Alien update ...

I am only human after all, or am I alien ... I don't quite know anymore! The thing is I tend to panic at the slightest thing going wrong, and I have tried to come to some kind of conclusion on why I do this and discovered it is trauma of being brought up in the apartheid era in South Africa in the 70's and 80's. Everyone was petrified of anyone who was an official of the law or government department, they did not treat the ordinary citizen very well. Stories of kids at school being taken down to the police station and given cuts until they bled, put the fear of God in us.

If ever an official looking envelope came you would get worried, and the last thing you wanted was any kind of interaction with the apartheid government. You were even deemed a terrorist if you did not stand to attention and sing the National anthem every time it was played. So I guess that still remains somewhere at the back of my memory banks. (So that is my excuse and I am sticking to it).

So we are in a strange country and I do everything by the book, because the last thing you want is to get up some government officials nose and he deports you. But all the gory details are in my previous post.

As to the update, I must say a lot of my friends are very level headed, Kelly emailed me with details of a friend of hers who are also in the process of getting their citizenship, her friend also knows the In's and outs of the justice system. I have not contacted her yet but I am going to, anyway according to Kelly's friend you can apply for Long Term Residency and then you a treated pretty much like an Irish person, which means you don't have to apply for permission to the Justice department to be self employed.

However, I go onto the website and it says that you can apply for long term residency after you have completed 5 years stay in the country, processing time for long term residency is approximately 18 month, which does not really help, but Kelly says to speak to her anyway because she knows all the In's and outs. Before I do phone however, I have written a letter to the INIS to see what the hold up is with our naturalisation and citizenship. I am still legal till September so there is no rush, and a light at the end of the tunnel in that the software company I have been dealing with have said if I am looking for a job in September to give them a call.

So I guess for now it is a waiting game, see what the INIS have to say if nothing concrete comes of that I will phone Marlene and take it one step at a time. I am not going to panic anymore and give myself a heart attack, I believe my fate is all written out and no matter how I try and change it's course, what will be Will be and what will happen will happen!

I will update you when I have an answer from the INIS.