January 6th

My favourite

What’s the most time you’ve ever spent apart from your favourite person? Tell us about it.

This writing prompt may have been hand-picked for me. Well it was technically hand-picked because Supernova pretty much through it in my face considering she knows my situation and I guess it’s time I shared it with the world. sigh

The person I love the most in the world is my wife. I know how boring that may sound but I do love her very dearly and she is, without a doubt, my favourite person.

Now we’ve been married for more than two years now and for two years it’s been a struggle for us. The reason behind that is the fact she lives on the other side of the equator. It’s a long distance relationship you see and we actually fell for each other through two years of constant contact which started with texts and emails before moving on to daily phone calls and skype video-calls.

I went to visit her after a year or so, spent some time with her and decided we wanted to get married. I finished my studies and took my family over and had the wedding there, spent the month with her before returning to England without her. The problem was, I had to work and be earning a specific amount of money and had to meet certain requirements to get his visa granted so she could stay with me in the UK.

Now it’s been two years and after 2 rejections and a long appeal in the process, she is still waiting for me. I have been going over to spend time with her every so often but it is difficult to do so and keep a steady income, which just so happens to be a requirement for the visa.

I’m not going to lie and say that although it’s hard, it’s manageable. It’s not a manageable situation. It is very hard to live so far away from your most favourite person in the world for so long whilst trying to setup a future for both of you. I have to call her almost every day because she misses me so dearly and just so I know that she is okay. That yearning to be with each other is so powerful that being helpless before it is encumbering.

We both try and pretend it’s okay when we talk to each other and try to stay strong but deep down we both know how much we are struggling being in this helpless situation where we cannot be with one another due to the circumstances we are in.

The whole visa application process is flawed as the paperwork can be rejected on baseless points. Points that I cannot be overcome due to my work, despite meeting the requirements and proving that I have the means to provide for my wife. The process of appeals is so long that I cannot even say how long it might take for her to get here. Although two years have gone by, it may be another year or so before the day comes when we can finally spend our lives together.