When will I see you again?
Sep. 30th, 2006 11:22 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
imomusOn December 3rd last year my Japanese girlfriend Hisae was returning to Berlin from London, where she'd been working on a film with some art school friends. When she arrived at Schonefeld airport, though, there was a problem. The passport officials told her that she wouldn't be able to enter Germany. They kept her in a police cell overnight. She was allowed to call me (it was a very tearful conversation). I was allowed to bring some clothes and personal possessions the next morning, although not to see Hisae. She was then put on the next flight back to London.
The problem was that, unbeknownst to either me or Hisae, you can't just come in and out of the Schengen area and get an automatic three month extension on your visa each time. Within any 180 day period, a tourist can only stay a maximum of 90 days in Europe. Hisae was studying German, so she should have changed her visa status to "student" once she got here, but we'd been somewhat blasé and had got into the habit of making day trips to Poland or the UK pretty often and assuming that the visa issue was taken care of. Although Hisae's overstay was only a couple of days, the German authorities took it pretty seriously, and put a black mark on her passport record.
I stayed in Berlin through December, recording the lonely ballad Nervous Heartbeat, with its poignant refrain "when will I see you again?" Hisae, meanwhile, had no choice but to return to her family home in Osaka. I joined her there at the end of the month, and we spent January and February in Japan together. The top photo shows us at the Sea of Japan resort of Kinosaki on my birthday in February.
Since then we've been apart, me in New York and Berlin, Hisae in Osaka and London (where she finished the short film she's been making with Joji Koyama in April). Hisae was supposed to join me in my new apartment in Neukolln in early July, but again visa problems intervened: the German Embassy in Osaka told her at the last moment that she needed to await the outcome of a tribunal before she could return to Germany.
Finally, earlier this month, Hisae was told that her application for a one year working holiday visa in Germany had been approved. She arrives tonight. You'd probably never know it from reading Click Opera, but these past few months have been a difficult time for me. From about 11 o'clock this evening, things are going to be a lot sweeter. For a year, at least, no petty officials or police cells will come between international lovers.
The problem was that, unbeknownst to either me or Hisae, you can't just come in and out of the Schengen area and get an automatic three month extension on your visa each time. Within any 180 day period, a tourist can only stay a maximum of 90 days in Europe. Hisae was studying German, so she should have changed her visa status to "student" once she got here, but we'd been somewhat blasé and had got into the habit of making day trips to Poland or the UK pretty often and assuming that the visa issue was taken care of. Although Hisae's overstay was only a couple of days, the German authorities took it pretty seriously, and put a black mark on her passport record.
I stayed in Berlin through December, recording the lonely ballad Nervous Heartbeat, with its poignant refrain "when will I see you again?" Hisae, meanwhile, had no choice but to return to her family home in Osaka. I joined her there at the end of the month, and we spent January and February in Japan together. The top photo shows us at the Sea of Japan resort of Kinosaki on my birthday in February.Since then we've been apart, me in New York and Berlin, Hisae in Osaka and London (where she finished the short film she's been making with Joji Koyama in April). Hisae was supposed to join me in my new apartment in Neukolln in early July, but again visa problems intervened: the German Embassy in Osaka told her at the last moment that she needed to await the outcome of a tribunal before she could return to Germany.
Finally, earlier this month, Hisae was told that her application for a one year working holiday visa in Germany had been approved. She arrives tonight. You'd probably never know it from reading Click Opera, but these past few months have been a difficult time for me. From about 11 o'clock this evening, things are going to be a lot sweeter. For a year, at least, no petty officials or police cells will come between international lovers.
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(no subject)
Date: 2006-09-30 09:32 am (UTC)I think of Kahimi's song, "When will you be back?"
(no subject)
Date: 2006-09-30 09:33 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-09-30 09:36 am (UTC)hey, I thought blogs were for whining!
(no subject)
Date: 2006-09-30 09:37 am (UTC)well, have fun together.
on Wednesday, i saw a guy at a mall Foodcourt with Japanese partner, and a "Hisae" tattoo on the back of his neck - total Snoop Dogg style.
I guess I'm just saying don't get too carried away, or give her too much of a surprise with anything like that when you first meet up; but then, you *are* getting married right?
(no subject)
Date: 2006-09-30 09:41 am (UTC)Now I know about that Snoop guy at the mall, it's all off!
(no subject)
Date: 2006-09-30 09:42 am (UTC)Glad for you ... sad for other migrants
Date: 2006-09-30 09:43 am (UTC)However, I was wondering : in France, the emigration laws are tightening, no need to say more about it, what about Japan ? Maybe you already mentioned it, though ...
Love from Svetie xxx
(no subject)
Date: 2006-09-30 09:56 am (UTC)but this is such nice news! i am very happy for you :)
(no subject)
Date: 2006-09-30 10:11 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-09-30 10:26 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-09-30 11:03 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-09-30 11:12 am (UTC)i am constantly paranoid that the same situation would happen to me (in switzerland).
i always hope that my frequent travels around europe would sort of solve this problem but apparently it doesn't. i just flew from lisbon back to zürich and the guy at the passkontrolle stared at me and said, Frau L., you've been here for a long time! what are you doing here?
i was lucky enough to be a EU citizen and my visa application is still in process so i am still "barely legal". what is funny, though, is that despite i never hear anything from migrationsamt with regards to my visa application, i get letters from the steueramt and the krankenkasse, as if i have the visa already!
(no subject)
Date: 2006-09-30 11:14 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-09-30 11:24 am (UTC)That's a sweet love story, I wish I could live something like this (I mean moving all around the world for the one I love, not that passport story).
I wish you the best with your chérie.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-09-30 11:46 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-09-30 12:06 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-09-30 12:10 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-09-30 12:35 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-09-30 01:20 pm (UTC)happy reunion :)
(no subject)
Date: 2006-09-30 01:50 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-09-30 02:24 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-09-30 02:52 pm (UTC)Ah well, that's hot!
Fifty acorns tied in a sack
Date: 2006-09-30 03:27 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-09-30 03:39 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-09-30 03:41 pm (UTC)visas, visas and visa problems again - the worst thing in my life and in my friends' life recently. it spoils everything and makes you feel so helpless...
I am really happy you are safe from any intervention for the whole year now!!! I hope I will be... soonish.... too... given residence permit even... maybe....
I thought shengen is a huge problem for russian passport 'proud holders' only, but now i see it is not....