It's really been 2 1/2 months since his move - Time has been flying by, it feels!

We've been so busy. Sorting all his documents and signing him up for insurance, phone contract, etc. was exhausting, but it felt good getting stuff done. It really helps that pretty much everything is a one-time thing. Once it's done, it's done for good!

It was all smooth sailing aside from the work permit ... That one proved to be a much bigger headache than either of us expected, and I already expected it to be bad. The case worker we got was legitimately rude to us and misread our documents, insisting we didn't have health insurance (even though we signed up for it one day earlier and brought all the documents). She also didn't speak a lick of English, so she ignored my SO entirely. I feel that in a immigration bureau, language skills should be mandatory, but what do I know? Later, her supervisor came in, and asked me weirdly threatening questions. He was being creepy and uncomfortable, and I really had to focus not to jumble every single thing I said. In the end, they told us that an internship doesn't count as employment (even if it's wellpaid, which his is!!) and we had to push them to have an exception requested. In general, our experience at the immigration bureau was bad from start to finish. It really was abysmal, I think we got very unlucky with the bureau responsible for our district.
This couldn't stand - In Germany, most visas tie work permit and residence permit together. If he couldn't get the work permit, he would likely face deportation since I have a small income, he doesn't have a lot of savings and we aren't married. I emailed both our insurance representative (since the case worker insisted we don't have insurance; to work in Germany, health insurance is mandatory) and the HR lady from my SO's company and requested their help in talking to the immigration bureau. This turned out to be the right call, because things smoothed out much more after that. The bureau ended up forgetting to request a document from the employer for 16 days (!!) but at the very least, we got the work permit in the end! Thank Christ. My SO was a nervous wreck throughout this ordeal, so getting the result we wanted was a big relief.

All the unplanned delays in the work permit process drained my funds more than I wanted, sadly, but it was still okay. I had saved up every penny I could last year, so together with my small income, we were able to live okay. My SO struggled a lot with accepting my money, since he was eager to work and contribute to the household, but I didn't mind one bit. His parents are unhealthily proud people who treat charity like a dirty word, so I wasn't surprised he was uncomfortable. But I think that us growing together as a team rather than just seperate people is an ongoing process. We are complete as seperate people, but we form a bigger, stronger unit together, and that to me includes sharing abilities and resources where we can.

Yesterday, my SO started work. It's a long commute and he hopes he can get a place to live there soon to make it easier. He works four days per week, so we're basically gonna be LDR for those. It's not my favorite thing, but it's honestly no big deal - The company he got hired by is exactly perfect for him and his career, and they've been nothing but generous and helpful even before he started. Plus, seeing him three days per week is such a HUGE improvement over seeing him every four months, so I really got nothing to complain about It will take time getting used to, but it's all very exciting. I can't wait to see what the future has in store for us, but I can already tell we are growing together as people and a couple.