Rules Schmules

It took us about half a day to get Liara's US passport (including a quick trip to Edinburgh to drop off paperwork and sign some documents at the US Embassy), so I figured that her UK passport would be as easy... right?! WRONG.

For the last five months or so, I've been communicating back and forth with the UK Identity and Passport Service in order to apply for Liara's UK passport. Turns out, after five months of talking on the phone, writing letters back and forth, sending documentation, etc., that it was all for nothing. I'm so frustrated that I could scream and am having a hard time keeping all my thoughts straight. They are not considering Liara a citizen (or even a resident for goodness sake!) of the UK, even though she was conceived, carried, and born here. How are you not a citizen of the country you were born in? That's just crazy to me.

So now we are back to square one as far as her status as a legal resident here goes... We are going to have to apply for a visa for her to be here (although we have yet to find any documentation about what to do if you are ALREADY in the UK and are required to have a visa). To find this out two weeks before we leave to return to the US for a visit is a little discouraging, especially since it's very possible that they won't let Liara back into the UK once she has left, until her visa status has changed. What this means to me is that we might have to stay in the US a little longer (to be honest, I wouldn't mind that!) but it also means that we'd have to pay for flights again (which we don't want to do since they are 700 pounds a piece! OUCH!). I really don't want to be separated from Nic either (as he'd have to come back for work, and I'd probably stay behind with Li until it was sorted). This all is just such a pain!

I'm so sick of how things work here, the hoops we have to hurdle through all the time. Nothing is simple or convenient, and I'm in a constant state of frustration. Our friends here ask me all the time why I don't refer to this country as my home now and think it is sad that I don't consider it one... but THIS... this sort of thing, is why. Why would I even think of considering a country my home when they don't accept my daughter?!

Maybe it wouldn't be a bad thing to be stuck in the US... I can tell you, I'd feel a lot more at home!