Relief at last...

Well, the waiting is finally over. Yesterday I got a call from the Home Office. They'd received my fax where I was asking for a speedy processing of my visa application so I could get my passport back in time for a trip aboard. The guy says to me "I've got your fax here, but we processed and sent your passports yesterday." I didn't know whether to be excited by the passports being sent back, or to ask him "have you seen the date on the fax you idiot?" but I composed myself and thanked him.

Strangely, it was almost an afterthought (or perhaps subconsciously I was frightened) to ask whether the visa had actually been granted or not. And so, after coming to and from the UK for nearly nine years, I got the answer I'd been waiting for: I now have Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR) in the UK.

Next step: British citizenship, think it's either two or three years from now.

What a relief.