My Immigration Story

Five years ago I visited Belfast for the first time and I fell in love. The history, the humour, and yes even the weather had a sharpness and character that inspired me. The next year I moved here for graduate studies at Queen's University and within a few months I fell in love again, this time with a local man. After graduation I was able to live and work here for two more years with a post-study work visa, affording me the opportunity to keep exploring every inch of the city while pursuing my career in conflict work, which has since consisted of a number of voluntary placements supported by flexible jobs in the service industry. Despite the long hours and at times challenging lifestyle, I feel certain when I'm old and grey I'll look back on these as some of the best years of my life – travelling around this beautiful island, enjoying the vibrant and dynamic cultural scene of Belfast, and building a family and home.


Today is the last day my visa to live in the UK is valid, so as this could be one of my last days in Belfast for some time I feel the need to reflect. My partner and I have been waiting for 4 months, 2 weeks and 5 days for a decision on my application to remain in the UK. Every day I enter our home with eyes half closed feeling both anxious and excited to find a large envelop containing our passports, letters from family and friends, photographs and official documents used to prove our residency, employment and legitimacy of our 'durable relationship akin to marriage'. When mail that falsely fits the bill arrives we stand in the doorway, eyes locked while sharing the weight of the envelop in our shaky hands, only to then curse the random company who unknowingly interrupted our day. Intimate moments have become a treasure and a curse – made both preciously delicate and heartbreakingly tragic by the uncertainty of our fate. 

As an American citizen I am required to have a visa to live in Northern Ireland to study, work, volunteer and live for longer than a few months. In assessing our options we found limitations in the lack of necessity for my type of work, high financial requirements and confusion around newly imposed legislation changing the criterion for different visa types. Saving the specific difficulties and technicalities of this process for another time, I'd like to share a different thought today.

I have seen the pain forced emigration and deportation have on families and couples; I have sat beside asylum seekers waiting to find if their status has been accepted or rejected; I have watched close friends fight for their right to live as an equal member of society after a decade of living with unstable immigration status; and I have spoken with so called 'illegals' about their struggles to find new opportunities in a foreign place. I do not claim that these stories are mine any more than I claim that my own story is unique. I do, however, feel there is something shared in this human experience of immigration that can be and must be central to the debate on border legislation, which ultimately has great power over the course of people's lives and indeed over the course of my own life. 

Today just like many days I will wake up with my partner, volunteer in the day, work into the night, and then go out into this beautiful and buzzing city to celebrate my love and my life in Belfast. As for tomorrow... I'll have to get back to you on that.