I've been a little quiet over the last few months since life has been pretty busy, so I thought I'd post an update on the blog section!
Well firstly after almost 3 years, Marvie has completed her Annulment. Whilst it was technically a straightforward annulment, the way the court system works in Antipolo left a lot to be desired. Each scheduled hearing required all people with an appointment to arrive at 8am, whether they were ax murderers, rapists or people requesting an annulment. They all sit together and the Judge gives them about 20 minutes each, and then when he runs out of time the rest have to go home and have another appointment. Then the next available appointments were always 1-2 months ahead, so it's a long wait. Finally appointments were often cancelled at short notice due to Political Events, Judge on Holiday, Judge at the Doctors, Judge at the Dentist etc etc.
During the whole process, the ex-Husband never responded to any claims and never arrived at the court. The process in the court was simple and a clear cut case. Eventually after continuously waiting, we were told in November that the courts would close for a 1 month and the backlog would push back the next appointment until July 2011!! After the lawyer pushed for an earlier appointment he was given the option to pay a special fee for the court to convene on their day off and complete the annullment (no guarantees whether it would be issued!!!!), this fee was several thousand pounds (bear in mind the Judge didn't know about me of course, that would have been plain stupid, but he did know Marvie is an Overseas Worker). When Marvie wasn't keen on paying this fee, she was told that the case would be thrown out of court! So the payment was made, the court convened and eventually all the paperwork has now been released. Welcome to the Philippines Ladies and Gentlemen!!!
Now we are going through the process of registering our 4 month old son with the British Honourary Consul, obtaining his passport, obtaining a CNI for me and arranging a church wedding at the end of July in Cebu!
Our long term plan is to move back to England at the end of 2011 and settle back down, although trying to decide whether to move back down Winchester/Southampton area or spend some time near the family in Yorkshire. Tough choices!
Work has been hectic, and the last 12 months have been spending a lot of time involved with crewing, managing crew flights and managing visa processing for our 60+ guys (Getting British, Schengen and United States visa). So much so that I think I should setup a visa processing agency! The yacht I work for is planning to get a new Purser to deal with all this side, as it's not really a traditional Officers/Chief Mates job.
Having now spent 3 years in yachting putting away some savings, I've decided to return to my previous employer and will be heading back to the Cruise Ships next month. It's a tough family decision, but it'll work out better for our family in the long run, although this year and next will be pretty busy! The next few weeks are going to be particularly busy repositioning the yacht across the atlantic, then flying from the US to Cebu (35 - 40 hours flying, not a nice run), have a few days with the family and then fly back to the States!
So thats our current situation in a nutshell!!!! aghhhhhhh.
If anyone wants some more info about our Annulment, Having a Baby in the Philippines, Obtaining British Citizenship for your Child born abroad, Obtaining a CNI in the Philippines or US Visas, let me know and I'll do some explanatory posts!
