Julie & Jeff's Family Reunification

Jeffrey & I are getting married in Denmark in late June 2015. As a wedding gift, we do not wish for anything but a Family Reunification in Denmark. This is an expensive & difficult process, which we plan on starting once we are married. 

:: Our Story ::
Jeff & I met in Florence, Italy, in the spring of 2012, where we were both staying at the time. Jeff was studying there on a visa & I was visiting two times throughout the year, taking Italian language lessons. We immediately fell in love & had a couple of months together, full of more love than I had ever thought possible at the time. Then July came & I had to go back to Denmark to start my Bachelors degree. We both agreed that we couldn't stop this love affair so abruptly, so we said goodbye, not knowing what was going to happen. The only thing we knew was that we had found something very special.
     That summer Jeff came to Denmark to visit me. He experienced the place where I grew up, met my parents and helped me get settled in my new apartment. In the fall I visited him in Florence. For christmas Jeff spent the holidays in Denmark with my family & friends that fast became his as well & visited me again in February. That following summer I went to California, because Jeff in the meantime had moved home. I stayed for an entire month & we had the most amazing summer, where I met his wonderful family & travelled California. Then in the late fall Jeff came to Denmark again for three months. We wanted to spend as much time together as possible & explore our options for Jeff to come to Denmark & stay for good. We soon found out that the only option for us was to get married & apply for a family reunification, which we can do when I'm 23½ in July 2015.
      So we had to figure out another way for us to be together until then. I decided to apply to come study in California which got approved in the summer of 2014, where I spent 2½ months with Jeff & his family in California. This was all a dream come true, until I went to get my student visa at the American Embassy in November. Here I was denied my visa, because my ties to America, in their opinion, were too strong. This was heartbreaking! Our dream of finally being together and living a 'normal' life for a while, was crushed in a second. But we couldn't give up because of that.
       We quickly bounced back with the support from family & friends, & Jeff bought a plane ticket to come to Denmark for christmas, & stay until February. Our original plan was to get married in the spring in San Diego. Now this has changed, & we'll get married in the summer in Denmark instead. Jeffrey will come & spend the summer with me, until we can apply for the family reunification.

:: Family Reunification ::
You see, Denmark is a very small country of approximately 6 million people. It's a society built on welfare, so they don't just let anybody in. To be approved for a family reunification, you have to meet a lot of requirements. Luckily we do more or less meet these requirements. If we get approved though, we'll have to set up a bank guarantee of 52.490,12DKK which is just around 8000$. This is so the government are assured that we can support ourselves if Jeff doesn't immediately get a job & so on. This is a lot of money to us. I'm a student & we've spent a lot of money travelling back & forth trying to be together. Therefore the only thing we really need for our wedding, is this amount of money. We do not need a lot of things for a home we do not yet have.
     If you're interested in the rules of a Danish family reunification, you can read more about the requirements here: http://www.nyidanmark.dk/en-us/coming_to_dk/familyreunification/spouses/spouses.htm

:: What now? ::
Jeff & I are now getting married, & we couldn't be happier that so many of our family & friends, from both Denmark & the USA, can be there on such an amazing day to celebrate with us. Even a couple of friends from Florence will be showing up.
     You all mean the world to us. We want to say thank you for the support, encouragement & love you have contributed with to our relationship & our lives. You are our favorite people in the world.

& for all the great Danes out there:
Tusinde tak for jeres støtte, kærlighed og opbakning!

We hope that you will support this dream of ours and we hope to be able to make our dream come true with the donations from our friends, family & kind people who believe in unconditional love.

So much love,
Jeffrey & Julie