Hi Everyone,
This is quite a long story but definitely one I hope can help someone else as well.
I met my soon to be (3 days and counting!) husband online at PlentyofFish.com. A girl friend of mine who I worked with asked me to join with her so she wouldn't feel so bad. After some convincing I agreed and after scrolling through profiles one boring day at work I stumbled upon my Swedes. He was working in NYC for a year and putting himself out there to see what he could find, luckily it was me. What we thought was just going to be a fun fling until he went back to EU has now turned into us getting engaged and soon, married.
I first traveled to the UK in November of 2010 (where he had been redirected to his job's office in London) for my birthday and during that he proposed and asked me to move there with him. I went back to the states and applied for a Fiance Visa but it was sadly rejected. That was $1,300 down the drain! We didn't think much of it and I traveled back to the UK end of December. I continued to travel in and out of the country for the next 5 months. First back to NY to visit friends and family but mainly to work since I could not while in the UK. Next was a trip to Fuerteventura for a week followed by the trip that led to my position now.
My 4th time leaving the UK we took a vacation with friends to France. Upon my attempt to reenter the country I was detained and eventually deported. Apparently because I had been refused a Visa I was legally not allowed back into the country unless I had one. Now, I know what you are thinking. How was I able to get back in those other times? Each other time I came back into the UK was the same. The customs officer would ask me questions about why my Visa was declined and what I was doing still visiting the country. I would have to go through thing long speech explaining what happened and eventually they would let me through with a special 6 Month stamp meaning that I was still legally allowed to enter the UK for 6 months as a tourist since I was an American citizen. Either way though, the customs officer I walked up to that day coming back from France wasn't having any of it.
He was rude, crude, judgmental, snobby and had an attitude that made my jaw drop. Never before had I been treated with such blatant disrespect. My fiance would always accompany me in the lines for 'Other' passports and I could tell he was getting just as upset as me. I am so lucky to have him though because once he found out I was being deported he immediately booked the same flight as me and slept in the airport until our flight the next morning.
Currently I am in Switzerland staying with his amazing family. They have made this whole terrible experience so much better and have been behind us 100%. Due to all of this happening though we have decided to push up our wedding and have a civil one. We will still have a big one with all of our friends and family, just later on as we had originally planned.
So that's it. Long I know but once we are married we are applying for an EEA Family Permit as it would allow me to work and is also free. With all of the money we have had to spend with this expedited wedding and plane tickets and what not this one seemed like the best fit.
If anyone has been though anything like this I hope to hear from you and we can swap info on what we are doing for our applications. Me and the Swede have been putting together so many supporting documents and unique ways to prove that we are not entering into a marriage of convenience that I would love to share them.
This site has been very helpful to me in the past so I am glad I finally decided to join!
