She was the only foreigner I knew who didn't have some bizarre story about trying to live with her foreign partner working in Belgium.
Today she was teling me that they were under suspicion, that she and her partner didn't provide enough proof of having a relationship in the time before his work brought him to Brussels.
OH DEAR GOD!!!
What foolishness is this????
People from America, Canada and New Zealand are not trying to sneak into Belgium ... they are here because they love their partner and want to live with that partner.
They have given up a career or study, an income, a social life, family, possessions and language only to have these bizarre and stressful things happen.
I promise, it's love not some bizarre desire to return to the world our ancestors fled generations ago.
She was the only one who hadn't had problems and now she's under suspicion too ...
Cindy in Brussels, the American lawyer who followed her partner over here returned recently after her deportation from Belgium for ... well it's really simpler if you read her post about being deported
7 comments:
I really feel for the poor woman getting deported, we had an old couple who were running a pet shop in our local town (Carringbah) and had been for over 40 yrs they got deported, I know its totaly different as they just didnt leave, but gawd I felt sorry for them.
Belgium must be a good spot ehh.
I'm afraid the way Belgium has handled (and continues to handle) immigration is a painful farce.
I saw (well, not personally) shady Russians from the former "Falcon square" in Antwerp suddenly turn into 'Belgians', while couples-with-children were accused of
staging a fake wedding...
Currently there is almost a "closed borders for Non-EU citizens" type of policy, I hope you can handle the stress this prolonged waiting must sometimes provoke.
Take care.
Hi Peter, you were so gracious that I felt like a heks and I guess I should admit that all Belgians who hear of my situation are so genuinely surprised at the time taken to let me in.
One made me laugh when he pointed out, 'Well you want to move to Belgium, we all want to move to New Zealand, THAT'S why they're so suspicious of you!'
Anyway, my Belgian and I realised we still loved each other, despite our challenging year, so we married quietly on 12 August ... I should change my information at the top of my blog :)
And Rob, I tried to write a reply to your last line, I tried humour, sarcasm and truth, nothing worked, so let me just send you a wink, my Scottish Aussie friend ;)
Yea we Belgians are though when it comes to protecting our little, really little place on this big thing called Planet Earth -wonder if the Plutonians still call us Planet? The problem with the legislation has all to do with the extreme roght group in Belgium, they made it almost impossible for decent immigrants to immigrate here.
Now that you say it manic, the extreme right neo-nazis are the only explanation for such a ridiculous system. The fact that everyday Belgians are shocked when they hear how it is for a foreigner is a huge clue.
So I guess Dewinter can stand foreign investment and the money from the companies here, and he probably likes having the millions in EU business based in Brussels but I guess he and his neo nazis want a minimal amount of foreigners, preferably with unhappy partners who have no life ... yes, definately Dewinter's unworkable neo-nazi ideology.
This is such a familiar story, because it happens all too often, not just in Belgium. So sad.
I'm sure they can win ... they were together 6 months before and there is proof, I'm not sure that this latest request isn't some foolish game played by the rulemakers.
They would only need to see what my friend gave up to become a dependent here to understand that love is the only possible explanation.
Travel is lovely but all but impossible if you're forbidden permission to work.
Insanity ... the old colonisers are now rule-making so that would be 'new colonisers' become unwelcome immigrants and many countries are guilty of it.
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