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Let me get personal today. I never considered Valentine's day as something to celebrate. But after more than 400 days without seeing my wife Kim, we must find things to celebrate. Here is a picture of us today. And below a thread of why we cannot meet each other.
I met Kim in 2016 in Bath (where I live now) working in the lab. Here a picture of us on one of our first dates. Our first date was actually on Valentine's day in 2016 in a pub called The Trinity watching a Six Nations rugby game (very romantic).
In 2017, she had a problem with visa application and had to move back to Hong Kong (where she is from) after 14 years in the UK. On 2nd March (her birthday) under the heaviest snow I have seen in the UK and before she left, I proposed her.
On 5th July 2018 (my birthday), we got officially married in Hong Kong where she is from.
On 20th October 2020, we celebrated our wedding in Spain. On 28th December, we had another venue in Hong Kong, just in case someone (like the Immigration Office) could have any question.
At that time, she lived in HK and I was in the UK with a fixed-term contract. However, we used to see each other every 45 days, like in the travel we did to Vietnam. I started looking for a permanent position either in HK or UK to reunite ASAP.
In January 2020, I started my current job at the University of Bath. Everything looked perfect. A nice job in a great University and in the place where we met each other.
On 4th January 2020 after visiting for Christmas, Kim left and this is the last time I saw her. Kim applied for her pre-settlement spouse visa by the end of January.
13 months later, we are still waiting for an answer. All the reply that we get is that there is no particular reason for the delay than COVID (which in the UK started 2 months and a half after she applied for the status).
The pre-settlement status supposed to be an easy way for EU citizens and their families to get a UK residence permit in the UK. I got mine in 1 month. I cannot understand the delay in the case of my wife.
I know that a lot of people are having a more challenging time than us because of COVID. So I usually think I have no right to complain about our situation. But perhaps Valentine's day is a day to do it.
