Rivers & Roads

On Wednesday Simon, his father, and I went to our appointment to turn in the paper saying we are officially living together and to start the process of getting a residency card and seeing if the office in Brussels will accept our application for the cohabitation. We still have a long wait ahead of us but we did finally get some good news! Now that we have started the process of apply for the cohabitation, I am allowed to stay here until Brussels decides! They say it can take up to six months for them to make a decision and during that time they say I should stay in the Schengen region because if I leave I might not be let back in. So the sad news is that I will not be able to come back for Christmas! It will be very strange no being with everyone at Christmas and I am very sad I will not be able to see everyone but we will have to skype everyday and this just means when everything is sorted out I will have to come back for a longer visit! 

So now Simon and I have to gather lots of information to send to Brussels. We have to get proof that Simon has a good job, proof of his renters contract, proof that I can be on his medical insurance which now that we are legally living together I should be able to go onto his with no problem or extra cost which is great. But most importantly they need lots of proof that our relationship is real and long term. So we plan on printing lots of pictures, emails, some of our 10,000 facebook messages, and every little bit of evidence we can find because the more they have the better. I might also be asking some of you to write a short letter saying that we stayed with you while we were in America and you can attest to our relationship being authentic. 

Some other good news is that I can work here now! Since we are legally living together I am now allowed to work which is great. I think having a job will be a good way for me to meet more people, practice my Dutch, and earn some money! It is very exciting to finally have some reassuring news and know that I don't have to leave on December 5th for another three months. We still have no idea whether Brussels will accept our application or not but we will cross that bridge once we get to it. Unfortunately I don't have any photos for you this time, but I promise to have some next week!