Why It Sucks To Be Me

Alternatively titled: Is That Lady Crying Over Spilt Milk? Clean Up On Aisle 4!

I am, as I may have mentioned, visiting my sister and her wonderful family here in Arkansas after my 4 month stint in New York. I like to think it is a well earned break, playing housewife. Thankfully, we are having unseasonably cool weather, and that is where my luck sort of dries up.

I spent the morning on the phone with the immigration people in England, foolishly attempting to coerce a date out of them (not that kind) so I can make plans to return to Dublin. Oh-so-sympathetic Neil took my call. It seems there was not only a backlog on applications in February, but also in March and, now that they are in to the middle of the April backlog, they should be ready to plow thru the May backlog shortly.

I submitted my application in June.  

When asked about the possibility of my application not being processed within their 14 week period, Oh-so-sympathetic Neil told me that deadline shouldn't have been posted on the Internet and they were trying to get it taken down.

Got that? Apparently, no one was ever supposed to be told how long the process might take. Just send us your money and your diplomas and we'll get back to you. Eventually. Another charming feature of this process? No one is allowed to comment on an application specifically until the 14 week timeline has expired. Provided that still holds true, that date is Sept 11 for me. By that time, they should be just cracking the May 1st applications. At the rate they are progressing, they will start on my application in mid-October.

Let me tell you exactly why this sucks.

Provided they do indeed get to my application in mid-October, they will have had it for 20 weeks. Not 5-14 weeks, 20 weeks. And that's if they get to mine right away! No telling how long the processing actually takes. 5 months just to move it to the In Box. 5 months of waiting for them to look it over and make a decision. 5 months I could have been in Dublin, looking for a job. 5 months I could have never planned for but am subjected to because, you know, there are a lot of applications. I could have made half a baby in those 5 months.

Now, as it happens, my Irish work permit is due for renewal January 2009. I have to have a job in order to renew it. I don't have a job because I'm here, waiting on a decision, and the Irish job market, like many others in the world, has slowed considerably. In fact, the jobs listed on the usual job posting boards are all for position in Dubai and Australia, not Ireland. The former booming, the latter busting apparently. I can't even get people to respond to my queries for jobs they've advertised for. It appears bleak in Dublin.

All of which leads me to this: Do I stay or do I go?

If I stay here and wait out the visa, I'm effectively agreeing to fly back to Dublin in October/November and move. Either to the UK or to the US, most companies all but freeze hiring in November + December, but move I will have to.

If I head back to Dublin now and wait it out, I can only look for a job for 2 or 3 months before I bankrupt myself and have to move to the US or the UK. With the weak Dollar, my little money pile is worth half in Euros, so while I could float here for 5 or 6 months easily, I can only do so for half that time there. 

There is no obvious choice in my list of choices. No right, no wrong. No one stronger than the other because they all suck in the end. Best case scenario, there isn't one. That's when I started to cry. At the grocery store. I have to choose between my home and my savings. 

And did I mention that I am only 1 year from being able to apply for my Irish passport? Obtaining that would allow me to work anywhere in the EU, which was the whole point of moving to Ireland in the first damn place.

So here I sit, in Arkansas with my belongings in New York and Dublin, wondering what the hell I should do. I was wrong earlier, this is the bottom of the demoralization barrel.