a little update

Right now we are working on the Visa application, which I was told will be 3 months (from day I mail it in) to even process it. Which means we are looking at May before a cheerful immigrations agent pulls Nicks application out of the endless files of other visa applications.

I called the Immigrations helpline for clarification of some issues, and they seemed to know less than I did.

First, I asked what the instructions for the I-129F form meant when they asked for "original documents stating intent to marry".

"Where is that?" the voice on the phone asks. So I tell her where. She reads it. "Original documents... well I guess that means you write something that says you want to marry each other, I don't know."

Okaaaaayyyy... This is not good.

Then I had a more comoplicated question. Like that would get an answer. I had wanted to know if we could get married in England, go on our honeymoon, and could he enter on his fiancee visa.

The girl I was talking to said, no, wait and file after you marry. And I asked her how that would work, when we arrived in the US and he has no visa.

"Well, you have to have a visa to be allowed entry!" she exclaims.

"Well, then it won't work to apply AFTER WE GET MARRIED, will it?" I ask her.

"No, I guess not," she says. I can picture her right now. She was probably filing her nails and skimming a Cosmo magazine while she was talking to me.

So I pressed futher -- I asked her then, if it would work to enter with the fiancee visa (if we were married).

"Yeah, but you'll have to file for change of status," she tells me.

But she sounds confused, and I am more confused after talking to her, so I call again the next day.

After being on hold for 25 minutes, a woman with a pronounced southern accent comes on the line. I tell her the situation, and she rattles off the rules like C-3PO. This is what you do for blah and blah, and if you are married you file, blah and blah, please look at our website for more instructions, and do you want to order the visa forms, and have I helped you today?" She sounds pained to have to be speaking to a yankee, and I almost feel like I should apologize. But not quite.

Instead, I told her I had looked at the website, and had the forms in front of me; which is why I was calling with questions about the form.

I did learn, through the hostility seeping through the phone, that the I-129F visa (fiancee visa) were taking about 3 months to process -- the immigrations people were working on cases that were filed 3 mos. ago. AND, the petition for alien relative (the visa for the husband that miss helpful from the first call told me cheerily to file for after we got married) was back TWO YEARS. Yeah, sure, like I want to get married and then have to wait two years to get re-united. Well, okay, we could file for the fiancee visa to get him here sooner, but that would still take three months, which is a LONG separation after you just got married. Not MY idea of a honeymoon. So after I find this out, I say, oh so brightly (like the fact isn't obvious).

"Well, I guess it's better to have him arrive on Fiancee visa and get married here, isn't it!"

She is not in the mood for friendly chit-chat; she sounds like she'd rather spit in my face than speak to me any more than she has to and says again, tersly, "Yes, I suppose. If I have helped you with everything, ma'am please visit our website for more information."

*sigh* Eat my grits, lady!!!!

Who hires these people anyway? Its a help line and they don't know any more than I do about the forms (except how loooong it takes, which the first one failed to mention).

So here I am now, having read and re-read the instructions about 5 times -- and I think I know what I'm doing. But pray -- we need all the help we can get. I don't wanna have to postpone my wedding.

Anyway, once we hear word on the visa, I'll feel alot better.