Sweden, I’m Legally Yours!

If anyone read my last posting about being denied a visa from Sweden, you would know that I had been denied a work/residence permit from Sweden. This was devastating for me and my boyfriend, because we thought this was our true option of staying together LEGALLY in the same country. To work…to live…to have a normal life and let our relationship progress naturally.

But I am stubborn. And I hand-wrote an appeal to the Swedish Embassy, challenging their decision, which was merely based off Michael and I not moving “soon enough.” Obviously the month of July did not mean immediate for me to move my whole WORLD from SEATTLE.

So I came to Mykonos, like I normally do to work and have summer of fun and play with Michael and everyone…and one night I got an email on my iPod: “your residence and work visa has been approved.” I stopped in my tracks and ran through the winding streets of Mykonos…up the stairs of the bar and jumped on Michael and whispered “we got it!!! We got the visa!”

In fact, I had to physically go GET the visa the next day because the sticker in the passport expired and a new law took place the next day. After closing work at 6am, I jumped on a 25 minute plane ride into Athens at 10am so I could be at the embassy before it closed at 1:30pm! ( you following the disaster of this time line?)

But when the woman handed me back my passport with that sticker and my picture…the feeling of accomplishment and victory overwhelmed me. Finally, I can stay in Europe. Finally, Michael and I can live somewhere normal and have jobs we like! Finally, I can get a kitten!

I jumped back on a 5pm ferry to be in Mykonos by 11pm and work at midnight.

With all the strength in the world, the things you want may come slowly, but eventually they come!

We are planning to move January!