Yesterday morning, I was on the phone to my beloved, also known as the Red Dirt Girl, who I met through leaving a comment on a blogpost, who, without knowing it, sparked me to start this thing, and we were discussing the lamentably slow process for getting permission for me to move to the U.S. and marry her.
It's not as easy as it looks in the movies, where someone just jumps on a plane and lives happily ever after.
We've been on this journey a long time, the paperwork is slowly, slowly, working its way through the governmental digestive system.............
Suddenly, on the phone, I hear a squeal, and for a while she's incoherent. "We're approved!"
She's doing a Snoopy dance of pure joy.
She's just dialled our tracking number into the USCIS status checking box on their website.
" Post Decision Activity: On June 19, 2013, we mailed you a notice
that we have approved this I129F PETITION FOR FIANCE(E). "
It's not over yet, but the biggest mountain is behind us. Now I wait for an interview date, and another pack of forms for the U.S. embassy in London. I have to have a medical and be inspected, a week or so before the interview date.
Looking at other people's experiences on the very helpful and huge 'Visajourney.com' website, it looks like that interview could be in about two months time.
For so long, we've been in limbo, no idea, for month after month when the paperwork would actually hit the desk and we'd hear what the next stage was... It could have been approval, it could be RFE, which means a request for further evidence, and more months of anxiety, or it could be..... the thing everybody fears most, denial.
Now there's a light at the end of the tunnel. A light that was not there a couple of days ago. I don't think it's a train coming the other way, I think it's sunlight, I think we'll be together soon.
So, that's why I'll be smiling all day today too.
Please feel free to smile all day too, I have so much happiness that you should have some too. Take a basket of light with you, and thank you, my friends, for being patient with me, through this journey!
Smile!
tinker, baker, cabinet maker .... or mess around in clay:
ReplyDelete~ yes, i will give you all my tomorrows
~ yes, i will marry you
HAPPILY
xxxxx!!!
XXXX!
DeleteWooooooooooooHooooooooooooooooooooooo!
ReplyDeleteI hope the 2 months are 2 weeks.
Unless you have smallpox, TB or ask 'How did you get on in Vietnam.....?'
I'm practicing my Arlo Guthrie Group 'W' bench re-enactment.
DeleteAny way, singling out smallpox would be sizeist. What if I had a big pock?
DeleteI love the middle verse of the Tim Hardin, and I'm very happy for you guys!
ReplyDeleteYou're just showing off.
DeleteTim Hardin....
I didn't know it was his song. So many people recorded it, its origins bypassed me.
Congrats, you kids! I know what the waiting is like because my beloved and I went through it ourselves. But it's a done deal now, just a few more weeks or months. And don't sweat the interview at all. The agents are trained to spot sex traffickers but are also pretty good at spotting loving couples giddy with joy at finally being together. I got such a kick looking at the inch-thick stack of evidence carefully prepared and indexed by the immigration attorney I hired. What a gross misapplication of resources!
ReplyDeleteSo happy for you guys!
Thank you Dave, of all the people out there, you're the guy I know who's been there, the one who knows how it truly feels to have your life, your love, fed into the crusher, and dragged into the darkness of the machine.
DeleteOnce its in there, there's no feedback for months, looking at the spray-painted outer box of the machine gives no clues, listen carefully? no noise. No sound of gears, no whirring, is that good or bad? Is it doing anything, ---- has the paper slipped down the back? Is it limbo? Oh F*@K! has the fuse blown?
Well. dial in the number you've been given. it shrugs, says "Don't mess with me. Your petition is in there somewhere. Don't ask any questions, go away. Don't touch that dial!"
So you back off for another month or two. The machine sits there. Silent. No flashing lights.
One morning you get a message. "I've given it to another machine, because I was too busy."
You look at machine No.2. Same. No flashing lights, no noise.
At least you can't hear shredder-blades. Is that good, or bad?
Someone on the internet says "Machine 2 doesn't do that type of work, it'll need to be reconfigured".
Someone else says "I called my congressman, he says wait six months before asking."
Schroedinger is conflicted as he cruises by the cat-food aisle in Wal-Mart.
His cat's in the machine too. Alive? Or dead? or, potentially both at the same time?
We nod at each other, recognising torment.
Where is the fast-forward button?
When do we get to press 'PLAY'?
All the best
ReplyDeletexx gz
Congratulations! Since the Americans already know everything about you the interview will be easy.
ReplyDeleteohhhhhh :)
ReplyDelete