I know, I know…I keep saying this…I am TERRIBLE at journaling, why would I ever think I could keep up a blog…but I am determined to get better at this…call it my new “school year” resolution. J
Just thought that tonight I would give a little update on how the process is going along.
Let’s just start from the beginning…
1: Mid March 2011 – On my trip to the UK in March Matt and I finished filling out the petition paperwork and gathered the remaining items I needed to send in.
2: Early April – I receive a letter in the mail saying they have received my petition and give us a case number to follow online.
3: March 29th – I mailed in a petition form I-129f to the USCIS requesting that Matt, my fiancé, be granted permission to file paperwork for a fiancé visa to enter the US to get married.
4: We wait…and were told we could wait up to 5 months…so counting out it looked like the earliest we might hear anything would be end of August.
5: June 29th – I travel back to the UK to spend 2 ½ weeks with Matt on my summer break.
6: June 30th – We got a RFE, a Request for Evidence, stating that we needed to send in more evidence that we had met in person. A bit ironic…because when I got the letter in the mail I was actually over in the UK on my third trip visiting him there and our 4th time together. I was completely overwhelmed. I was a bit emotional, to say the least. A few tears were shed. Here I was doing what they requested evidence for and I can’t do anything about it. The letter was also stuck in the post office in St Paul because I had had my mail held for the time I was gone. A few calls home, a quick change on the postal services website to stop my mail hold, a trip by mom to the house and the letter read to me over the phone very late one evening in the UK and we determined that it appears that the copies of the plane ticket stubs didn’t have the year on them, only the month and date and that didn’t prove that we had met in person within the last 2 years.
7: July 18th – I return home to the US.
8: July 20th – I overnight the new proof of evidence to the USCIS.
9: We wait…but not too long this time…only a week…
10: July 29th – As I sit in a workshop at a conference I check my email and there is a message saying we have been APPROVED! And what can I do there…I am ecstatic! I can hardly sit still. I want to scream and jump up and down, but I don’t think that is very professional. And problem is…it’s 8:00pm in MN, making it 2:00am in the UK…I send Matt a text and call my family! Step 1 = complete.
11: We wait…again…while the USCIS send the paperwork to the NVC, from California to Massachusetts.
12: A couple weeks later we call the NVC and get our new number. Matt then calls the medical center in London and gets a date for his medical exam, August 30th.
13: We continue to wait for Matt to get a letter from the Embassy in London telling him that the paperwork has been received and what he needs to do next.
14: August 30th – Matt travels to London…not an easy trip, but he makes it and has his medical and travels back home to Bradford. (Read his entry earlier on this adventurous day.)
15: August 31st – Matt has a letter from the Embassy saying that have received his paperwork (my petition) and requests additional paperwork to be filled out and returned ASAP.
16: September 2nd – Matt mails in the new paperwork to the Embassy and we begin the waiting process for the next letter telling him when his interview is.
17: And we wait…
18: And we wait…
19: And we wait…
Now…3 weeks might not seem that long to most, but when you are trying to plan when one of you is going to move to a different country, when your family members will be available for a small, private ceremony, when to schedule in some premarital counseling, when life as you know it will change completely and you won’t have to sit in front of a computer to talk to your Love every day, three weeks sure seems like a life time.
And I feel on edge…I pray everyday for peace and for the strength to get through that day with possibly no answer. You wake up every morning hoping that today is the day that single piece of paper will arrive in the post giving a date. And then mid day, MN time, you find out it hasn’t arrived…again…and the waiting process begins again.
It’s hard to know. Hard to know if they actually received your paper work. Hard to know if it’s being processed. Hard to know if we will actually be able to make the deadlines we have set together for when Matt will move over here.
We have called the Embassy and State Department several times and get the same answers, “things haven’t been processed, London is one of the busiest embassies in the world, they are backed up there right now, don’t make any plans, don’t pay for anything, don’t buy any tickets, don’t put down any money, call back next week.” Every person I have spoken to there has been so friendly and helpful, but the waiting and not knowing is incredibly stressful.
We know that we are in God’s hands (as well as the US Governments) and that in time things will happen. Matt will get that piece of paper with that single date and time, have his interview, get the visa and then move over here. We just don’t know when…being a planning kind of person this is just killer…
And again…we wait…
And while we wait I’ll pray for peace & patience…
And I’ll try to get better at putting up more posts in the blog…
I’ll spend some more time on the computer talking with Matt…
I’ll direct a new show in the RAMS Theatre…
I’ll rake some leaves and get ready for a MN winter…
I’ll Clean & organize the house for Matt to move over…
I’ll spend time with family and friends…
And hopefully within all that waiting that single piece of paper with a date and time will arrive, more paperwork will be filled out and mailed to the UK, an interview will be had, a visa stamp will be given, and then the sweetest thing will happen…Matt will move to the US and we will start our new life together. No computer screens, no vacations to visit each other, no more time apart…no more waiting…
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