Visa – it’s everywhere you want to be. Unless you want to be together.

Ahhhh – the visa process! Well, we are less than a week into it and I can’t believe how much we have learned.

First of all, that this will take much longer than previously thought. And this would have been the case whether or not he decided to move here or I there. It’s my fault, I should have started doing this back in March when he asked me to marry him. Oh well – too late now, we will just have to deal with it I suppose.

So the first thing we have to do is send in a petition. This is me petitioning the government for Simon to be allowed to apply for a K-1 visa – or a fiancé visa as it is also called. We have to make copious copies of stuff: passports, birth certificates, plane tickets, letters, phone records, emails, photographs, etc. We have to prove that we have met in person in the past two years and that the relationship is legitimate and strong.

Then I send this in and it goes to a processing center in Nebraska. Never mind that the Chicago office is closer to Detroit. Nebraska is where they tell me I must go. Ok – so we will. So Nebraska gets my packet and sits on it for three months while they process the backlog of other requests that they haven’t gotten to yet. They finally get to it and send me a notice that they have done their “thang” whatever that might be.

Nebraska sends it to another place – not quite sure where this is. They do their “thang” with it, and send me another notice that it is being sent to the consulate in London. This is a big event when this happens!!!!! This means that Simon will soon be called for his visa interview soon!! We assemble yet another packet of STUFF. This one will contain everything we sent the first time, and this time will also include originals of everything, as well as letters from people stating that we are still in the same wonderful, stable relationship as before, and all that. I will also have to prove that I can support him when he gets here and that he will not become a public charge.

Then the big interview. I don’t envy him this one bit. He will go in person before a person at the consulate and present his packet of STUFF. They will go through it with a fine tooth comb, asking him bunches of questions about us.

Then we wait.

And hopefully, not too much longer after, we find out if he has a visa or not. Chances are pretty good that it will go well, but one can never tell where the government is concerned.
Once he gets the visa – he has 90 days to get to America and get married to ME!!!! YAY!!!

Soooo – long story made short – the chances of us having an April 22 wedding are pretty slim. But at this point I can’t even begin to think of a wedding. It’s the least of my concerns. Right now all I want is to get him here for a visit at Christmas, and all the while work on this visa thing and get it all approved.

I’m sure you are thinking…what about all those people who just come over here and get married? They don’t have to go through all that mess. Well – without going into too much detail, yes, they may do that and get away with it. We will, however, be following the immigration laws as set forth by the USCIS. They are telling us what to do – and that’s what we are doing. There are no short cuts for us, only the K-1 visa route. Sure, we could have him just come over here and stay, but that’s not how we will be doing things. Sometimes the right way is the hard way. Oh well.

~Liza