Generally speaking, I try to keep my work and private life separate – especially since I’ve started freelancing. However, there are times that the two intersect and it becomes necessary to reveal some personal circumstances in a more public arena.
The Start of a New Adventure
With that little caveat, I have an announcement to make. I am in the process of moving to Belgium for at least the next three years, as my husband got a job there. This possibility of relocating and starting the next adventure was one of the reasons I began freelancing.
Of course, any portable freelance translation and editing work will be moving with me, just completed in the CET rather than the CST time zone. In the long run I’ll join Belgian translators’ associations and be able to go to conferences in Europe.
Moving is a big process, and an international move is even more so. I appreciate your patience as I get situated.
Trials in Bureaucracy; or, Where in the World is Tamara Latham Sprinkle?
There is one more very important aspect of this plan, related to my business and Belgian red tape for non-EU nationals. Because I am going as the non-EU spouse of an EU citizen, we’re unable to apply for my residency until he has officially moved there, and the Embassy recommends applying from my nation of origin.
Practically speaking, this means that I will temporarily be in Belgium from the end of September to the end of November and then I’ll need to return to the USA without my husband to apply to reunite with him and to set up myself as a freelancer (registration is required to continue freelancing in Belgium).
While government bureaucracy has a habit of taking much longer than it should, if everything goes smoothly when we first relocate to the country and I apply immediately once I get back, it seems that I should be able to go to Belgium semi-permanently in January or February of next year.
On a personal note, after already experiencing a long distant relationship and a similar process to be able to get married, it will be strange being separated again. The reality that – while unlikely – you could be denied being able to stay with your significant other is a latent stress that I know too well.
I’m slowly learning more about this new immigration system and complicated bureaucracy, which I may include in my next article about translation and immigration law, an area of the law that, for various personal reasons, I follow the closest. It may take a while until I have the time to work on the next blog.
But until then, thank you for reading this slightly personal message; and greetings from wherever in the world I happen to be.