Reunite Family Split by Borders
Donation protected
Hi, my name is Mel. Some of you might know Armando (my hubby) and I through Westfalia Digital Nomads, but for those of you who don't, I'll give you a brief background.
We've been traveling, living and working in Europe, from our van. His name's Mork and he's a bright blue T4 Westy. We're both freelancers (I'm a writer, Armando's a filmmaker) and we work full-time remotely, on our journey, to pay for our travels.
We also try to help others with working online or remotely ('digital nomads') and giving advice for living in a van as a couple. Without killing each other. Grin.
You can take a look at our website: Westfalia Digital Nomads and find us on Facebook.
This year, we decided to make a change. To leave Europe, and start exploring my home country, the United States. I'm originally from Montana, and Armando hasn't yet met most of my family. It seemed like a great new adventure for us.
We shipped our van to Canada and drove from Halifax to Alberta, to cross the border to Montana.
We were both so excited.
Unfortunately, at the United States border, Armando was turned away. We didn't think he'd need an official visa (such as the I-129 for fiances, or the I-130 for spouses who want to emigrate) because we're married and Italians are allowed 90 days visitation.
We thought it'd be best to get informed about required paperwork in the States, for one simple reason: trying to comprehend the chaos of legalese from abroad is terrifically confusing.
But because we're married, they won't let him in - in case he decides to 'live there illegally,' which of course was never our intention.
In hindsight, always 20/20, it was probably more than naive of us.
We were also told, at the U.S. border, that our van wouldn't be allowed through, since it's a European model.
We were sent back to the Canadian border. Things got worse. They decided they'd rather not have us in Canada either, since there were problems with entering the States, and gave us 3 days to leave.
I'm going to Montana, back to my hometown, with our dog, Ziggy. Armando's flying back to Milan, Italy.
Mork, our van, our office and our home, will stay in a storage lot in Canada until we can afford to have him transported across Canada to Halifax. We'll then ship the van back to Europe.
Our family is in pieces. We're asking for your help to raise money to get our van back to Europe. So that I can then join my husband Armando, with Ziggy, and we can somehow get our lives back together.
We aren't asking for much individually. Even the price of a coffee, $1 or 1€, would help if everyone chipped in. Or even just sharing our campaign with friends on your social media would be great.
Anything, really, that you can do to help will be appreciated.
We're so thankful for the outpouring of support and encouragement we've had in the past 2 days of struggling to find solutions and making some really hard decisions that - we hope - will be best for us all.
That we hope - beyond hope - will get us reunited as a family.
Thank you so much for taking the time to read this.
Mel, Armando, Ziggy and Mork
We've been traveling, living and working in Europe, from our van. His name's Mork and he's a bright blue T4 Westy. We're both freelancers (I'm a writer, Armando's a filmmaker) and we work full-time remotely, on our journey, to pay for our travels.
We also try to help others with working online or remotely ('digital nomads') and giving advice for living in a van as a couple. Without killing each other. Grin.
You can take a look at our website: Westfalia Digital Nomads and find us on Facebook.
This year, we decided to make a change. To leave Europe, and start exploring my home country, the United States. I'm originally from Montana, and Armando hasn't yet met most of my family. It seemed like a great new adventure for us.
We shipped our van to Canada and drove from Halifax to Alberta, to cross the border to Montana.
We were both so excited.
Unfortunately, at the United States border, Armando was turned away. We didn't think he'd need an official visa (such as the I-129 for fiances, or the I-130 for spouses who want to emigrate) because we're married and Italians are allowed 90 days visitation.
We thought it'd be best to get informed about required paperwork in the States, for one simple reason: trying to comprehend the chaos of legalese from abroad is terrifically confusing.
But because we're married, they won't let him in - in case he decides to 'live there illegally,' which of course was never our intention.
In hindsight, always 20/20, it was probably more than naive of us.
We were also told, at the U.S. border, that our van wouldn't be allowed through, since it's a European model.
We were sent back to the Canadian border. Things got worse. They decided they'd rather not have us in Canada either, since there were problems with entering the States, and gave us 3 days to leave.
I'm going to Montana, back to my hometown, with our dog, Ziggy. Armando's flying back to Milan, Italy.
Mork, our van, our office and our home, will stay in a storage lot in Canada until we can afford to have him transported across Canada to Halifax. We'll then ship the van back to Europe.
Our family is in pieces. We're asking for your help to raise money to get our van back to Europe. So that I can then join my husband Armando, with Ziggy, and we can somehow get our lives back together.
We aren't asking for much individually. Even the price of a coffee, $1 or 1€, would help if everyone chipped in. Or even just sharing our campaign with friends on your social media would be great.
Anything, really, that you can do to help will be appreciated.
We're so thankful for the outpouring of support and encouragement we've had in the past 2 days of struggling to find solutions and making some really hard decisions that - we hope - will be best for us all.
That we hope - beyond hope - will get us reunited as a family.
Thank you so much for taking the time to read this.
Mel, Armando, Ziggy and Mork
Organizer
Melony Schmitz
Organizer
Ronan, MT
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