Bizarre Marriage

Everything worked out with our post wedding documents. We fulfilled all the requirements and now I have my E-card (Health Insurance) and my Aufenhaltstitel (Austrian equivalent to US Green Card). I am now allowed to enter and leave Austria as I pleased without the hassles of getting a VISA. With this, I am not only allowed to stay in Austria but I am allowed to work there as well. There is just this one more thing we need to do. In Austria, immigrants are required to complete an Austrian Integration Course. This is a 300 hours course that will run in three months. In this course, one has to learn how to speak, understand, and write German. There would be some lessons about Austrian culture, tradition, and maybe history. It’s a law in Austria that every immigrant should be able to integrate in their society.

I am perfectly okay with this but there is one problem. I have the allowance to complete this course within 24 months from the day the municipal hall gave me the voucher for it. By the way, this course is being paid by the government and after completing all the lessons, I should be able to pass some sort of a test otherwise I would have to repeat the whole course again in my own expense. Given that I can attend all the classes, I am confident to say that I am pretty much sure I can pass the examination but Marcus and I are not in Austria thus I won’t be able to attend the classes. Our only option (at the moment) is that I will go to Austria in the summer and stay there for three months to attend the course and Marcus will stay in China. This is not good. Marcus and I don’t like to be away from each other that long.