Maybe Europe is the answer? | Migration Tales

This last week has been a bit rough. I use the word “bit” very lightly because everything has been super tense in our household. We are both feeling so despondent and cross about our situation. I found myself wondering if maybe Europe was the answer.

Helpful people keep telling me about the decades they’ve waited for their own documents and obviously that doesn’t help me at all – it just makes me feel like this is never going to happen for us. But it will right?

Maybe Europe is the answer

In my frustration this last while i decided that nope, New Zealand is not meant to be and we are all moving to Germany! Germany!! Ha, what a joke – i don’t speak German and I certainly don’t want to learn to either. Never mind that I don’t WANT to live in Germany either. Why Germany? Well, I originally thought the Netherlands because my husband is Dutch and we are applying for Oden’s Dutch papers too so it just made sense. Except I’d need to learn Dutch BEFORE we even arrive there and I thought how the hell will I manage that.

Never mind that NO MATTER WHERE we go, I still need a passport so I basically can’t go anywhere anyway until I sort out this bloody passport.

Anyway I had a wobbly, researched houses, decided Berlin is for us and then had a good cry because I want to live in New Zealand. So now we’re back to that. Yeah, migrating really can turn you into a crazy person.

My passport issue continues.

On the 26th January I was issued with a South African birth certificate. It was PERFECT and had ALL the correct information. So of course I thought hell yeah I can finally get my fucking passport now but when we asked them to check the system, they still have my incorrect details on their system. NO ONE understands how I even got this birth certificate. And when I say no one, I mean no one at Home Affairs.

So I’ve had to submit MORE forms which took over two weeks just for them to LEAVE Home Affairs in Wynberg. They have to go to Pretoria where no doubt they will be lost.

Seriously, I’m living a joke. A really bad joke.

Or a dream? Could someone please wake me up?!

We’ve officially moved forward with serving Home Affairs our intention to go to court. Our lawyers sent a letter to EVERYONE who has ever been involved in anything. That’s a lot of people because I literally got to a point where I just emailed EVERYONE I could find on the internet.

So, if they don’t deliver my documents by the end of this month, then we go to court.
I can’t believe I need to take the government to court to get MY documents that I’m entitled to. Seriously this is ridiculous. It’s super expensive and time-consuming and so extremely stressful.

We have to do what we have to do I suppose!

We decided that Oden shouldn’t ever have to deal with this so we went in to apply for his Dutch passport. Well, we quickly discovered that we need more documents from Home Affairs. Oh what a bloody joke. So now we need to apply for even more papers from them. Please don’t let this be as crap an experience. A marriage certificate SHOULD be simple right? Anyway I’m trying to stay positive about this.

It’s hard not falling into a serious depression for this stuff – I don’t know how much more I can take honestly.

Anyway that’s my life lately update on this crap situation. I’m not giving up yet – New Zealand is where we want to live and South Africa isn’t going to ruin our dreams. Not if I can help it!!

“Keep Going

Your hardest times often lead to the greatest moments of your life. Keep going. Tough situations build strong people in the end.”
― Roy T. Bennett, The Light in the Heart

[bctt tweet=”When the going gets tough, put one foot in front of the other and just keep going. Don’t give up. – Roy T. Bennett,” username=”tyrannyofpink”]