anexperimentallife: capricorn-0mnikorn: anexperimentallife:anexperimentallife:anexperimentallife:Fam
anexperimentallife: capricorn-0mnikorn: anexperimentallife:anexperimentallife:anexperimentallife:Family with infant, and disabled, autistic dad recovering from COVID, in a developing nation, caught between the bureaucracies of two countries, trying to keep our family together10 November, 2021: We’re an American family with a daughter born in the Philippines during lockdown. I am autistic, and physically disabled. In addition to several unexpected financial whammies, a paperwork snafu on our daughter’s birth certificate is going to take about six more months to correct on the Filipino side (if we’re lucky), and only then can we BEGIN the process of having her US citizenship confirmed and get her a passport–which will take several more months–and on my disability. Our visas will run out long before this mess is sorted, so Immigration says that unless we come up with about 12K USD for a different kind of visa, we will, legally, have to leave the country without our daughter, because she is stateless until this mess gets sorted. Normally we would just take a day trip outside the country to reset for another 36 months–and in fact, we were preparing to do than when lockdown hit–but thanks to the Philippines’ strict lockdown, if we leave, we can’t reenter on tourist visas. Obviously, leaving without our daughter is not an option.I’m going to talk to Immigration again once I can be off of the oxygen machine for long enough, maybe see if I can get to someone with more authority, but they’ve already extended us ten months past the normal limit, so a longer extension is unlikely. If we somehow manage to not have to pay the 12K USD for the special visa, any money donated will go to paying off medical bills, and possibly help us relocate.If you want more details: El’s birth had complications that more than tripled our hospital bill. Shortly after she was born, the project that was set to purchase one of my old stories for adaptation into a mobile game was canceled with no notice–literally days after I went into debt to replace my dying computer, counting on the money from the adaptation to pay it off. Then as the cherry on top of the entire mess, even though I’m fully vaxxed, I caught COVID, and am on oxygen recovering, so there’s that expense, too. DONATION LINKS:GoFundMePayPalKo-FiIf you would like to help, but need to use Facebook Pay or some other means, message me and we’ll figure something out.Thank you to everyone who has already contributed!EDIT: It is illegal to do most kinds of work on a tourist visa, even if I were able, and if Zoey weren’t taking care of the baby and me full time. She is still looking for online remote work, though–the only kind she can legally do here–even though it pays less than half of US minimum wage. (One more way companies from wealthy nations exploit developed nations, but that’s a whole rant on its own.) It’s still not going to be enough, though. Nov 20, 2021: It looks like they MAY be opening things up enough for us to reset our tourist visas before our current ones run out in March.But… between the medical bills for El’s birth complications, my COVID treatment, trying to get my mouth fixed (bc the doc says if I don’t, I’m going to keep breaking teeth and losing the bone mass in my jaw), and all the legal fees with extensions, getting El’s birth certificate fixed, and the mandatory travel involved with all that, we’re still on the hook for several thousand USD, so any help is still greatly appreciated. My disability is enough for our normal monthly expenses, but this additional burden is crushing.EDIT: If for some reason you cannot use the above links (some folks outside the US have had trouble), then one the below should work. And thank you again.Pay Little or None using PayPal.Me Thursday, December 16, 2021So thanks to Omicron, we’re still going to need the SRRV.Thanks to a few of you, we are a bit over a quarter of the way towards the 12K we need by February, so thank you! Even if I can get the SRRV in time to stay here with El until she has a passport, Zoey will have to go back to the states because she doesn’t qualify to be added to it, but it would mean El would have at least ONE of her parents here to finish getting things straightened out, so that will be less traumatic than being left here alone–which is what Immigration says we will have to do if we don’t come up with the money for the SRRV in time.I’m going to try to change their minds and get them to just extend us again, but they were pretty adamant when I spoke with them before. To explain the visa mess a little more: Most foreigners who move here (unless they are rich, or married to a Philippines citizen) renew their tourist visa every two months, which you can keep doing for up to three years. At the end of 36 months you have to leave the country for a day and come back to reset. That’s impossible right now because the Philippines isn’t letting anyone in on tourist visas. Thanks to lockdown, we were unable to do that, and they’ve already extended us ten months past the usual 36.In the (unlikely) event that I can get them to change their mind amd extend us for another six months or so, so that I don’t have to get the SRRV, everything donated will go to medical bills and any needed relocation at the end of the (hypothetical) new extension.(Because thanks to the Philippines’ COVID policies, even with an extension, we’ll still have to leave and abandon the life we’ve built here at the end whatever extra time they give us, if any, unless they reopen the county by then–just we’d be able to do it as a family.) For those of us who can give to any of the funds with equal ease, is there one that is one that is easiest for you? They’re equally easy, but the first PayPal link (it leads to a page that says “Rob’s covid/El’s citizenship fund) seems to take the lowest fees out, thanks! -- source link