Scaring the Alien

"Tuhan yang menguasai pemerintahan langit dan bumi dan yang tidak mempunyai anak, serta tidak mempunyai sebarang sekutu dalam pemerintahanNya dan Dialah yang menciptakan tiap-tiap sesuatu lalu menentukan keadaan makhluk-makhluk itu dengan ketentuan takdir yang sempurna." (Al-Furqaan/25:2)

My stay here expires in November. So I have a ticket back home just in time for the upcoming Raya. Here's the dilemma:

• Rashad is not able to get another cuti panjang from work..
  
• plus he's busy with his coursework (dah jadi student balik)..
  
• plus we're still recovering from the expenses in Malaysia a few months ago

So kalau I balik, kena balik sensorang.. part of me excited giler nak jumpa keluarga dan kawan2.. lepas bebas cam bujang dulu, puas sikit nak makan, lepak, dan sembang.. But that also means not spending Eid with my husband, and this is our first. And it really sucks having to be away from each other (we know, we did this before).

We decided to go to Canada for a few days, hoping the immigration will stamp me in for another 6 months. Bukan ke ini trick yang biasa orang buat kat mana-mana pun..? Canada dekat aje, dari rumah lebih kurang sejam.. kalau takde jem. Kami just crossed the border, and melepak di Niagara Falls area. Then kami bertolak balik lepas Subuh.

Sampai di Point of Entry (POE) nak ke US balik (dia check from a booth macam toll plaza tu je), lepas tanya kami serba sikit, immigration officer tu suh kami pull over to the side, and suh kami tunggu kat pejabat dia.

Then another officer looked at our passports. She asked me dah berapa kali datang US and berapa lama stay each time. Aiyak.. she said I have been here too long too many times. 2 kali dia ulang "This is no go." Ark..??!! Terngiang-ngiang lagi ayat tu.. This is no go... This is no go..

From what we understand I can stay here for 6 months each time I enter the country. She said I cannot be here for more than 6 months in a year. What?? Am I f***ed now? (I didn't say that out loud, of course). I was thinking "Now what? I have to go back to Malaysia and can only come back 6 months later??" She said since I am married to an American citizen, then I have to come here on a Spouse visa. They assume as a spouse you intend to migrate.. so my Visitor visa tu ampeh la kiranya. We said that's not the intention. We plan to migrate to Malaysia instead.. after he finishes his school etc.. She had to call the Supervisor.

They asked us a lot of questions.. serious aje, and rasa macam diorang nak kenakan kami je. I joked to Rashad, maybe because my tudung was too hitam. Anyway it's September.. and it's almost the month of Ramadhan.. they strangely associate anything holy with the infamous holy term, if you know what I mean. They checked everything in the car.. semua kertas dalam beg dan dalam glovebox dia baca. I had the flight ticket in the car (as proof that I planned to leave by Nov), and luckily with that was the Malaysian Police Certificate of Good Conduct (dokumen ni aku dapatkan dulu sebab required kalau nak apply for Spouse Visa). Diorang bukak dan korek our luggage. Mesti diorang excited tengok prayer rugs, a copy of the Qur'an, the Azan alarm clock (one of our wedding gifts).. but there was nothing harmful other than those Islamic items.

One of them tried to convince Rashad not to migrate to Malaysia. US is the best country in the world. People die to migrate here. He tried to be agreeable.

I could sense his anxiety. Rashad whispered to me "Worst comes to worst, you have to go back to Malaysia. I'll take the next available flight, and we relax in the kampung." Like we can afford to do that! I cried. He helped me wipe my tears, katanya kalau menangis nanti diorang lagi la suspicious. Right, I'm really good at closing the gate.

Finally she said "The fence evaporates now, just this one last time. You have to decide which side to be in (which country to live in). You cannot be in this limbo. She's marked now. The next time she's at the border, she has to have some kind of status (spouse visa). Otherwise you may have to live separately for awhile. This is your last chance." She advised us to just go to downtown Buffalo to apply for the visa. She said it should be easy.

Rashad was happy and cheerful as soon as we passed the POE. Alhamdulillah.. alhamdulillah. The melancholy in me was still struck by how easy it is for us to be forced apart.

We have been procrastinating applying for the spouse visa because of another dilemma: what if the application is denied, would they cancel my visitor visa? Ha, langsung tak dapat masuk US. Also sebab the current visa is valid for 10 years.. we thought we could make full use of it. An immigration lawyer had advised that it's better to apply for the spouse visa it at the embassy back home. So we thought we needed to balik kampung together again and have enough money and all supporting documents to apply in KL, which means we need more time to plan and to save. Apparently, it was not a good decision. We learned it kind of the rough way.

Come to think of it. This is the best way for things to turn out. Imagine if they had let me come in without any questions and without stamping another 6 months. Then I would have to come back to Malaysia in October, then try to get back into the US only to be denied entry at the airport in New York, all alone. That's a lot worse.

Alhamdulillah :) May Allah keep us together, always.

Anyway, here's a photo taken just before the two-hour ordeal at the POE.

Sunrise at the Falls