What a flurry of activity and information the last two weeks have brought us! And the emotional roller coaster has just gotten that much more intense!!

A few days after getting our fiance visa approval letter in the mail, we talked to Nancy, our immigration contact at Rep. Vern Ehlers’ office, who informed us that the Adjustment of Status process (i.e. the process by which an immigrant obtains Lawful Permanent Resident status) had changed yet again. Now rather than being handled through regional consulates and requiring a 90-day wait from time of application, AOS for the entire country is being handled through the National Benefit Center and because of the backlog, can take up to a year. Because employment authorization (EAD) and freedom to leave and re-enter the country (parole) are typically tied to AOS, this means that after we get married it could take up to a year before James would be allowed to get a job or leave the country. Bad news. Nancy did give us some reason to hope that because of this change in the timing of AOS processing, the USCIS may make it easier to get EAD and Advanced Parole separately from AOS. We don’t have solid information on that yet. So whether or not James will be able to go to Greenbelt is still uncertain, as is when he’ll actually be able to work.

Just before James came over two weeks ago and as we were starting to panic because of USCIS’ speedy processing as indicated by their website, James looked up the list of documents that he will need to provide at his American Embassy interview (where he gets the actual visa). The only thing he didn’t already have was a Police Certificate listing all of his arrests and convictions. (That list will be pretty short…) He filed for that immediately on April 13. The information he was able to get at the time indicated that the certificate could take up to 40 days to arrive – which would put him at May 24. And he needed to have it in his possession before he could let the Embassy know that he was ready to schedule his interview. Not really what we wanted to hear.

And then things started happening dramatically more quickly than we could have ever hoped.

The letter from the Nebraska Service Center indicating that our application had been approved and forwarded to the National Visa Center was postmarked April 12 and received by us on April 16. We were told that the NVC processing usually takes 2-4 weeks to process. But on April 26 we got a letter from them (dated April 22) that they had received our information and would be forwarding it to the American Embassy in London. So now we were just waiting for the Police Certificate and word from the Embassy.

I brought James back to O’Hare on April 26 for his flight back to England. It was a really hard goodbye as we really didn’t know how long all this processing would take or when we would see each other again

And then I got a call at 6:45 EDT this morning. It was James telling me that he had gotten the packet from the Embassy this morning. Hooray! And then he called me back 10 minutes later and said, “Promise not to scream in my ear”. His mum had called while we were talking to let us know that the police certificate had arrived!! WOOOHOOO!!!

So now I’ve pulled together most of the documentation needed for the affidavit of support (they need to know that James won’t become a dependent of the state) and will send that off to James ASAP. And as soon as he has his interview date I guess I’ll be going to get a marriage license.

Things haven’t worked out exactly as we’d originally planned. But they are working out somehow. And I guess that’s the important part.

Well, the good news is that James is here (i.e. in the US). Thanks to all of you who sent thoughts and prayers our way! I managed to give myself a momentary heart attack on Wednesday by being in the wrong waiting area for James at the International Arrivals area at O’Hare and thus thought his “where are you” call was a “they aren’t letting me through” call – especially when I couldn’t hear anything of what he was saying and the call was almost immediately dropped. James now tells me that they don’t allow the use of cell phones until you are past customs and immigration. Had I known this earlier, I could have saved myself the heart attack.

The “we’re not quite sure what to do with this” news is that the 2nd Notice of Action from the Nebraska Service Center came through notifying us that our fiance visa petition was approved. We were expecting that when this letter came we would meet it with overwhelming joy, but the timing of it kind of throws things off. We’re still working out exactly what to do from here. Stay tuned for forthcoming information. This does make it likely that we will actually be getting married before October 22, however, there will be something on October 22 and we are going ahead with plans for that.

In October 22 wedding/celebration/whatever it ends up being planning news, we picked up the bridesmaid dresses today (those took 6 1/2 weeks to come in!) and also got all the paper for making the invitations. James is designing those and is doing quite a smashing job of it. I can’t wait to see them put together!

The saga continues. At least now we know that the U.S. wants James. Which is certainly happy news for me. 🙂

As of Friday the NSC’s website said they were processing applications received on or before December 15, 2003. That’s just two days before they received ours. We’ve been reminded that we can’t go by what the website says and that even if they are indeed processing applications received on Dec. 15, it could still well be another month or two before they get to ours.

Nevertheless, it’s been an emotional and draining weekend as both James’ and my thoughts – and conversations – have been full of “what if”? We’ve discussed all sorts of possibilities and eventualities. Another wrench has been thrown into the mix: it takes up to 40 days to obtain the police certificate that James needs to have in his possession in order to get a visa interview appointment with the American Embassy in London. All of this leads to the very unlikeliness of James actually being able to come to the U.S. on May 18 (and he already has purchased that plane ticket) if our application gets approved before then.

The lesson here is that if your plans are dependent in any way on the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, either don’t make plans, or don’t cling to them too tightly.

James is flying to Chicago this Wednesday. If you are a praying person, please pray that Immigration will let him through. Thank you.

Apparently my “Go, Lincoln, go!” cheer worked a little too well. Today their website is reporting that the Nebraska Service Center are processing fiance visa applications received on November 30, 2003.

Which now has me freaking out a little bit. At this rate we could very well get approval before May 18 which would not be good because then either James wouldn’t be able to come for the summer, or if he did he wouldn’t be able to go back for Greenbelt at the end of August (unless he was able to get Advanced Parole which costs a lot to apply for and, we’re told, is a long shot if it’s not an emergency). Neither option is a situation that we’re very thrilled about.

I like surprises and spontaneity in my life but there are some things that I would just to have be a little more predictable.

On pins and needles…

A week ago, the Nebraska Service Center’s website said they were processing I-129f (fiance) visa applications that they received on July 24. It had said July 24 since at least January 26 which is the last time we checked. Today it says that they are now processing applications received on September 30. Ours was received on December 17. While we are not putting all of our trust in the NSC’s website, we are hoping that this at least represents some progress and are taking it – albeit cautiously – as a good sign.

Go, Lincoln, go!! (that’s my inner cheerleader coming out)

*positive vibes being sent toward Lincoln, Nebraska*

I’ve been getting asked a lot lately how things are going with this fiance visa and immigration process. So for those of you playing along at home, here’s an update…

We’ve submitted the fiance visa application to the Nebraska Service Center (NSC) of the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services (which is part of the Dept. of Homeland Security). All we can do right now is wait.

In this regard, I have the great misfortune of living in Michigan. The Vermont Service Center takes about 15-20 days to process fiance visa applications. No one really knows why the NSC takes so long, but they do, and since I live in Michigan, this is the way it is, no doing much about it. The communication from the NSC states that this type of visa application takes 150-180 days to process (about 5-6 months) but it seems that the current timeline is closer to 7-8 months. Since we submitted our application on December 17, eight months would bring us to August which would be cutting things close, but still okay. We’d prefer to get approval in June or July.

What happens once we get approval from the NSC, they send everything over to the US Embassy in London. We get notified that London has received our paperwork and they give us a list of documents that we need to gather together to present to them. Once we have that list completed, we let them know and give them the date by which we would like to have James enter the country. Based on that, they assign us an interview date.

At least that’s the process currently (as we understand it). Things can easily change.

James will be coming here mid-May and staying until the end of July. He’ll be going back to England for the month of August to do his Embassy interview and get the fiance visa, spend time with friends and family before moving over, and participate in Greenbelt. As soon as the US Embassy lets him (we’re hoping it will be by the end of the first week of September), he’ll enter the country on the fiance visa. From that point he won’t be able to leave again until he gets his green card which, if things stay as they are currenlty, will happen about 3 months after our wedding.

And just a bit of trivia. Green card holders are no longer called Resident Aliens. The new official term is Lawful Permanent Resident. No more martian jokes. Sorry.

Disclaimer: We love the USCIS. They are just super. We’ve not had anything but lovely treatment from anyone associated with them and neither have our friends. Just in case you work for the USCIS and found your way here somehow. We’re big fans. Hurrah!

Seriously, I have no complaints about any individual associated with the USCIS – they’re just doing their jobs like you and me – and strongly suspect that my beef is more with the Bush administration and the culture of fear that they have engendered in the United States since 9/11 with things like the Patriot Act and taking photos of every foreigner to enter US soil. (Plus I find it cathartic to just randomly blame things on the Bush administration sometimes. Especially when I’ve been reading Anne Lamott…)

In the past month we’ve found out some more things about recent changes in the immigration process that have blown some of our plans to shite. To start with, James had planned to enter the US in July on a visa waiver, return to the UK in mid-August for Greenbelt and his K-1 Fiance Visa interview at the London Embassy, then enter the US on the fiance visa in early September. Well, we found out – and really this does make sense when you stop to think about it – that James can’t enter the US on the visa waiver in July if the London Embassy already has been notified of our application for the K-1. Which, if timing is similar then to what it is now, they almost certainly will have by mid-July.

So that leaves us with three other options. Either James can arrive in the US before the London Embassy gets our paperwork which would most likely mean leaving his job early. Or he can come in July as planned and skip Greenbelt (which would be nigh torture for him). Or he could stay in the UK until after Greenbelt (which would be nigh torture for me). Not a great choice to have to make.

The other problem is that unlike less than a year ago when couples could go get the greencard (via Adjustment of Status, or AOS) the day after their wedding, now we need to go file for AOS as soon as possible after our wedding and wait 90 days for an interview at which we then would – if all goes well – get James’ greencard. Which means we probably will not be able to go to England as planned for Christmas ’04. The only way that James can leave the country and then reenter after getting married but before getting the greencard is to get Advanced Parole, but we’ve been told they only give those out in emergency situations and also give themselves 90 days to issue those. Which brings us back to where we started. We’ve been strongly advised not to even risk leaving the country until James has his greencard. So while not being able to spend next Christmas with James’ family in England is not the end of the world, it is disappointing.

Sigh…

On the good news side of things, wedding plans are coming along swimmingly. We’ve started registering at a number of stores near you (or maybe not so near, but at least easily accessible online). We’ve reserved a block of rooms at a hotel for our out-of-town guests. (More details about all of that coming soon.) And James has now seen the Post Family Farm and likes it. Just need to send in the deposit and reservation form for that.

And perhaps the best news of all. I found sandals for the wedding that are tres wonderful. I adore them. Now I just need a dress to go with them!

(p.s. the tres above is a reference to Eloise, not me trying to be pretentious. Just in case you rolled your eyes for a second there. Really. 😉 )

The first Notice of Action has been received. The USCIS received our petition for a K-1 Fiance(e) Visa on 17th December 2003. The stationery it was printed on still says “U.S. Department of Justice – Immigration and Naturalization Service.” They need to get their act together.

The letter indicates that this type of petition takes 150 to 180 days to process so we will start looking for the next envelope from the DHS around the end of May-beginning of June.

In the meantime, we continue to make plans and every now and then catch our breath a bit.

Woohoo! The K-1 Fiance visa application is in the mail!! It feels so good to have that off my back. Wow. It was quite a process getting everything together, but with much help from James as well as friends Jenna and Trevor (who are now at the back end of this process) and others, it’s done.

Note to anyone who is doing this: the USCIS website has lots of helpful and detailed information for putting this stuff together.

This morning I brought the whole packet to Nancy O. who works with citizenship and immigration issues at Congressman Vern Ehlers’ office. She looked through it and said it was one of the best put together application packets she had ever seen and thought that we probably have plenty of time to get this all processed in time for an October 22 wedding. She even offered to mail it for me so we could track it. It’s very nice when the U.S. Government pays the postage. 🙂

Now the waiting game begins and we start looking for the first NOA (Notice of Action – this one just telling us that they got it) in the mail.

Our fate is now in the hands of the Department of Homeland Security. How’s that for scary?!?

So James suggested that I might want to add an entry early in this blog for those who stumble across it and don’t know who we are. Here goes…

I’m Kari. I live in Grand Rapids, Michigan. James lives in Reading, England. We’re planning to get married on October 22, 2004 (or if you prefer, 22nd October, 2004).

We met the weekend of March 28-29, 2003 at the Festival of Faith and Music at Calvin College. I work in Admissions at Calvin but also do some work on the side with the Student Activities Office (just because I love it) and had been involved in the planning of the Festival. James has friends in Nashville, and one of his friends there David Dark, who was speaking at the Festival, invited him to come along. Since then we have spent two weeks together (first week of June and third week of September) and kept in touch by email, instant messaging, and daily phone calls. Maintaining a transatlantic relationship is not easy but we’ve decide it’s worth it! We realized pretty early on in our relationship that we were meant to be together for the rest of our lives and decided after James’ September visit that the rest of our lives was going to start “officially” in October 2004.

Because James is a British citizen, there is all kinds of legal stuff that needs to be done in order for us to marry and for him to become a permanent resident (aka get a green card). Some of the websites that we have found helpful in this process:

K1 Visa FAQ

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services

I will (hopefully) be recording much more about this process and about wedding plans on this site as we move along. If you’re curious, keep an eye on this space. Cash contributions may be sent directly to me. Thanks for your time!