I have gotten into the habit of not answering my phone when at home if no name pops up - because it is either work related or someoen wanting to sell me something.
Thankfully I didn't screen my calls today - or rather not this call, as it was from UDI, Norway's immigration office, calling regarding Judge's family-immigration-visa.
Now, I am not going to go into too many details regarding the journey we've been on thus far, but suffice it to say there are lots of pieces of documentation that had to go into the application (of course, when has a visa like this not required loads of documents), and the only one we've been unsure of in terms of it's sufficiency is my documented past earnings.
See, the regulation states it has to be last year's income statement. Mine is practically null (Leona was born in April and I didn't head back to work soon after as is the Taiwanese norm, but rather took the Norwegian route of taking the rest of the year off). So we waited until I had earned the required minimum this year (2012) - about NOK 300k, and then provided documentation proving this, plus an explanation regarding why I couldn't prove that amount in 2011.
She said that the earnings from 2012 count only as proof of future earnings, that it has to be from the last tax year (me: close to despair, as the scenarios if we don't get this visa are all pretty depressing).
So then she asks whether I can prove we lived together for several years already (as I had written our together-lives' story in his application, as required..."not that I don't believe you"), because lo-and-behold she says one can be exempt from the previous earnings' requirement if one has a kid together who is Norwegian, and has lived together already for several years.
Now wouldn't that have been ideal to write on their website? (!) Then we could have accumulated the proof while still in Taiwan, and applied for this visa back in December last year (!!!), and saved us tons of headaches trying to figure out how we can move to Norway without splitting up the family for a year first.
So I explain to her that we have no mail that was sent to our homes from when we lived in Taiwan, no documentation showing we both lived where, together.
We talk some more, she asks why I moved to Taiwan in the first place - for study?, I explain my reasons, then say I also ended up taking a master's as the opportunity presented itself. She asks me to send her documentation showing as much, as maybe it can be used for something (vague-much).
So I do, right away, and ask if I am able to contact my previous landlords and get them to send an email stating we lived there together from when to when, if that could suffice. She says sure, that may suffice.
So then I start stressing - because of course we don't have the contact info for any of thsoe landlords any more. So I write an email to my sister-in-law asking if she can email UDI and confirm that me and Judge had lived together for four years in Taiwan with details regarding time and place, and I email my younger sister asking if she can send an email on behalf of our dad saying he had visited us in 2008 and 2009 - in our homes where we lived together in Tainan and Jhubei.
Right after I finish these emails, I get an email from UDI-lady that I do not have to worry about finding documentation proving we had lived together the whole time we have claimed.
No idea what happened that had her change er tune (perhaps the fact I showed I got a master's in Tainan, showing I lived in Taiwan for several years, so then they can more easily believe our story? But why would we lie about it in the first place seeing as we didn't know it was a blessed loop-hole? Mystery.)
I am just truly hoping that it means we get a 'visa granted' letter in the mail shortly - bated breath and fingers crossed.
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