Support Sterling and Fern's Path to Stability

Hi there!

My name is Sterling and my partner, Fern, and I are both trans US Citizens. We fled the USA on 1 year Work Holiday Visas on Jan. 1st, 2025. When we first arrived here in Aotearoa, we bought a campervan with our savings. Within 5 days, we were in a near-fatal car accident and lost our biggest investment. Our van was totaled, and it wasn’t even insured yet. We have been houseless since January, petsitting for accommodation/shelter and relying on community support.

We are fast approaching the end of our visas, and I’ve applied to 6 different educational programs to hopefully get a student visa as a pathway to stay. We are very low on funds, and I am struggling to find ways to fund university even if I get accepted to a program. One program that I have an interview with doesn’t accept FAFSA for the first year, so the tuition is out of pocket. With tuition and visa requirements, I’m meant to have $28,969-$75,146 USD ($50,190-$130,190 NZD) by November. I don’t even know if that’s possible.

My gender marker on my passport is X and we cannot return to the USA without incredible risk of being detained as trans and tattooed individuals. Our backup plan is to go to Melbourne, Australia on Work Holiday Visas next, but we would be leaving our community that we’ve built here and Fern’s current job as an alternative hairstylist. If we continue on this path, we will also need enough funds in our accounts to receive Australian Visas. We are feeling very lost and very stuck. Anything helps and we know that there are so many people who need support at this moment. I found it very difficult to make this GoFundMe in the state of the world, but I can’t receive help if I don’t ask. Thank you so much for reading this and even kind words help!