Today I went down to East Croydon to the Home Office. I have been before but its always an "experience". I was surprised last week after sitting my Life in the UK test that I could take my pick of appointments from 9-4pm. I chose to have a 10am appointment to miss the rush hour traffic.
I was attempting to gain the Indefinite Leave to Remain status after living in the UK for over 5 years on my Ancestry Visa. This application enables me to come and go with little issue for - well - EVER. Although I still will be guzumped at the airport in the Foreigners queue.
If I could prove my Britishness more I asked someone to please get in the queue behind me when I went to pay the crippling £1350!
42 pages later - of which Section 9 was not relevant and made up 30 pages - detailing all my personal details and an accurate view on my comings and goings from the Great British Isles for these 5 years and 9 months. This last exercise should have been an enjoyable one filled with happy memories and reminiscing instead it (I am almost ashamed to say) was a chore. The Work trips, weekends breaks, Bank Holiday weekends and beach holidays just made me wish that I had been travelling more these past few years. But its a good thing I'm making the most of this thought over the next 12 months!
As I handed over my documentation to the Clerk I gave her my Grandad's birth certificate firstly(I am here due to birth right but not enough right to be able to obtain a Passport). She wouldn't take my Nana's - I argued that I would for Women's Liberty like to use my Nana's Birth Certificate - this was meet with a scoff and she said 'I have your grandfathers that is more than enough'. It was as if I was being spoilt. Which for many in the red pews behind me I probably was. For many in the room having two grandparents with British birth certificates would make their lives easier. But I hasten to add would also make them very different individuals. One who knows what a mean Scot is by the example of my famed Grandfather and acquired a sweet tooth by way of her Nana's shortbread. An interest in the many attributes of Women's Division (It wasn't called Women's Institute I don't think in Heriot) activities like baking, sewing and home making from her example and a warm disposition with a hard working ethic (My beloved Nana - mother of nine - milked cows and ran a farm in her 50's when abruptly widowed).
I waited an hour and was granted my new visa with the word INDEFINITE stamped in my new New Zealand Passport.
I couldn't help but feel a little lost. No limits are on my location now. I can call both the UK and NZ home. A call home to Mum helped me realise I am very lucky indeed.
I come from a family pioneers - the Herrings, Greengoes and Browns have wonderful stories of adventure to and around New Zealand and Nana's voyage through the Suez at age 16 on-board with her Aunt, Uncle and cousin bound for a new land of green pastures have me constantly thinking how very lucky New Zealanders are. The fact I am back in the motherland I desperately hope would not disappoint them all.
I was attempting to gain the Indefinite Leave to Remain status after living in the UK for over 5 years on my Ancestry Visa. This application enables me to come and go with little issue for - well - EVER. Although I still will be guzumped at the airport in the Foreigners queue.
If I could prove my Britishness more I asked someone to please get in the queue behind me when I went to pay the crippling £1350!
42 pages later - of which Section 9 was not relevant and made up 30 pages - detailing all my personal details and an accurate view on my comings and goings from the Great British Isles for these 5 years and 9 months. This last exercise should have been an enjoyable one filled with happy memories and reminiscing instead it (I am almost ashamed to say) was a chore. The Work trips, weekends breaks, Bank Holiday weekends and beach holidays just made me wish that I had been travelling more these past few years. But its a good thing I'm making the most of this thought over the next 12 months!
As I handed over my documentation to the Clerk I gave her my Grandad's birth certificate firstly(I am here due to birth right but not enough right to be able to obtain a Passport). She wouldn't take my Nana's - I argued that I would for Women's Liberty like to use my Nana's Birth Certificate - this was meet with a scoff and she said 'I have your grandfathers that is more than enough'. It was as if I was being spoilt. Which for many in the red pews behind me I probably was. For many in the room having two grandparents with British birth certificates would make their lives easier. But I hasten to add would also make them very different individuals. One who knows what a mean Scot is by the example of my famed Grandfather and acquired a sweet tooth by way of her Nana's shortbread. An interest in the many attributes of Women's Division (It wasn't called Women's Institute I don't think in Heriot) activities like baking, sewing and home making from her example and a warm disposition with a hard working ethic (My beloved Nana - mother of nine - milked cows and ran a farm in her 50's when abruptly widowed).
I waited an hour and was granted my new visa with the word INDEFINITE stamped in my new New Zealand Passport.
I couldn't help but feel a little lost. No limits are on my location now. I can call both the UK and NZ home. A call home to Mum helped me realise I am very lucky indeed.
I come from a family pioneers - the Herrings, Greengoes and Browns have wonderful stories of adventure to and around New Zealand and Nana's voyage through the Suez at age 16 on-board with her Aunt, Uncle and cousin bound for a new land of green pastures have me constantly thinking how very lucky New Zealanders are. The fact I am back in the motherland I desperately hope would not disappoint them all.
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