From LA to rural Scotland: The odyssey of a bookworm

I was wondering if they were able to do some funny stuff & get her a Business Visitor visa or something like that?

You can read quite a bit in excerpts from the book via that Google Books thing, but of course, not in its entirety. I wouldn't want to put any money into her pocket myself...

The whole 'OMG it's an absolute TRAGEDY I can't get a visa to shack up there!' drama is ridiculous. Not to mention the feeling of 'oh I'm so precious & special & entitled'.  

I just keep thinking, well if this relationship is for real, man up (or wo-man up) like the rest of us in real life had to do & get married (or enroll on a university course or whatever you are permitted to do by the law), pay the endless fees, blah blah blah. When it came down to it, DH & I initially would much rather have just lived together, but as that was not legally possible, we married. In the end, we're glad we did.

I was wondering if they were able to do some funny stuff & get her a Business Visitor visa or something like that?

Maybe, but even then, if I remember correctly, she would only be able to do small, short-term things like speak at a conference or attend meetings for her company, so I'm not sure that would have worked either.

I just keep thinking, well if this relationship is for real, man up (or wo-man up) like the rest of us in real life had to do & get married (or enroll on a university course or whatever you are permitted to do by the law), pay the endless fees, blah blah blah. When it came down to it, DH & I initially would much rather have just lived together, but as that was not legally possible, we married. In the end, we're glad we did.

Exactly.

What I'm wondering is, how is she still in the UK? Did she manage to get a longer-term visa by the book in the end, or is she in the UK illegally and fighting to stay here by applying outside the rules and hoping for an 'Article 8, right to family life' concession...

Maybe, but even then, if I remember correctly, she would only be able to do small, short-term things like speak at a conference or attend meetings for her company, so I'm not sure that would have worked either.

She seems to continue trading on the film maker angle & it seems she has done things/presentations to promote or in conjunction with the book festival - from info you find on the internet & reading between the lines. So that's how it might have been possible?

Yes, I wonder as well - it seems that she was hoping to accrue enough time here to apply for an unmarried partner visa (but was foiled in that effort when they sent her packing).

This chick does my effing head in.  She has the most raging case of Special Snowflake Syndrome I have ever heard of.  Is it bad that I love the way everyone is slagging her off in this thread? 

And what in the name of Theresa May's black heart is a "six month working visa"?  Is she just making this stuff up?

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Ah, ksand's post makes it all clear.  But still....

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A search of the word 'visa' in her Google books preview ('Three Things You Need To Know About Rockets') brings up the part where she was pulled up by UKBA for working illegally when trying to re-enter - they read in her diary that she had been volunteering on a visitor's visa.  She gets all angry at the mean nasty UKBA lady who lets her into the country for 3 days to pack up her stuff. Even uses the line "aren't we supposed to have a special relationship with Britain?".  Cringe.

And she went on to get back in after that!!?! 

I can only think that it was a business visitor visa. My friend works for big name touring bands doing the merchandise end of things and he frequently gets business visitor visas when he's on tour. So yeah, curious to see how she would have managed that one...

Either way, I wonder if she's become familiar with the term 'numpty' at all whilst living in Scotland? She seems to fit the description.

This chick does my effing head in.  She has the most raging case of Special Snowflake Syndrome I have ever heard of. 

  

This chick does my effing head in.  She has the most raging case of Special Snowflake Syndrome I have ever heard of.

Yeah, it's getting worse and worse the more that we read and is revealed.

I know all we have are excerpts (and I am certainly not adding to her coffers by purchasing this book), but I think what I dislike the most is that she tries to make the Border Officers look like they are the misinformed ones, that they are the idiots. I think all of us here, having been through multiple visas, multiple entries, hold that first line of defense in incredibly high esteem (if not sometimes out of fear) because they hold our futures in their hands. I have nothing but a smile and hello for them when I get to the front of the queue. They have a freaking hard job.

In her defense, I imagine she's probably a really nice girl who just bumbled her way into a sucky situation. If she googles herself and finds this forum, I hope she comes on and sees what other Americans have had to go through, that her little drama is nothing compared to the years apart some of our forum members have had to endure.

Heheheh I love this forum.   

Me too. 

If she googles herself and finds this forum, I hope she comes on and sees what other Americans have had to go through, that her little drama is nothing compared to the years apart some of our forum members have had to endure.

Is it bad that I love the way everyone is slagging her off in this thread? 

Not as bad as me hoping that if she does google herself (and she's totally the sort of person who would ) she finds this forum and discovers how much we all think she's a complete dingleberry!

This chick does my effing head in.  She has the most raging case of Special Snowflake Syndrome I have ever heard of.  Is it bad that I love the way everyone is slagging her off in this thread? 

 

And what in the name of Theresa May's black heart

Best line.

I'm astonished they kept letting her in at all.

From reading that last article I don't like her because she seems like a needy stalker. Wow he went to a party with an old uni mate, I must trash my flat, DO YOU LIKE HAVING ME HERE? Don't dither with me EVER.

God!

Yeah, I like how "he's a ditherer" is her excuse for why he won't act like a hero in a novel/movie. Not "he's just not that into you" or "you're a crazy stalker person that creeps him out" or anything else. Just because you're desperate for your life to match an epic romance story does not make it so.

- '“Did you know it was illegal to volunteer without a volunteer visa?” I felt like laughing. Her bad cop was not terrifying any more but absurd. This whole thing was absurd. “I was not officially a volunteer, I just helped a friend.” “That still counts.” “So if I wanted to help an old lady cross the street, or set a dinner table for a friend, then that's illegal without a volunteer visa?” The immigration officer was silent for a moment. “How can we know if you went back to the Bookshop that you wouldn't ...'

Because clearly IOs have a bad cop "routine" to try and "terrify" poor innocent people who just want to violate visa rules repeatedly. (I'm sure some IOs might, but her assumption that that's what this IO was doing rather than just - maybe - her JOB, screams of arrogance.)

Yeah, I like how "he's a ditherer" is her excuse for why he won't act like a hero in a novel/movie. Not "he's just not that into you" or "you're a crazy stalker person that creeps him out" or anything else. Just because you're desperate for your life to match an epic romance story does not make it so.

Also, everyone knows that if you think your BF is cheating you don't trash your OWN flat - Jeez! 
I also  like how her idea of trashing it is pouring marbles on the floor. That's just dangerous, has she not seen Home Alone?!