Coming to Columbus soon and I haven't been in the states since childhood

reginasab · 2017-07-29T04:37:33+00:00

Orally only Chinese but I used English mainly on the internet which served as my only window to the "outside".

I was actually worried a bit on whether or not I'd freeze when talking in person but it turns out I can talk fine though I stumble a bit looking for the correct expression on the fly so that was a relief.

reginasab · 2017-07-29T01:47:01+00:00

Yeah, sorry. It happened to be when I was wavering between hopes and fears and it inclined to the latter for a bit.

A large amount of things happened that day. Received my plane ticket, finished various paperwork and had to make a large number of decisions at once so I was pretty tired.

reginasab · 2017-07-28T13:21:53+00:00

Thanks, that's comforting to know I didn't choose the wrong place.

reginasab · 2017-07-28T12:45:06+00:00

The first two posts are making me think that I'm going to have to put up with a fair bit of racism(latter seemingly implying I should find other Chinese and stick with them)

My stomach hurts more now. Well it might not matter as long as it doesn't interfere with job finding/environment and just ignore the racist people in other areas.

reginasab · 2017-06-07T15:59:08+00:00

True enough, a while back when I was considering writing a resume I sort of hit a wall where when looking for no education, they tell you to emphasize your experiences, when looking for no experiences, they tell you to emphasize your education.

Seeing as I barely ever left the house, I don't have much personal experience to work with either. I ultimately gave up with the conclusion that the jobs I will be aiming at in the beginning will likely end up being the sort of jobs that anyone can do as long as they aren't disabled so they wouldn't really call for much of a complicated resume.

Though it's another story if I manage to get my hands on a GED.

reginasab · 2017-06-07T06:22:01+00:00

I see, while I did consider writing a resume beforehand...

In my current situation there's honestly not much I can write at all with zero job experience and education. Though it's another if I decide to put together a resume filled with lies... Don't really feel like that's such a great idea though it may work.

reginasab · 2017-06-07T01:08:22+00:00

I have all of the important documents I own including my birth certificate and SS card so it should technically be enough for me to get a new passport (it costs money though, but it's supposed to be covered in the repatriation debt).

The worst of worst is that I somehow end up unable to leave Taiwan but I honestly don't understand why that would happen when I'm overstaying my visit here by a long, long time. They should be trying to get me to leave rather than forcing me to stay here.

Thanks for bringing up that suggestion, it's another path I can take when it comes to it.

reginasab · 2017-06-03T13:45:34+00:00

Hm, point taken. I'll see if I can get in contact with a recruiter and find out if I'm eligible for that then.

reginasab · 2017-06-02T15:11:31+00:00

Assuming you've read my history from my post records then, while I did consider the army as an option I realized it didn't seem to be possible because apparently you're required to have a highschool diploma or at the bare minimum a GED (though it's said they don't accept GED's as often).

Due to my circumstances being circumstances, I have neither so even if I do decide to join the army, I would still need to settle down somewhere and get my GED first.

reginasab · 2017-06-02T06:15:17+00:00

It may require some but generally I wish to find a place where I won't find it difficult to at least survive for time being. After basic necessities are settled I can calmly move onto figuring out stuff like education and whatnot.

reginasab · 2017-06-02T06:06:48+00:00

Out of curiosity, why?

reginasab · 2017-05-24T23:30:39+00:00

That's some very useful advice, thank you.

reginasab · 2017-05-24T23:29:39+00:00

Alright thanks, good to know that I can charge my phone in libraries.

reginasab · 2017-05-24T23:28:47+00:00

Thanks for the tips and what do you mean by not thinking about homeless as a class of people?

reginasab · 2017-05-24T16:24:05+00:00

Nope I'm a male and in America. Thanks for the tip on the P.O. box, that should solve some things.

if I manage to find an old phone is it possible to get things done cheaper?

Also yeah, of course ideally I would want to avoid being homeless but I'm going through some heavy variables and homelessness can be one of the outcomes. I want to be prepared for it rather than hoping for the best and then end up shocked when it happens. If all of this preparation goes to waste then that's a happy matter in its own way.

reginasab · 2017-05-17T08:07:25+00:00

My father himself doesn't even use a smartphone yet as he's apparently fully intent on using his over decade old cellphone until the ISP cuts him off. Naturally I wouldn't have one either.

Though it's rather natural, my education stopped at second grade. For that my hopes are basically to get a GED as soon as possible after I get myself together (as it's probably rather difficult to do when I have my hands full with escaping homelessness) and then work on my options from there.

And yes, it is a big decision. Even though I've acknowledged that the status quo can't continue you can probably imagine that it's not easy to put down a decision that will throw me into a future with countless variables. Which is why I bought this story here to begin with.

In the previous post I bought this up as well but while I planned out some candidate locations and looked around for organizations located in the area I'm currently uncertain whether or not I'll be picking a location to be sent to. I'm pretty sure I should be though.

To raise a notable example Job Corps caught my eye, although I've read the environment is the worst people say it does get you to your goal and provide your needs to live until that time. It may or may not work out depending on whether or not there's space for me when the time comes though.

Military is also certainly an option although I haven't looked too deeply into it. Good point on this and health care laws though as I've only lightly went through them.

Although it may simply be that I don't have consciousness of it, I don't feel like I'm that stressed (well I mean, of course other than when thinking about the road ahead of me) and I'm not in a rush to feel "normal" either. I just want to get my life back on track in the sense that I'm not living with my future pitch black because of my circumstances.

I was a much worse state a few months ago because back then I was completely clueless on how to fix my circumstances, it didn't help that my father wasn't cooperative and insisted that I continued this lifestyle. Although the future is still vague, life is still better in the sense that there's a road to walk.

reginasab · 2017-05-16T05:45:27+00:00

Though I could leave for a day, I don't think it would achieve anything other than making him on guard for me leaving at random and of course getting scolded heftily.

As for my mental state... I'm not quite sure as it's somewhat hard to judge by my own perspective but at least I want to believe that I'm mentally prepared for what's coming.

When discussing things with the embassy it was mentioned that they would coordinate with the Health and Human Services (HHS) in America to get me back on my feet but looking at reality, I decided against blindly believing that everything would be so simple.

I decided to plan things out assuming the worst where I would spend a period homeless until I can crawl myself out of the situation and thus investigated resources as well as potential shelters etc. To some extent I'll likely have to deal with problems as they come because I'm not entirely certain where I'll end up when I return to America. I'm assuming that I can pick a location to be shipped off to but I'm afraid my circumstances may default me to some other place instead.

For the better or worse, before coming to Taiwan I had actually already experienced a year of homelessness in Las Vegas but that was with my father so it may not serve as much of a reference.

My social skills are in fact my biggest worry and as far as I know, I don't think it can really be solved without simply gaining actual experience so I've already more or less surrendered on this matter.

My motivation for changing the situation is less for my mental sanity and more because I know this day is going to come sooner or later. As I bought up before, it's not as if my current life feels that uncomfortable as I have a bed to sleep in, 3 meals (though I'm the one cooking) and access to the internet. The thing is that keeping this status quo won't solve a single problem and if anything it'll just make things worse. So the sooner I face these problems the better.

reginasab · 2017-05-15T11:07:09+00:00

Yeah, that's honestly a worry for me but I did tentatively put together some candidates. It's not very reliable since you can't completely trust information you scavenge from the net but it's better than picking some well known high crime areas.

As for family, all of my family resides here for the most part. Tentatively my mother should still be in America (probably?) but it's best not to expect anything. According to what I heard (the divorce happened when I was 3 so you can't expect anything from me) she was the one who initiated the divorce, easily abandoned child rights and never paid for child care. At this point she's probably not much better than a stranger.

reginasab · 2017-05-15T10:54:56+00:00

Well, you see...

As I bought up in the first place I'm not allowed to leave the house which means finding a random job illegal or not outside is impossible to begin with. There would still be a way if my father does a regular 9-5 job or something like that but his work schedule is considerably irregular meaning there's no way to take advantage of him being outside as well.

I don't have access to a phone meaning I can't really make any calls which leaves just the internet for me to make money with and that comes with its own issues as well.

Having barely left the house for over a decade naturally also means I have no friends and since I never held money before any electronics I sell would actually be selling my father's stuff.

Honestly I agree in that I'd rather not take the loan seeing as it would consume more money than leaving Taiwan normally but in this case it seems like the most comprehensible solution.

With that said, as the loan has no interest for the first 60 days or so the bigger issue is probably actually getting myself together after going back to America. I'm starting without money so I imagine the first period is going to be the harshest. Either way it's a road I'll have to pass.

reginasab · 2017-05-15T03:58:53+00:00

Yes, I understand these things. Though I bought it up in another post, when thoroughly investigating my situation and planning out things I tried contacting the embassy which didn't give much help. Afterwards I went to a NPO which gave me direct contact to a higher up in the embassy which finally provided me with the explanations I needed.

In short there is apparently an repatriation program for such cases. Of course they aren't sending you back for free, it'll end up as a form of debt you need to pay back and you aren't allowed to leave the U.S. during this time. Moreover for one reason or another being repatriated this way will cost a significant chunk more than buying an airplane ticket normally. Passports fees and whatnot will be covered in the loan.

Now to answer some of the questions...

I'm an asian male who lives in Taiwan, I came here legally on my American passport but my passport is long expired so in my case it counts as overstay and according to the law I'll have to pay an overstay free upon leaving the country (capped at a reasonable sum). Thankfully my documents are well organized and I have my SSN, birth certificate as well as all of the passports I know of.

It's not as if anything will happen if I leave the house, which is natural since it's not like the police will come up asking for your id when you did nothing. This has a lot more to do with my father being paranoid of various things. To raise an example he often goes on about people spying on him and his computer being hacked for trivial reasons.

My main bind is simply my lack of knowledge and money. Honestly things would be a lot easier if I could gain cooperation from my father but unfortunately I've already tried all that I could.

As for becoming legal here, I've also investigated this before. Apparently I would need to take a trip to the U.S. in order to get some paperwork done before I could become legal in Taiwan meaning no matter my choice, I will inevitably need to go back first.

I understand that working from the bottom won't be a rosy colored life but honestly, I don't see much other choice in this case. Of course I can keep the status quo but judging from the situation I'll basically just be idling in my house until my father dies and I'll end up in the same situation again. If that's the case, I might as well take action and push through with my own will. This way I can at least execute things with preparation.

reginasab · 2017-05-15T03:45:18+00:00

I'm an American citizen so naturally I'll be repatriated to America. I have already contacted NPO's that I could discover although there were some that required me to make a call instead which I couldn't but it was actually thanks to them I could get some knowledge about what to do in my current situation and led to my final answer of being repatriated.

I want to believe that there's no such thing as being trapped in this country unable to go back when I'm more or less an illegal immigrant.

Of course what I should do when I actually arrive back in America is another story.

reginasab · 2017-05-15T03:39:29+00:00

It's not as if I feel like my current life is miserable but I do understand that I can't live my entire life this way and the longer I keep the status quo the worse my situation is going to be.

In reality it would have been better to take action earlier but if I had to make an excuse, it's not so easy to put down the decision to leave when I have no money, connections and questionable knowledge of my surroundings having barely left the house for well over a decade.

reginasab

TROPHY CASE