Anything but thanks to the UK Visa Centre in Moscow.
What a pavlova. We have relaxed about this big mess a lot since arriving in the UK and successfully getting through border control. Djalma applied twice in Moscow and was refused twice. We spent a lot of time filling in the fields correctly and putting together (what we thought was) sufficient paperwork. What happened was that we didn't have nearly enough of the correct information, the person processing our application thought he was trying to marry my Mum and that he was Russian (possibly the number one reason we shouldn't have applied in Russia was because we weren't Russian, did anyone tell us this? Err... no).
OK, so misunderstanding number 2 was quite funny but the second time we applied with what felt like unbelievable amounts of paperwork 'proving' our relationship and financial circumstances. I wrote a letter declaring myself free to marry, deeply in love with this man and confirming our cohabitation, all of which felt quite ridiculous - how can you prove love and a relationship through paperwork? Nevertheless we tried, we put together several pages of our holiday photos artfully arranged into collages especially for the application, pages of Djalma's Brazilian bank statements, a letter from my Mum, letters from BKC and god knows what else. And still, no joy. We were so sure we had this one in the bag that when I got the call from Djalma after he'd collected the returned paperwork I couldn't really believe it when he said that it had been rejected. Because the Centre was so busy and the turn-around-time for applications were so long we had run out of time to submit (yet another) application.
'Oh bums' didn't even begin to cover it. We kissed goodbye to our church wedding that same afternoon - despite weeks of trying to find a loophole to make things happen. We didn't even have enough time for a quickie wedding in Moscow, the paperwork for that would've taken at least a month and we only had a couple of weeks before leaving, which meant that Father Keith (who still hasn't emailed me back about this mess) wouldn't be able to give us a blessing.
To a certain extent we couldn't plan beyond getting into the UK because we were so unsure whether Djalma would be able to get through the border control after the marriage visa rejections. At first we didn't think it would be a problem - there didn't seem to be any system for tracking rejections at the Visa Centre in Moscow. Right on the heels of that little grain of hope, Djalma looked inside his passport to find 2 little stamps and reference numbers from the VC the equivalent of 'THIS BIG HAIRY DUDE WAS DENIED CLEARANCE TO ENTER THE UK' a lovely conversation starter with the border control officials. That was when I started to poo my pants. As it turned out, the border official was a big jolly blonde who was very sympathetic to our situation and commiserated with us, offering suggestions and apologies that we hadn't got the visa explaining that lots of Brazilians and South Africans in particular have been renowned for coming to the UK to have a wedding of convenience or a sham marriage so they get the EU passport. Marriage of convenience indeed!! That made me laugh - how could anyone think that the visa process was convenient or the two subsequent rejections?! After a good ten minute chat she disappeared to clear the situation with her boss, the five minutes she was gone we held our breath and crossed our fingers, when she came back without a smile on her face my heart stopped but she stamped our passports, good solid thumps of ink saying we were good to go (I went through on my NZ passport), we sailed through the little gate and onto proper UK turf where we collapsed into a big hug and tears of relief, we hugged/walked our way to the arrivals hall which despite the lack of my Mum waiting to collect us, was the most welcoming sight I've ever seen.
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