\* Happy dancing \*

After all the hassles and the annoyances and the waiting and the worrying, we have finally sent off the application for Iku’s visa! Now there’s more waiting and worrying, as the Immigration people sort through the application, the statements, and the two CDs worth of pictures and videos of us together. But, I think, knock on wood and all that, the hardest part is behind us, and I can now concentrate on getting my two years worth of stuff home…

We decided to get marry in the middle of October, 2007. And we finally got married on January
25th, 2008. It took more than three months to get all the documents for our marriage. It’s not only because we’re lazy, but we had to wait so long for everything. We had to wait for John’s birth certificate to be sent from Australia and translated. We had to wait for his Certificate of No Impediment to Marriage to be sent from Australian consulate from Osaka. We had to wait to see a Notary Public to witness No Impediment to Marriage application form, ’cause we applied for it by mail instead of going to the Australian Consulate in Fukuoka. We spent half an hour just talking with the Notary Public about the order of John’s name because it depends on the country he is in. And, it costed us $100 dollars just to get it witnessed. Sucks!!

Anyway, we spent lots of time, money, and energy to get all the documents, and submitted those
to town hall in Hiroshima. International marriages are so annoying, and there is so much more for me to complain about, like getting my partner visa to live in Australia. But, I’m happy that I could find someone very special who I really wanna stay with, even if I have to do all these annoying things.

…but for crying out loud does it have to be this hard?

Well, we certainly started this blog with a b(itch)ang. We’re two weeks into married, and three months into getting all the stuff we need for Iku’s visa, but we’re still $1400au and *up to 4 months* away from finding out if she’ll even get her visa. Four months? What the hell are they doing in that four months? I once knew a girl who joined the RAAF to be a communications officer; she was going to handle some sensitive material and she needed to have a security clearance, and had to do an ASIO background check. That only took a month. Just one. Let’s assume they will do a background check on me too, that’s two months, if done consecutively. So the other two months are for…

…?

Anyway, the timing really puts a dent in our plans, so it looks like I’ll just have to bite the bullet and go home before she gets her visa, and hope for the best. At least when we lodge the application the most stressful parts would have been dispensed with. After that it’s just a matter of waiting, and expensive long distance phone calls to pass the time.

しょうがないよね。。。what else can we do?