More progress today! The State Department's National Visa Center received our approved I-129F visa petition, and is going to send it along to a visa issuing post in Canada within a week. Christine's supposed to get a packet in the mail soon with instructions on applying for her K1 visa (that's the one that gets her in to the states so we can marry). She'll have to go for an interview and has to complete a few other steps, but this is still good news. I'm so pleased that in this time of budget cuts and workforce reductions that the US Customs & Immigration Service seems to be operating as we should expect.
The only interesting part of this letter: it says her case will be processed in Vancouver. Christine lives near Calgary. We noted Calgary on our application as the processing center of choice. Vanvouver is 972 km from Calgary, according to Google Maps. Hmmmm.... I may have to make a phone call to figure this one out...
Monday, March 30, 2009
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Progress!
On Sunday, I opened a letter from US Customs and Immigration Service stating that they'd completed their review of our fiancee visa petition. This doesn't give Christine her visa, but it's one step closer. Once USCIS finished their review, they sent the application along to the National Visa Center and we're supposed to hear from them in 2-4 weeks. Then, it goes along to the US consulate in Calgary where Christine will have to sit for an interview- presumably, they ask all about our relationship and make efforts to verify that we're actually marrying for love and not convenience (which we are- living apart from my partner and fiancee is actually really inconvenient, for a host of reasons I won't go into here).
It was great to see the letter in the mail. I played it cool when I opened it but it did get my heart rate up a little because you have to just wait for the government to contact you during this process. They certainly have thousands of various petitions to review at any given time so that's reasonable I guess, but it makes the waiting a bit longer.
But, we have played by the rules 100% in everything we've done during this process and know that our fairness will be reciprocated throughout the rest of the petition process. And we're excited for the next letter, whenever it comes (please, come soon).
It was great to see the letter in the mail. I played it cool when I opened it but it did get my heart rate up a little because you have to just wait for the government to contact you during this process. They certainly have thousands of various petitions to review at any given time so that's reasonable I guess, but it makes the waiting a bit longer.
But, we have played by the rules 100% in everything we've done during this process and know that our fairness will be reciprocated throughout the rest of the petition process. And we're excited for the next letter, whenever it comes (please, come soon).
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Aw man, I did it again
I've noticed a behavior pattern. I consistently leave huge gaps in this blog, then swear I'll improve at posting, then move right ahead by continuing to suck at posting. And so here we are again with an update of semi-currant news:
- Christine came to Seattle for a week in February, just in time for my birthday. It was the first birthday I've been able to spend with her and it was very cool to have her in my sphere. Plus she made a great designated driver after I got "tricked" into drinking more than I planned, and took very good care of me the next day. Other than that, we had a rightous time together- wedding planning, bike riding, trail running, wine tasting, sleeping in, and an awesome afternoon in West Seattle punctuated by a picnic on the beach. Plus, Horizon Airlines bumped her off her return flight home, so we got one more unplanned night together. We went to Whole Foods, bought beer, went home to watch the Oscars and eat pizza, and laughed so hard our that arms wouldn't work for quite a while.
- Christine's Subaru has a new right side mirror, fog light, some suspension pieces, a bent roof rack, and a really custom paint job after she hit black ice on the highway while going to work and became a passenger in her own car as it went off the road and up on its side. Thank Buddha she wasn't injured beyond general muscle soreness, a result of a mild case of whiplash. She's been receiving physical therapy and theraputic massage, and was back running on the treadmill just over a week later.
Although this whole situation really sucked, there was a fun part: We turned her parents' garage in Calgary into a bodyshop, and spend an entire Saturday (and $64 at Canadian Tire for materials) sanding, masking, priming, painting, and clearcoating parts of the car. And we had a great time doing it together. Christine was in there with me the entire time sanding away and getting dirty, and is definitely better at presicion masking tape work than me. Once we unveiled our work the next day, it was still sort of ugly (our paint match wasn't right) although way better than bare, rusty metal. For working in an unheated garage with one quartz work lamp and a space heater on a ladder to make the primer dry quicker (it was -20 C and blowing snow outside that night), and for doing all the work in about 14 hours, we did really well.
- Wedding planning is a bit brutal right now- we're just not that into it- but we're trying and have regrouped and gotten ourselves back together and on track. We need to pick a caterer really soon, and are doing the best we can while being in different countries. After the catering part is out of the way, I am going to be able to breathe a huge sigh of relief. Going through all these quotes is mind numbing; you can't directly compare any one to another, and they vary by as much as $7000 depending on the complexity and foofiness of the caterer. Mostly, we're just trying to ensure that we get good food for all our guests, and good service so our families don't have to pick up the slack. If we can accomplish that then we'll be in good shape.
- Christine came to Seattle for a week in February, just in time for my birthday. It was the first birthday I've been able to spend with her and it was very cool to have her in my sphere. Plus she made a great designated driver after I got "tricked" into drinking more than I planned, and took very good care of me the next day. Other than that, we had a rightous time together- wedding planning, bike riding, trail running, wine tasting, sleeping in, and an awesome afternoon in West Seattle punctuated by a picnic on the beach. Plus, Horizon Airlines bumped her off her return flight home, so we got one more unplanned night together. We went to Whole Foods, bought beer, went home to watch the Oscars and eat pizza, and laughed so hard our that arms wouldn't work for quite a while.
- Christine's Subaru has a new right side mirror, fog light, some suspension pieces, a bent roof rack, and a really custom paint job after she hit black ice on the highway while going to work and became a passenger in her own car as it went off the road and up on its side. Thank Buddha she wasn't injured beyond general muscle soreness, a result of a mild case of whiplash. She's been receiving physical therapy and theraputic massage, and was back running on the treadmill just over a week later.
Although this whole situation really sucked, there was a fun part: We turned her parents' garage in Calgary into a bodyshop, and spend an entire Saturday (and $64 at Canadian Tire for materials) sanding, masking, priming, painting, and clearcoating parts of the car. And we had a great time doing it together. Christine was in there with me the entire time sanding away and getting dirty, and is definitely better at presicion masking tape work than me. Once we unveiled our work the next day, it was still sort of ugly (our paint match wasn't right) although way better than bare, rusty metal. For working in an unheated garage with one quartz work lamp and a space heater on a ladder to make the primer dry quicker (it was -20 C and blowing snow outside that night), and for doing all the work in about 14 hours, we did really well.
- Wedding planning is a bit brutal right now- we're just not that into it- but we're trying and have regrouped and gotten ourselves back together and on track. We need to pick a caterer really soon, and are doing the best we can while being in different countries. After the catering part is out of the way, I am going to be able to breathe a huge sigh of relief. Going through all these quotes is mind numbing; you can't directly compare any one to another, and they vary by as much as $7000 depending on the complexity and foofiness of the caterer. Mostly, we're just trying to ensure that we get good food for all our guests, and good service so our families don't have to pick up the slack. If we can accomplish that then we'll be in good shape.
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