Page 74 of Paradigm

“I lost my job yesterday. They let me go with some of the other employees, but none of them were on work visas like I am.”

“What? You just got there.”

“I know. I got a little severance money, but not much, and–”

“We’ll send you money. How much do you need?” her mom asked.

“I’m all right for the moment. It’s not the money. I am more worried about staying here. My visa expires in sixty days. Well, less than that now, and I have ten days after that as some grace period before I’d get in trouble for not leaving.”

“I just don’t understand… You haven’t been there that long. Why would they terminate your employment?” her dad asked.

“They had a pretty big issue that wasn’t my fault, but it cost them a lot of money, and they were already going to let go of some people before that. They’re restructuring, and my old boss is going to lead my team now that I’m gone, so they told me they couldn’t keep me on.”

“Oh, Eline… I’m sorry,” her mom said.

“Me too. I feel like I was starting to like it there a little more recently, but it doesn’t matter now. I have to focus on what to do next.”

“Well, you can come home,” her mom suggested.

“I just got here.”

“I know that, but you went there for work, and you don’t have that work any longer, so you can come home now.”

“I don’t want to come home, mom. That’s the problem.”

“Why not? You can find a job here. Your father and I can even help if we need to, but you have far more connections here than there.”

Eline cleared her throat and said, “I like it here. I want to stay.”

“But why? Your friends and family are all here. Truthfully, I didn’t understand why you wanted to move there in the first place.”

“I thought it would be a fresh start, and I wanted that for myself.”

“You can have another one of those here.”

“Let’s talk about what she needs now if she does want to stay,” her father suggested. “We need to respect her wishes, even if we don’t understand them.”

“Thank you,” Eline said with a little smile. “If I do end up having to come or move home, I might have to stay with you while I look for a new job and place to live. I just–”

“Of course, you can stay here,” her mom interrupted. “I’ll make sure your old room is ready for you. Just say when.”

“I hope I won’t need it, but just in case I do, I wanted to know that it was all right.”

“What if you stay? You only have sixty days?” her dad asked.

“Yes, plus the ten extra days. I don’t want to use them if I don’t have to, though. If I get to the airport to fly home on an expired visa, they might have questions for me, or it could be an issue, and I don’t want that.”

“We’ll work with the sixty days, then,” her mom said.

“I suppose it’s really more like fifty-eight or fifty-nine. I don’t know if it starts yesterday or today because, technically, I was still employed as of yesterday. I’m just going to plan for fifty-eight. They gave me access to an attorney for a few hours, and I’ve emailed him already to see if he can help me file for an extension. If that’s granted, I could stay a little longer, but I can’t count on that, so I’m also looking for new jobs. I’ve been at it all morning, and I haven’t found anything yet that explicitly states that they’d hire someone they would have to sponsor, and when you fill out the applications, they specifically ask if you would require that, so I know if I check that box, I’m not likely to get an interview.”

“Your best bet sounds like that extension and to work on applying for a green card if you can,” her dad said.

“I have to see if I’m eligible, and it could take months. I didn’t look into it before because I wasn’t sure whether I’d stay, and my work visa was for three years. I thought I’d apply before it was up.”

“Well, the extension for your work visa, then. I’m sure they’ll grant it, given what happened,” her dad replied.

“I hope so, but even if they do, I don’t know how long they’ll extend it for, so I might still have to come home.”