After several interactions with the Human Resources department at Glasgow, it appears that my best option is to reapply for a fresh Tier 1 visa.
These are the complications: I’ve already sent in the documents I had gathered for the previous application; I now have to gather a new set, plus the one bit of information my last application lacked. I have to cancel my flight to Glasgow that was scheduled for Sunday (would have been perfect, if my visa had in fact been approved). I have to obtain a fresh set of biometric data, much more difficult from here on Nantucket (I don’t know yet where the biometrics recording sites are in this area; I think that section of the application only appears once I’ve filled out the rest, which I haven’t yet for reasons I’ll get to in a bit). Assuming I were to fill out the application here and go to the mainland and arrange transportation to the relevant biometrics center, I don’t expect to be based on-island for the additional week or ten days until the visa comes through.
But where will I be? And should I go there immediately, and get my biometrics recorded from someplace more convenient, and closer to a theological library (where I could do some course prep)? It matters especially because I have to apply for the visa — the first step in the process — with a site to which they’ll mail the (heaven permitting) visa already determined. Nantucket has neither a library nor convenient net access (for research and for consulting colleagues by email), although that could be managed. Durham would require additional transportation costs and leaving Margaret and Pip behind before I actually leave for Glasgow. Most other in-between locations involve transportation issues or expenses of one kind or another.
So that’s where it is. Sometime today, probably, we’ll have to make a series of somewhat arbitrary decisions among contingent variables to rig up minimally-workable plan of action for visa-obtaining and Glasgow-traveling, with maximal opportunity for productive pedagogical activity in the interim (acquainting myself with Glasgow in advance seems out of the question).
Sheez! What a bizarre experience. I suspect its experiences like this that make people leery of having public health care… still, good luck and best wishes!
Union has the best theological library in the hemisphere. Plus, it has free housing for internationally-known New Testament scholars. Just saying.