We had eight weddings on the docket last summer/fall (including our own) and this year is shaping up to be just as full of weddings…

We got phone calls today from both my sister Dana and James’ best man John sharing with us the happy news that they had each gotten engaged this weekend (Dana to Pete – a very welcome addition to our family – and John to the wonderful Emma). Both of them are looking at dates in September, which is looking to be a very busy month for us. If you’re thinking about scheduling a wedding for this year, could you avoid September please? Thanks. 🙂

Congrats to Dana & Pete and John & Emma!

As James has already blogged, we at long last have a Permanent Residency interview date!

The very quick processing of James’ Employment Authorization got our hopes up that the Permanent Residency process would also be expedient. Our receipt letter had stated that Permanent Residency processing was taking 120-180 days. In actuality, from the time they received our petition (June 29, 2004) to the day we got our Notice of Action letter (February 3, 2005), it took 219 days. Our interview will be on April 19 (another 75 days). And there’s no telling how long after that we’ll have to wait to get the actual green card. A Permanent Residency petitioner used to get an “Approved” passport stamp at the interview which allowed for travel out of the country in the intervening time while waiting for the actual green card to arrive. We’re not exactly sure what the procedure is now, and at the rate things in this racket change, even if we knew how they were doing things now, there’s no guarantee that they would still happen that way in 2 1/2 months.

Still, we’re better off than our friends Jenna and Trevor in Nashville who are looking at more than 2 1/2 half years wait for their permanent residency interview. The fact that processing times in different states vary by that much is absolutely indefensible. Trevor and Jenna are working with their congressman and starting a letter writing campaign. If you’re interested in helping out, let me know and I can get you in touch with them.

James and I are now considering a trip to England in late May but much depends on finances (i.e. what kind of work James can get … need someone to do web development??) and also whether we’re up for taking the risk of purchasing flights before the permanent residency interview.

As always, stay tuned and we’ll keep you posted. Maybe.