shortage

 The issue of shortage of staff had emerged since last year. G had asked for a reassignment to OPD and later S left us for his children. Well, 40% down of man power and we started looking for locum. We had a few good hands who came for our rescue. They are competent and physicians of good standing. However we were unable to secure any new staff. Part of it was the salary. EP pay around the rural area at some central part of the island had risen to an unbelievable level; we were closed but yet still a fragment less. 

A few had come to ask but none of them opted for us. After the CNY, our HOD had finally asked for a 10% raise and finally the hospital agreed for it. More pals came for interviews but none of them stayed.

Distance was the main concern as most of the well paid didn’t want to live around rural areas. After some begging and persuasion, we finally got a senior physician to join us; A Sabahan who had worked nearby; the hospital had a crisis and a large part of the staff EP left( we could manage to grab one….)

Well, hopefully I gotta make my trip to London in October….

Visa run...

 The rest of the 70+ days was multitasking; decision, decision, decision and only guides were info over the net.

The most heart pumping session was the VISA application. 

The CAS was issued within days of submission of IELTS result. However the challenging part was the on-line visa submission.

I am not unfamiliar with such online applications but yet the info required to fill in was massive and some of the information needed to submit was massive; eg. travelling record of past 5 years. Exact date of in and out was required. In the past, you just flipped your passport and everything was there for references. However with the e-gate implementation, it would be difficult to trace every single entry and exit. 

A record from the local immigration department had helped with the info gathering mission. Combining with the flight ticket record on my email, we had managed to compile the full travelling record. 

Another issue which disturbed me greatly was about the medical check up needed. 

For visa application, a medical check up was needed for some applicants. As a Malaysian, an Xray will be needed, but for a Taiwanese, medical checkup was exempted. Well what about Malaysians staying in Taiwan ? No relevant info was found over the net….

The worst thing was if an Xray is required, where should the xray be done as there is no authorized clinic in Taiwan.

I had to keep my finger crossed for such issues. We would only know when the biometric was taken.

The other issue was the bank statement about sufficient funding. The fund was banked in since last year but yet the format provided does not fit the requirement of UKVI application. The statement would only state the amount in the account as of bla bla bla date. It was a standard format and it could not show that the account had held such amounts for how long. Luckily the bank could provide a transaction record for any duration. So it was a separate documentation for this proof. Would it satisfy the relevant authority ? Fingers crossed again. Luckily, it was not mandatory for Taiwanese applicants; but again, we were Malaysians living in Taiwan….

Too many uncertainties and I was unable to make it 100% proof and had to live with it. Another round of agony for me; compared to what I had for the past 12 months…it was nothing actually.

This first round of filling up the visa form  ended up in a chilly back situation. It was a post 36 hours shift for me and we started the session at around 11pm and it took us 40 + minutes to complete it and upon completion a strange feeling had haunted my nerves and a quick check had revealed a silly mistake. By that time, I had paid up the process fee and NHS fee which summed up to almost 100k NT. Luckily, withdrawal of application with full refund is available prior to biometric collection. Although many had said that an undercover letter on submission of biometric could pave the error, but we did not want to take the chances. The refund was quick and only took us less than 2 days to get the money back.

We decided to cool ourselves down and proceed with the application 2 weeks later. The rest was actually quite straight forward and mostly focused on gathering information.

The final submission of form was done and we did a don’t know how many times check and recheck before pressing the button. It was smooth but yet it was slightly more than a month before the travelling. The official statement was maximum 3 weeks for approval. Some gotten it within a week and some got delayed.

Xian had gone to Taipei with Ving for the biometric submission. I paid up for premium service so that it could be done on anytime of a Monday. They completed the submission before noon. Later that night, while travelling on the HSR, Xian got an email confirming his visa approval .

So the verdict; those requirements were not nationality dependent; it all depends on the submission of your document. 

TORMENT

 It was a time of despair for me since last July. It all started from Xian acceptance to the UAL; the rest of the journey was filled with agony. 

Xian had a short time frame to meet the language requirement. As he applied late, the  pre-sessional course was closed and the only way was to attain the requirement.

Xian was over confident with his ability and failure had struck him again and again.

Even though the administration had granted a grace period but yet he had to forfeit the acceptance. 

The path was tedious and filled with sweat and tears .. and also lessons beyond money can buy. If money can settle the problem; it would be fine but yet you can’t buy time….

It was a down time for Xian and me as well. I tried to persuade him to give up and maybe get a hit on the local graduate school. However he is firm with his decision and nothing could rock his will. 

No tuition, no agent, no change of destination. No matter what I said, that was his bottom line. It was destined since his birth; my teacher had told me that he might look normal in the future but yet he would still show some features of the spectrum. Well, minor conflict and lots of talking during this period.

Months had passed and I was consistently haunted by what would be coming. Although I had said I would be prepared but yet I was not; I didn’t know what would be heading toward me. It is not up to me to decide, it was Xian that needed to withstand the impact. 

The first question to concur was if he would be accepted into the program since he had forfeited the first offer. Frankly speaking, I had no confidence at all. I had prepared for a premature end for this attempt. Xian had however  focused on the preparation of his portfolio and English. 

Day and night passed and 1 day after CNY,  Xian had gotten what he wanted AGAIN!!!

An offer letter was served to him and he started his next tour of preparation; the ILETS.

It was another warzone to struggle since then. The ILETS was taken late and Xian hit the mark for the 7 weeks pre-sessional english course on campus. The joy was later struck off when we applied for the combined CAS for the pre-sessional english course and the main course.

CAS would be issued only if we had ILETS UKVI Academic. Unfortunately, Xian took the ILETS IDP(not because it was cheaper, but the oral part was done face to face rather than in front of a monitor remotely). 

So we fell into another round of ILETS run. 

At that point, pre-sessional english course was booked and confirmed and we need a combined CAS. If we had applied for an independent CAS,  Xian would have to come back to Taiwan and apply for another CAS and visa again after he passed the pre-sessional course. It would be only 3 weeks to go to apply for a CAS and visa plus one more to and fro ticket. 

Collapse and lose faith was not an option as we had come so far. 

The offer was truly a gift as previous forfeit was definitely a minus point during the 2nd application. 

The first attempt was a disaster as the remote oral session was something new to Xian. The 2nd attempt was much better but yet the result was similar. Xian decided to appeal and finally a +0.5 was awarded 3 days later and he had made the cut.

We had 2.5 months for the final preparation.

The list was not long but traps were noted everywhere. 

1.Booking of 2 lodgings

2.Flight arrangement

3.Arrival Arrangement

4.Money transfer arrangement

5.Luggage preparation

6.CAS and VISA application

The worrying went on and I wandered will it ever end???