£1500, the Price of Freedom

Remember the Panini stickers we used to have?


Do you remember how much you have paid for these? I remember it was 50 cents for a packet of three stickers.

Today I have paid £1500 for a sticker.

It's the sticker in my passport. The sticker that allows me stay in this country for another 3 years.

Yes, I have finally gotten my visa approved after two stressful months.

I apologise for keeping mum on this to many of you because I too did not have the visibility of what to expect next.

So what actually happened?

My previous visa allowed me to be in this country for a year. I was due to renew my visa in October, a month before it expired.

I applied for the Tier 1 General visa which was introduced this year. Previously it was called the Highly Skilled Migrant Programme. It is similar to the Australian points based immigration system. To be considered for the Tier 1, three criteria have to be met:

1. Personal attributes (age, qualifications, previous earnings, and experience in the United Kingdom)
2. English proficiency
3. Proof of maintenance fund of at least £800 for 3 months.

A month after submitting the application, I received the outcome of the application. Application rejected.

Apparently I didn't meet one of the three requirements. Which one would you have expected?

Number 3.

So you can effectively say that my application was rejected because they thought I was too poor to live in the UK. I felt a little insulted. My ego has never taken such a hard whacking until this happened.

I was required to submit proof of maintenance fund for 3 months which I did.

Let me give an example of what happened. What do you think of this statement?

Date - Balance
1 Sept - £ 1000
3 Sept - £ 900
15 Sept - £650
1 Oct - £1000
15Oct - £810
22 Oct - £ 950
11Nov - £850
15 Nov - £1500

Should be able to meet the requirement, right? I thought so. But it didn't.

Why? Apparently every line in the balance column must be £800 or above. So, 15 Sept showing less than £800 meant that I didn't demonstrate I have £800 consistently for 3 months even though the average would appear to my favour. OMG, talking about being rule-obsessed in my earlier entry, what more can I say about this!

I am a fighter, not a thief. I have pride too. I decide when I want to leave and how. Being told to leave through the visa was a different kind of leaving. I challenged the decision.

This resulted in me sending a second application. This means paying another £750.

This time I threw in the online savings account which most of the savings went to. I was certain it was going to make them happy this time.

Three weeks into the second application I finally got the visa today. It was approved for three years.

The waiting period has been extremely stressful to me. But during these trying times I have also found God. I found meaning in prayers. And I also found meaning in trusting and having faith in God.

Also in these trying times I have learnt that without a passport in a foreign land, you do not have an identity! That's the only thing to legally proof a Malaysian, a Malaysian. What else?

I have also learnt the stress and paranoia illegal immigrants must have felt in a foreign land. The waiting period without an identity made me feel I was one. I couldn't get out of the country in case of an emergency. I couldn't claim I was Malaysian. I couldn't sleep soundly at night!

I dreaded going home after work. I feared I would see the envelope and a rejection letter again. I feared being insulted again. I feared going through the cycle of worrying again.

As much as I have occupied myself with other things, like going out with friends, taking more time to cook, read and analyse what I read, replying longer emails, I couldn't lie to myself that I was still worried about the visa application.

I had bad dreams. Two bad dreams. This clearly indicated I was subconciously worried about it no matter how much I tried to ignore it.

In the first dream, I received my passport with the visa approved. But the rest of the document didn't come back - my Masters degree and other documents. Without them, I couldn't apply for the next visa extension had I planned to stay on.

The second dream was weirder. The visa got rejected again. The reason given was because I hadn't proven that I have spent enough in this country. Apparently, there was a "hidden clause" to approve applications based on the spending sum in this country. How ridiculous!

So as you can see, my stress level was pretty high. I even wished for an approved visa as the best birthday gift for me. That was how low I have stooped!

You ask, "why go through all these troubles when you could easily get a work permit for 5 years? No stress, no worries and above all, you don't have to pay for it!"

With the work permit, I am tied to the employer. This means freedom to move on would be restricted. Furthermore in this economic situation, you can never be too sure of a job here. Should I be retrenched, my work permit would be terminated along with the employment. This would leave me no choice but to either return to Malaysia or apply for the Tier 1.

So, do I now see £1500 for a sticker or for freedom? Or stupidity? I have already made my point in the title. Now you tell me.