Confirmation Day!

I seem to spend my life jumping through official hoops, with my partner Darrell. Getting hitched to a non EU national has its ups and downs, that's for sure, but despite Darrell's Australian status, he has been granted permission to live and work in Spain; that's another milestone crossed off the list. Like the story of our life his legal rights were granted, with just a week to go, before he starts his new job at Alicante Airport; always last minute, with little time to spare; right up to the wire.

His status had remained precarious, due to his situation; legally placed slap bang in the middle, of a rather grey area of Spanish law. Most couples who come to settle in Spain are from the EU, so we had to overcome that hurdle before we started. Luckily our same sex status does not count negatively towards us now, as it did, when Darrell and I went through a similar process in the UK, in 1995-2000. Back then same sex couples were not recognised in law, so we had to fight to remain together, for many years. Today Spain has granted Darrell consent to remain in this great country in a matter of weeks; that's how far we have moved forwards; times have most definitely changed; discrimination is a thing of the past.

Darrell starts his new job next week and we can both finally begin to build, a new life in Spain. Twenty months in and we have achieved the security we desire; the UK is but a distant memory!