My Australian wife and I married 2 years ago (July 20th 2011) in Hawaii and for the first time in our marriage, the US government will allow her to enter my country.
Over the past two years we have been dislocated to New Zealand, The Philippines and finally, we relented a year ago and moved to Australia where I gained my Australian residency. It cost me $4,000 but I was granted my bridging visa the day I applied (wheras the USA visa takes about 2 years.)
Our lives have been completely derailed by this process and I though that when it was over, I’d be elated. The truth is, I’ve just fizzled out of caring. The costs of the paperwork and the bullshit medical screenings completely drained me of all my wealth. It’s been such a long and arduous process that I gave up trying a few months ago. A piece of me that believed that I would never return to the USA to live again, because my government wouldn’t allow my wife across their boarder.
It’s great that we will be returning to the USA, but I can’t help but think how depressing it is that the process of bringing loved ones to the USA is such a mammoth, expensive and terrifying process.
It’s a damn shame.
My wife and I constantly joke that we should have never got married. We probably should have flown to Mexico and crossed the boarder like true outlaw immigrants.