Hard on the heels of the state of affairs concerning my legality in America as a British Citizen and the possibility of being restrained at customs each time I try to re-enter my country of residence for over a quarter of a century, I made a decision a few weeks ago.
I’m turning traitor! I made fun of my friend from Liverpool when she became an American citizen after 20 plus years, so sorry Kathy!
I’ve decided that for every pleasant experience at the immigration desk in America I have three that are positively aggressive. Enough’s enough!
Despite the fingerprint that never changes, the staff can’t leave me alone at customs and insist that the photo no longer looks like me…who are they kidding? Have you ever looked through baby pictures of friends and family and immediately recognized a resemblance to the adult you now know?
Friends from kindergarten look exactly the same at those High School reunions…well, not exactly but totally recognizable!
The photo excuse is a load of hogwash…truly! The new card that the customs officials are not telling me I HAVE to get as they take my photo, again, and scan my hand print each time I try to enter America is almost as expensive as naturalization.
So I’m going to go against all my convictions to hang on to my exclusive Britishness no matter what and applying for my American citizenship. I can still retain my British identity and rights, so, like my children I will be a dual citizen.
I took a day’s vacation and filled out all the forms, researched all the evidence, which my husband and I had already done years ago when we first got married and I took up permanent residency in this fair (in both meanings of the word back then) land (where did all those records go?). Once I’ve coughed up the extortionate fee I will apply for a passport so they can no longer say,
“Will you step aside please, ma’am and come with me?”
Well hello there! My name is Vivienne McNeny.
I am an empty nester exploring life as a Boomer…you could say I'm happily Boomering along!
As a homeschooling Mum I have finally quit the job of role model and mentor to my four children. I do what I want to do, eat when I feel like it, enjoy life with my blue eyed cowboy and clean my house once a month or so whether it needs it or not!
In true English form I write about the emergence of my true identity now that I can no longer hide behind my children as their Mum.
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