I'm no wall flower

Update from my work permit fiasco.....

Being a foreigner in the country you happen to be living in is not always easy.  I know I have vented my frustrations on here about my most recent country of residence, Canada, but thinking back to my early days in the UK, I encountered hurdles along the way too. I guess having lived there for 19 years, the memories of these episodes are somewhat diluted by the passage of time.

Saying that though, I do not think I had quite as many hurdles to cross over. I do remember having to wait 3 months for my work permit, and having to work in the local deli/sandwich shop, being paid cash in hand, as legally I was not allowed to work! My student visa had run out and I was waiting for my work permit to be granted. I survived on cashing in on some savings I had and along with my deli job, which I enjoyed immenselywhere my duties included baking and glazing danishes, making pizza dough and pizza, making pastry bacon twists and sandwiches. My boss was a good laugh and we got along like a house on fire.  I also did a bit of domestic cleaning and ironing for some of the doctors' families I knew.  Luckily for me, I was allowed to stay on in the maisonette that I rented from the hospital. Dave had moved in with me by then, but we were thinking of buying our own place.

The second hurdle resulted in Dave and I getting married!  Once again, it was a work permit issue, after completing my midwifery training, I managed to secure 2 jobs, one of which I turned down only to discover that the job that I had accepted, the HR dept was unable to get me a work permit, and my current work permit was for nursing, so no can do, and to top it all off, that was running out too! In the end, I had to get married, in order to be able to start work.... ok ok.. it's not like you think, Dave and I had been together for more than 3 years, we had a mortgage together, a joint bank account, we were cohabiting and in our minds married apart from the missing marriage cert!  So, we got married in the 5 weeks I had in order to start working. Went to the home office with everything we needed, only to discover that we could have applied for my right to stay on a common law status! Oh well, no regrets, we would have got married one day, and next week we have been married for 16 years!

Oh, the irony of this all is that I wasn't eligible for a work permit to work as a midwife, as the hospital had to prove that  there was no other British or EU national that could fill that post, and they were not prepared to do it.  Just a few months later, there was a massive shortage midwives and nurses, and what happened?? They had to go abroad and recruit from Asia, Australia etc.... I shall always be grateful to the UK for training me to be a nurse and then a midwife, I was paid to train, and they never asked for anything back, there was no ties, I did not have to serve the NHS or the hospital where I had trained.  I also find it surprising that after spending thousands of ££££ training me up, they didn't want to make use of my skills, preferring to go abroad to recruit?

So I guess I just don't have much luck as far as work permits go!  After being told by the McD's 1st manager about their problems with my work permit, I decided to take the bull by the horns and sort this problem out myself.  I know she said she would ring HR on Monday and update on me by Tuesday, but I had already lost confidence in their dealings with my job application. They knew they had a problem with my work permit but had no time to contact me for over a week, in fact, I contacted them. So, being told that I would hear by Tuesday did nothing for me. I understand it's difficult for the managers to get managerial duties done when they are at work, as they have to work on the shop floor, and when it gets busy, it's all hands on deck.

To cut the story short, I contacted HQ HR Monday and talked to them, they said some store managers need educating where work permits were concerned, and apologised about the troubles I was having. Good start, I thought.  Today I got a call from the restaurant and I have given them the copies of the documents they want, so, fingers crossed, it should all be ok now.  I am slightly concerned though, as I hope I have not stepped on any toes. I have been assertive and  solved this problem with the work permit bearing my maiden name. If I have, I feel that sometimes you can't hang about like a wall flower, in the back ground, waiting for things to happen. I did this for a few weeks following my appointment only to have come up with hassle after hassle. I had even bought the non-slip shoes that they said I needed for work! I was losing out on a few weeks work, pittance pay, but pay nonetheless.  I took the bull by the horns and tossed it out in the open, to get some answers, which I did.  For the record, McD does recognise UK marriage certs, it is just that some managers do not know they are an acceptable document.
All's well that ends well........... fingers still crossed, toes too.