link to original reddit post by /u/GoldAndBlackRule
Trying to plan during the pandemic: an expat innocent/idiot abroad.
I met my better half while in UK via friends who are all in the same industry. This was back when I was travelling the world taking on full time employment. Professionally, we are mortal enemies (production and tech). We started dating almost a decade ago and personally, we just fit perfectly. She is a polyglot extrovert speaking at least half a dozen languages conversationally and I am still tabulating the ones she is merely "conversant" in. I am an introvert, with "survival level" understanding of maybe half a dozen myself.
After dating better half for a while, I took my last full time gig back in Singapore (I really felt homesick for it after moving to UK). We decided to cohabitate there. After just a year, the job location was shuttered and everyone made redundant (fired, moved elsewhere, etc.).
I had enough. Created my own tech startup with an idea I had kicked around and prototyped. It was pretty niche, but also quite useful. So I partnered with a good friend. I made the majority investment, spun everything up, issued long term employment passes, drew up the financial burn-down, paid the salaries. We set up the chart of accounts, we automated everything. Then we set about building my prototype as something shippable. And we launched it.
It was a slow crawl of sales and marketing, but we became revenue positive. My partner wanted to get back to the security of full time employment, so I bought him out.
As someone who has their own skin in the game, I was ever conscious of the burn rate vs revenue, and thought it was silly to pay myself so much money just to hold my EP in Singapore when I could live for much less anywhere else.
I transitioned to full-on tech nomad. I fired myself from my own company, demoting myself to foreign director status. Appointed a local director, and better half and I started a permanent holiday spree, hopping from island to island in country to country. We would arrive on visit visas, never overstay, and move on. We got a nice, beachfront condo in her home country at a good price. That would be our "home base" should we need to retreat somewhere.
In summer of 2019, after years of living together and she not deciding me to murder me in my sleep, we decided to marry. We set a date for January of 2020. Turns out her sister and my (now) brother-in-law had similar plans. So we decided to defer until maybe March or April. (We are older and not likely to have kids, so we decided it was courteous to the family to wait).
Over CNY in 2020, we heard from friends in mainland China that another SARS-like epidemic was heating up. We cut our CNY short and hit home base. I entered on a visit visa that would expire in March of 2020.
Within days of my visa expiration, the whole wide world went into lockdown. Just for 15 days to help the healthcare system to prepare for a global pandemic. Visa rules were extended to ensure people were not travelling across borders which could exacerbate the pandemic. Seemed perfectly sensible.
Our Marriage, it seemed, would have to wait, since nobody could travel to attend.
Then 15 days became a month. We dutifully sheltered in place. Followed all protocols. And waited...
A month became two, then three, then nine.
Planning became impossible. So we decided to marry during a period where protocols relaxed a bit. Later we could have a ceremony with friends and family when things returned to normal. That was in February of 2021.
Because I had "overstayed" my visa, which expired in March the year before, the marriage was going to be a problem. So off to immigration we went. Had an appointment. Filled out all of the paperwork to satisfy the bureaucracy. Every "i" dotted and "t" crossed. Got letters from my consulate. Everything was good to go.
Enter the immigration building asking for directions. They ask for my passport. The agemt at the door says I have to leave the country. No shit, Sherlock, that is why I am here (or something to that effect is what better half said to the petty bureaucrat).
Anyway, it goes better than expected. My long expired visa is updated with a special pass to accomodate our long-awaited marriage. So we return to home base island and make it official. We are finally married! Hurray! It is announced to friends and family that cannot be with us and we celebrate, as we can, over video calls and messages and all of the trappings of life under pandemic protocols.
But the question of my status as a foreigner on a short term visa still looms overhead. In March of 2021, during another bout of relaxed protocols, all foreigners with expired visas are ordered to leave the country. Little notice (within days). The main immigration office is flooded with people that have had their long-term visa paperwork approved, but then a change of government invalidated or placed finalization on hold. These people put half a million each in local banks, and were being summarily booted from the country.
Better half must have worked some serious mojo, because I was the only foreigner I saw there that was not forced out. They would not stamp my visa, but they told me not to worry about it and come back on May 28th with all of the paperwork required for the spouse visa (5 year, long term).
So, we scheduled everything around that. A "War and Peace" sized book of documentation was compiled as per bureaucratic requirements. My brother in-law had to vouch for me financially, which is bizzarre since he earns 1/10th what I do, and only so much because I claim so few dividends to pay the bills. He must appear in person as well, which means he must spend precious time off work to accomodate government rules to get this done. I pay for all the travel expenses, but he flat out refuses compensation for missed work. I respect that, and I will get even some day ...
After carefully orchestrating everything to finally settle this bogeyman of visa status during a pandemic, the week is upon us.
On Monday, after a surge in new cases, a total lockdown occurs. We scramble to get permission from police departments to ensure travel to immigration is OK. Brother in law is flying in from another state, so we need interstate permissions. We get everything settled and are good to go.
We arrive, on time, to the immigration headquarters.
It is completely shut down. No notice. Nothing. The recent surge in cases has triggered even critical government offices to close. No announcements made.
So here we three stood, having toiled to satisfy the government's demands for compliance. My brother in-law having missed critical work time on a fast approaching deadline. Better half and I apologizing for wasting his time and simultaneously distraught that the entire situation is out of our hands. The government demanded compliance with old rules while absolutely incapable of functioning under new realities.
We did our best. I am an "illegal" alien. Incapable of leaving and simultaneously incapable of compliance. The life of a digital nomad under pandemic protocols is dead, yet has some bizzarre quantum state where forced travel every 90 days is no longer required -- if you are lucky enough to have picked a decent home base and are trapped there, following the rules and by following them, also breaking them.
TLDR; for everyone here making plans while this pandemic is on: don't. It is impossible.