggestions for you as well.

[harmonicon]

6. the uni is helping me out, just not financially

Supposedly my research does benefit the UK, at least in a prestige sense, and that's why they're paying me to be over here full time. They are in fact paying for the visa, in so much as they're the folks who cut me my pay cheque every month. They even filed an appeal for me, but it was denied. I think the guy who filed the appeal could have done a better job - he didn't seem to think it would be successful, so I don't think he tried as hard as he could have. Oh well. It's still more money than I'd get at a US university, and I'm very happy here. I'm just not used to being in a financial tight spot since moving here. I'm actually making a poor, but comfortable, living for the first time in my adult life with this gig, and am happy to have it. It just sucks that it's so much harder for me than it would be for someone from another EU country who doesn't need a visa. Sometimes being from the US really sucks.