The GirlAlive Blog

Before the 14th of October, 2007 I have to obtain "Indefinite Leave to Remain" in order to stay in this country.  Now, I'm not all that attached to the UK as a country.  But I am pretty seriously attached to my husband, and the house that we have together happens to be in the UK.  And he happens to be a UK citizen, so it would be more immigration paperwork and cost if we moved anywhere else.  So one way or another I have to dig through annoying red tape, and I already have a job and a house here.

At the beginning of the year I checked the Home Office web site to see what I need to get my Indefinite Leave to Remain.  I need to file form SET(M) and I prefer to go for an interview in Glasgow so that I'll know right away whether I need to quickly pack my bags.  When I checked back in January that was going to cost me £500 (US$993), but there was a notice that certain policies and things would change after April 1st, so I'd need to check back.  So I did.

First of all, I need to pass a test.  Probably not a problem.  I'm good at remembering random information.  With a little studying I should do fine.  But the one change that made me gasp and nearly say something entirely obscene in my office was the price change.  The form and interview are now going to cost me £950 (US$1888).  That's a buttload of money.  That's approximately the cost of my wedding.  That's how much I spent on airfare and shipping to move here in the first place.  But when I paid for those things, I was living with my parents in a country with a much lower cost of living, so I had spare money.  I do not have spare money now.

So I'm seriously hyperventilating.  How am I going to pay for this, and keep paying all my other bills?  Then I thought, "Maybe the internet people can help."

I think you can help.  Here are a few ideas:

1. If you've ever wanted to buy anything from my online shop, but kept putting it off, now would be a great time.  New products are being added and the direct printed t-shirts at cafepress are quite nice.  And the cookbook is still for sale!

2. Keep an eye on my blog for things I am selling on eBay.  I'm planning to crochet things to sell to raise money.  

3. Buy advertising space on my site.  If you have a web site you would like me to promote, I will link to it and do a whole blog post about it for a mere £5 (US$10).  I get well over 1000 hits a day, so it could maybe be worth your money.  (I'm going to have to insist on no porn sites and no pyramid schemes or anything that's a scam.  If you're not sure, email me the site first before you send me any money.)

4. Donate money directly to me.  You won't get any toys or t-shirts, but it is fast and easy and any little amount is still helpful.  Just use any of the donate buttons on any page of this web site.

If you don't have any money:

5. Tell your friends about how much I need money.  Maybe one of your friends is desperate for a t-shirt or a crocheted thing.  If you have a blog, maybe you could mention me, with a link to this page.  

6. Sell your stuff on eBay and give me some of the money.  Like a charity sale, maybe.

The form filing is costing £950, the test costs £35, the study guide for the test costs £10 and train tickets to Glasgow for the interview will be around £20.  That's a total of $1055 (US$2095).  That's over twice what we expected to have to pay for all this immigration junk.  Why are there so many illegal immigrants?  Because being legal is gut-goringly horrifically expensive.  (It would probably be far cheaper to buy a fake British passport, but I can't really do that cause of how it's illegal.)

I'll keep you posted on how the fundraising is going.  If I happen to raise more than I need, I will donate the extra to a charity to be determined later.

Alana