Its Finally My Turn

[All4Kweku 0]

Greetings all...

After much stress of packing up our house, selling things and the nightmare experiences with the travel agent (MERCURY TRAVEL--is Osu--beware beware beware), the three of us arrived home safe and sound...We have hit the ground running, spending the last few days organizing, cleaning my house (I'd been in ghana 8 months, had some renovations done while i was away--and my mother can't handle all of the house stuff by herself), putting together stuff from ikea and grinning and smiling through all the exhaustion. My husband thinks "America is gorgeous", my son said philadelphia was "too too quiet" and all in all, we have just been overeating, laughing and just moon eyes over each other along with a barrage of people through the house to welcome us all. There is already a birthday party in the works for my son next month. My husband is chomping at the bit, can't wait for his social security card to come in the mail so he can work, my son has some down time until school starts and all in all, I am just happy happy happy happy happy!

[Zee Bee 61]

Great to hear

Congratulations!!!

[Kanyiri 0]

YAY!! I'm glad everything is going so well! I hope the SS# comes soon so that he can start to work. I think that was the hardest part for my husband.

Is Mercury travel still the guy with the metallic colored car? We had good experiences with him when we were there. He was just starting out and very helpful. Stinks that he isn't anymore because now I wouldn't know who to use.

[ara 0]

Congratulations!

[Yaads 0]

I remember hearing your story and struggle from way back when. My heart was so happy to read this post and know that you finally got through after all this time. CONGRATULATIONS!!! You deserve this so much. Glad you made it to the US safe and sound. This is so wonderful

[Destiny'sJourney 0]

Congratulations!!

[LovinLiberia 0]

I'm so glad you guys made it home safely. Sounds like you all are having a lot of fun!

[All4Kweku 0]

YAY!! I'm glad everything is going so well! I hope the SS# comes soon so that he can start to work. I think that was the hardest part for my husband.

Is Mercury travel still the guy with the metallic colored car? We had good experiences with him when we were there. He was just starting out and very helpful. Stinks that he isn't anymore because now I wouldn't know who to use.

All my experiences with mercury travel (up until the most recent one) had been positive. If we are talking about the same guy, he has a lemon yellow car as well as a gold colored metallic peugeot. I was very disappointed with Dinesh's level of professionalism (or lack thereof) when the international wire for the funds was bungled in the correspondent bank account when he didn't give clear instructions. He literally screamed at me (in his office, in front of all the staff and a costumer--i left frustrated and nearly in tears) he claimed it was my fault that the money did not arrive in accra. then after that was sorted (the actual day of our flight), he went to klm to pick up the tickets and was told that the reservation was canceled because he used bogus booking codes when he originally booked the tickets. we ended up having to pay extra money to fly out on alitalia that day( horrrrrible flight service from accra to rome, by the way) or we would have to wait another five days to fly out on klm at the same price. the other option he gave was for us to fly emirates--meanwhile he's telling us this information at 3pm and the emirates flight was taking off at 5 pm! so we ended up paying more for the alitalia flight because we were living our of suitcases at a hotel and we couldn't afford to wait it out for the cheaper klm flight five days later. plus, my family was too too excited to wait any longer....the whole thing was a mess, but thank god we're here!

[zetku 0]

woooohooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

i was just thinking about you and loves recently, wow. i haven't been on vj for awhile so this great news to read. i'm so happy for you, you deserve all the happiness in the world. watch out Philly!!!

peace and love!!!!

[Tamikuti7 0]

Greetings and Salutations everyone,

Over the last three years I have tread this visa journey, I have made many friends in this forum. Its been so long that most of you don't even know peglibr, kanyiri and some of the other "old timers" I initially suffered with. But this post is to for each and everyone who has watched, lurked and waited for my journey to complete. I have suffered and ached with sympathy (for myself and others). I have also celebrated and triumphed with other people’s successes while patiently (and sometimes impatiently) waiting for my own. Well friends, I finally have my success to share! From the wonderful timeline regarding updates and case progressions posted by zee, my husband and (step) son did indeed have their interviews on July 14th. During that interview, we were told to bring additional documents regarding my son’s case yesterday. Well, all glory to the Most High God Almighty, because that is the only reason we were delivered a victory.

When we arrived, we deposited out appointment letter at window number two and proceeded to wait three hours. Since my husband had been sick the previous appointment (on the 14th) the officer/secretary who collects all the documents, asked after his health when she saw him on Wednesday (she knows us very well, after seeing us come and go the last three years at the old embassy offices, as well as the new). My husband complained that the wait was frustrating. She told him to have a seat and less than five minutes later, their names were called to see a female CO. The original CO who handled our case was interviewing someone else, but he smiled when he saw us. I have to admit that I was somewhat surprised at the good natured manner that we were approached by the different officers and workers, which was a marked contrast to the attitude and behavior of COs/guards at the old Embassy in Osu. After we handed the new documents to the CO handling the case, she proceeded to explain how our documents were insufficient, again and how we need to get yet another letter. My husband was furious. He said, why is it that when we want to know where we need to go to collect these various documents, no one seems to know, but when we finally hunt them down and bring them back, you can always tell us that we don’t have the right document or should have gone to a different place? The woman did get a little attitude then and explained again why we needed to secure another document regarding my son’s ability to travel out of Ghana. She was already getting ready to put the documents we brought back through the slot, and fill the yellow paper (requesting additional evidence, yet again) when she noticed our original CO walking nearby. The woman CO who was speaking with us then said, let me see those papers again, go have a seat. After a few brief minutes, she called us back to the window and said she had good news to share. She said she consulted with some of her colleagues, and she realized that we had a special case and then concluded that all of our documents were sufficient. She then asked for their passports and reached over the yellow paper to retrieve a blue slip. I simply beamed, and Thanked God. I’ve seen enough pink, yellow and blue papers over the last three years escorting my family to interviews to know exactly what every single one of them means. I asked, so how soon can we come? They are scheduled to pick up their visas on Friday, August 1. My mother always says, “God only brings you to it, to bring you through it”. I have been affirmed yet again, that God is my champion. I know Ghana is notorious for taking their time in printing visas, but as far as that blue paper is in my hand, I have no doubts. We practically skipped out of the Embassy, almost forgetting to pick up our cell phones at security and came to Osu to have lunch and celebrate. It was only when we reached home that I fell to my knees, thanked the Most High for answering my prayers and cried tears of relief and gratitude. I have often felt fortunate that I spend extended periods of time in Ghana with my family, but I know nothing compares to the joys of having my family with me in the US. Once they pick up their visas, we will begin to make travel arrangements and we should all fly back to the US together.

I will keep you posted on the happenings. I apologize for not providing more details regarding the interview. Since many of my bumps on this visa journey relate to sensitive issues regarding a child, I don’t feel comfortable sharing them in an open forum. Just know that one of the first thoughts that came to my mind as we left the Embassy on Wednesday was, “I am finally going to have my own WE GOT IT thread to post in VJ Africa forum”. I feel such peace….

Now off to sell everything in this house, sort our tickets, pack and get out of here in the next two weeks!

This brings to mind a question—I forgot to bring my credit cards to Accra so I have no way to purchase our tickets home. For those of you (in the US) who bought your significant other’s tickets, how did you work that out? Are there any travel agents/airlines that will allow you to purchase tickets in the US for travel originating in Ghana? My family (in the US) is willing to buy the tickets, but none of the travel agents I’ve spoken to (in Accra) will allow third-party purchases without the actual credit card because of all the high incidents of fraud. Any suggestions? Just in case I’m not the last to know, I though I’d share—KLM does not require transit visas for visa holders traveling to the US anymore. That’s another plus.

I have been so pleased that things in this forum have returned to the levels of positivity from when I first joined VJ. I went "underground" and have been around lurking for quite some time, but after some discouraging PMs and post comments a while ago, I stopped really sharing in the forum. Thank you all for making this a welcoming place again and I will be sure to be around more often!

Wooo-hoo :dance: :star:

OH MY GOODNESS! I was just wondering what happened with your case, let's say yesterday. I just so happened to decide to browse around and see what I missed on this forum, and WHAM! I am ECSTATIC for you and your family. Great big lonnng hugs for you!!

[Perseverance 1]

:thumbs: