Quote:
Originally Posted by CarlF
I really would not write Trump. Even Obama probably wouldn't have helped. Unfortunately, your overstaying the visa put you on the wrong list. This has been true for a long time. It's hard to fix. You really don't want them to pay attention to you.
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The rhumb line from Halifax to Bermuda is 500 miles from Hatteras in much safer waters. The Bermuda route also means only one "distress" stop. It will be very hard to go down the US coast without needing to stop several times. They aren't going to believe you.
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Finally, are you positive the Bahamas will accept you? I would have expected Bermuda to be less trouble than the Bahamas.Their immigration is quite formal and not all rules are consistently applied (or well understood). In any case, remember you will need $300 in cash to get a cruising permit for the boat. |
Too late on the first point: although we haven't released a letter to Pres. Trump, or approached US authorities yet, analytics shows a lot of activity on Elena's site, from a static IP in Quantico, Virginia owned by the Department of Homeland
Security. Sure bet we're on that list now!
Then again, we refuse to become criminals or victims to bolster some pathetic Canadian optics, anymore. We respect
USA and appreciate its people more than you can imagine; we've experienced nothing but genuine concern, interest, and sincerity from Americans while we were there with DHS permission, AND when we were trapped, paperless (undocumented) in Charleston by whatever craven
game Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship
Canada is playing with my stateless partner of 11 years.
Snap Judgement day was Dec 25, 2016,
Christmas day, Charleston, SC: either become illegal and lie low, hoping for a refugee travel document from IRCC (Elena had applied for the renewal months earlier) to get us into Bahamas; OR sail to
Halifax, undocumented, facing arrest if blown ashore, or needing USCG assistance, and do it in the dead of
winter.
We chose to live. We explained the situation to IRCC, we pleaded with them, they played the most outrageous games. We wanted to go to US authorities, to ask for help, Passport
Canada warned us not to, threatened us with terrible consequences. The games never really ended. We think it has something to do with Elena being LGBT and thus 'invisible' - she looks and behaves like regular folk. She's not the right refugee/immigrant optics for IRCC or Canada.
The same sort of absurd, games have kept her from getting Canadian citizenship... she's been stateless for 11 years since fleeing
Russia. Her application for citizenship was submitted six years ago. She passed the citizenship test 3 years ago... nothing.
With a passport, with rights, none of this would have happened to Elena, or I. We think some jaded
government union employee came off a 2 hour smoke-break at Passport Canada, took one look at Elena's application for a refugee travel document renewal, saw that she is self sufficient, and traveling on a yacht in nice places (as in: not rotting in Canada), and said, "This Ruskie dyke is living better than me!" and chucked her application documents into the farthest corner. From then on, it just becomes a kind of sick
game to see how f*cked they can get us.
Regardless, it happened. It's how we became inadmissible.
There's a lot more too it, but the gist is, when you roll the dice for 11 years and they always come up snake-eyes, you wonder if they just might be loaded.
Point two: The Bermuda route has it's advantages, we completely agree. We have all the sat-comm and nav
gear to make it
work, and the
boat is bristling with
offshore gear (we used it to flee from
Russia in the first place), and we have a mondo
drogue (sea anchor), and we can cuss to make a longshoreman blush.
Trouble is, selling it to Elena... we've been wandering the oceans for 11 years, we want a place that we can point to and say, "we come from there! That is home." We want to be in a country that doesn't force us to part, that grants us the same rights as others, that doesn't play games with our lives for optics, that doesn't force us to sea, that lets us follow our dreams. I guess what we're trying to say, is that we want to come home to America.
Point Three: Bahamas, yes it will admit Elena for 30 days (and hundreds of dollars) it buys time... sadly we've done our
research. Boy did we do our
research. It was our last hope before Passport Canada took that from us, a long time and many sea-miles ago, on
Christmas day, in our beloved Charleston.
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