February 2010 Filers -- I-129F -- VSC

[solmarc 7]

Kharkovpoacher... let me tell you that that donkey didnt stop, wasnt my fault, he was jumping into anything that had a skirt... but did you notes' the midget learned how to dance bachata? have a safe trip, and return with Vika with you...

Lohn sorry about your mom, the doctors haven't said anything of what happen?

Leslie i got home, the car was found... We are in the same waiting, I wanna know, What are they doing up there that they dont give me an interview? i have a month and a half almost without any exercise!!!!

We have a storm in the caribbean area, so is been raining three days, and lighnings, thunders, really fun, lol... i got home from my job and planning to stay home, make pina coladas, so easy to make, if any of you want to try the recipe let me know... promise no alcohol, i learn my lesson, at least for this week...

Uk i got this bachelorette party invitations, so SEX and the City, lol... i have no idea when is going to be, how is going to be and where, but got the invitations, i have to be positive...

Yeee, i feel lonely around here, where is the love?

Edited July 18, 2010 by solmarc

[kharkovpoacher 4]

I made it to Kyiv okay. All baggage, driver, and Veka at the airport. Settled into apartment, went shopping. We are doing medical tomorrow. Let me tell you what. A little warm here, but no humidity. After dinner Veka wanted to take me on my mandatory walk. I've got an idea. I will sit at a kiosk under a tent and watch you and other ladies walk. Guess what, I went for the walk. Good note, darn bathrobe stayed in Kharkov. Have a good one people. I will bring yall good news.

[SandT 0]

Congrats Lohninck!

I haven't had time to catch up on the thread, maybe in a few days..we're getting on a train shortly en route to the interview, fingers and EVERYTHING are crossed!!

Hope everyone has had or has a smooth journey.

[solmarc 7]

Congrats Lohninck!

I haven't had time to catch up on the thread, maybe in a few days..we're getting on a train shortly en route to the interview, fingers and EVERYTHING are crossed!!

Hope everyone has had or has a smooth journey.

SandT fingers cross for you tomorrow that everything goes smooth... give Us the good news soon!!!

[Lohninck 2]

Congrats Lohninck!

I haven't had time to catch up on the thread, maybe in a few days..we're getting on a train shortly en route to the interview, fingers and EVERYTHING are crossed!!

Hope everyone has had or has a smooth journey.

Thank you! And thank you, solmarc, for sympathy for my Mom. She's doing much better now. I spent most of this hot day in the pool, yummmm. The Geordies have adjusted to the heat and have definitely embraced the love for pools as well. Tomorrow we're going to Six Flags and on Tuesday we're going to Atlantic City, woo hoo!

I hope soooooo hard that Peter gets his passport back tomorrow and then we can finally buy plane tickets. I'll work the pole before I go to bed tonight.. let's see if it works.

[ukprincessemx 0]

Congrats Lohninck!

I haven't had time to catch up on the thread, maybe in a few days..we're getting on a train shortly en route to the interview, fingers and EVERYTHING are crossed!!

Hope everyone has had or has a smooth journey.

Good luck guys !!!

Cant wait to read your post telling us that everything went well and your on your way back....together

Huggles Em x

[ukprincessemx 0]

christina, have fun....say hello to my fellow UK citizens, hugs to your mom...hope she is doing well....cant have the mother of the bride getting ill now....she would miss out on the candy buffet lol. I hope Peters visa arrives...the guest have started arriving before the groom lol....bless him. Big hugs, Im just so pleased for you....even more so when the visa gets to him lol.

Poacher....pleased that you and your luggage made it in one piece...ohhh and that the robe stayed behind he he he. Good luck again....Cant wait to read that you guys passed everything!!

Solmarc....I hope that you get your long awaited date this week....along with Leasie....and Nancy gets her NOA 2....good luck to all that are waiting around for some damn thing or another.

[kharkovpoacher 4]

Did medical today. Pain in the butt, now it is over. Enjoying the pivos here. Time to head on a boat cruise. Tomorrow is the interview. Should be no problem. Take care y'all.

[solmarc 7]

christina, have fun....say hello to my fellow UK citizens, hugs to your mom...hope she is doing well....cant have the mother of the bride getting ill now....she would miss out on the candy buffet lol. I hope Peters visa arrives...the guest have started arriving before the groom lol....bless him. Big hugs, Im just so pleased for you....even more so when the visa gets to him lol.

Poacher....pleased that you and your luggage made it in one piece...ohhh and that the robe stayed behind he he he. Good luck again....Cant wait to read that you guys passed everything!!

Solmarc....I hope that you get your long awaited date this week....along with Leasie....and Nancy gets her NOA 2....good luck to all that are waiting around for some damn thing or another.

Loh, i am really close to my mom, even when we had an argument this morning about a stupid thing, like always, but she is my everything... So i know how hard that moment was for you...

Uk, Honey is calling this morning, fingers cross again...lol.

My kitty, i call her mumucha (the first time i called her like that i meant muchacha (that means girl in english) but i paraphrased it i guess and said that) she woke me up this morning, she doesn't understand i am off... after my father called from Spain and made me get up, he is soooo happy Spain won the World Cup, and then the argument with mom, thank God was over the phone, i could hung up, because i wouldn't be on the computer, she would be yelling at me still... long story about Mom, so not talking about it, less say i want to apologize and it wasn't my fault, but she is always right, like customers.

In a positive note, was up SANDT, tell Us we are waiting!!!!

[SandT 0]

No sleep at all for T, and very little for me, I swear they put the wrong train wheels on (they swap crossing from Belarus into Poland and elsewhere into the EU, slightly different track sizes). That ride was LOUD. Boarding the train was entertaining; I had my passport replaced some time ago, and now have a stack of Belarusian Visas, including what OVIR told us wouldn't be done, a double entry Visa for over 30 days. The train Passport control seems to also never have seen a US Passport before; he kept rubbing it between his fingers, like the paint might come off or something. Went to the station at 1:15am, through customers, on train and moving around 2:40am, in Warsaw around 6:30am, or so.

Going through BY then PL customs on the train itself was pretty painless, although I swear one of the two should change their uniforms, I started speaking (minor) Russian to the PL customs officer who came into our cabin, before being told I was using the wrong language. Oops. Exhausted when we got off the train in Warsaw, I found a luggage locker and just locked it there, to annoy us less in zombie mode. We took a pair of huge binders, with T's package, and my duplicates, along with hopefully way more than they would ever need.

We got slightly lost, but hey, I bought a map, and we did good. We realized we should brush our teeth, so brushed on a park bench, casually spitting when no one was looking, and wishing we'd brought some water. Ok, so we had planned on some sleep on the way, then a cafe for some coffee, but we had a little adventure. T had been in Warsaw before, and the rain notwithstanding (yeah, ok, the umbrella was right next to the bottle of water, back in the train locker..), holding the folding file upside down so the papers wouldn't get wet (only a light occasional few drops or I would have found another umbrella, before I'm chastised :) ). We eventually somewhat loosely guided/wandered the right way, and found the embassy. Early, even.

We were told to go to the Red line, while everyone else was on the yellow or blue; we thought, woo hoo, we're first! Ok, not quite. We got a number, starting with an 'I,' which apparently is for immigration Visas- Poland, regardless of USCIS and DOS, classifies K Visas as Immigrant visas, I'm unsure anyone can say why. Most of the others got letters starting with 'H,' and apparently, they go first. Or something.

The windows were sort of like OTB or movie theatre tickets, just a line of numbered windows 1-10, with 3 of them through a doorway, the rest all in the 'big room.' At one point, we were called to one of the windows, and we got ready to hand over the stack of paperwork; nope, false alarm, but T did finally get fingerprinted, then we went to another window (once called by number) to pay the $360 new fee, then back to hand in the full package, although they wouldn't take more than my I384 (just the one page, none of the rest, no relationship evidence, said all would go to the CO if he/she wanted or needed it. Eventually, the 'H people' (possibly work and non immigration), even those after us, went. Most of the windows weren't open. There was a younger guy in window 7, who we could see going through people's paperwork with a red pen, occasionally looking at a computer screen. Another covering 8-10 windows seemed mostly a clerk, and window 1 cashier. There was one other window open, I never did see the woman, but somehow I felt like I wanted us to get the guy, I can't say why for sure, but he seemed professional and nice to me. Ok, plus, in reading all other Warsaw reports, it seemed like at least one woman there wasn't so nice, and most people said 'the guy' was friendly and good to deal with. We had nearly no sleep at all, I might have caught 30 minutes, T was doing amazingly well on energy considering it all, but hey, we had 20-30 pictures, we had apostled, notarized, certified translations, even though they had tried to throw us a curve ball already back on Thursday when we had found ONE document with her name wrong, so spent 14+ hours correcting it back in Minsk, and train rides, we had originals to everything, and many copies (we had at least 5 inches of actual paperwork on hand)....we're up, nervous, but..we're up.

'TG' (The Guy) thanked me for coming, saying it was rare for the USC to attend. I told him I wouldn't miss it for anything to be there with T. He swore her in, said we had a very well put together package, asked us when we planned on going to the US, mentioned something about a mis-spelling on her name on a prior Visa record for her, but that everything was fine. So we waited to be able to hand off the 20-30 pictures (there were already a half dozen in the K1, plus 30+ pages of email and skype logs, tickets, etc) plus another inch or two of papers, and - he never asked. Everything seemed fine, he gave us a piece of paper to come back between 8-10am in the morning, mentioned all is well, just the overnight for names database or some such, then we'd leave her passport and come back to get it at 3-4pm.

Of course, neither one of us had heard of the whole 'come back at 8-10am' piece, so we were expecting to finally have 'release,' but instead, we're kinda, mostly, pretty sure everything is OK, but.

There was another woman there who was also on a K1 (the only other out of all of them, there alone), so we waited for her outside the Embassy to ask if she also had to come back at 8-10am. She took a long time, but then finally came out. Uh oh. The medical facility in Minsk managed to screw up her paperwork, apparently a single form. You know, one they've done thousands of times before? One that is sealed, so neither the petitioner nor beneficiary can even make sure it's all right. She was not happy. She did have a note from the US Embassy requesting expedited service (it is usually a ~2 week turnaround for Polish Visas for BY citizens). I thought I had a good idea, and mentioned that she could redo the entire medical in Warsaw, same day, to then go back and finish up her interview, but we think she's going back to BY. We do think once that's done, though, she's approved.

T is finally getting some sleep now; we did a little roaming Warsaw, found a cool cafe, until our bodies said it's time for sleep, NOW.

We're apparently going back between 8-10am tomorrow, but after talking to a few random people coming out, as well as searching through more Warsaw interviews, it seems like it's all normal, but it's just such a tease; we've been waiting to exhale, to not celebrate before that Visa is in her passport, but now are still technically waiting, again.

I won't write about contingency cases lest I jinx us somehow, but I will say that while no donkeys were involved, I did actually bring a picture of a horse along with us in the stack to give to TG. Ok, I'm passing out soon, at least for a little while now. Hopefully in less than 24 hours..hopefully.

[solmarc 7]

No sleep at all for T, and very little for me, I swear they put the wrong train wheels on (they swap crossing from Belarus into Poland and elsewhere into the EU, slightly different track sizes). That ride was LOUD. Boarding the train was entertaining; I had my passport replaced some time ago, and now have a stack of Belarusian Visas, including what OVIR told us wouldn't be done, a double entry Visa for over 30 days. The train Passport control seems to also never have seen a US Passport before; he kept rubbing it between his fingers, like the paint might come off or something. Went to the station at 1:15am, through customers, on train and moving around 2:40am, in Warsaw around 6:30am, or so.

Going through BY then PL customs on the train itself was pretty painless, although I swear one of the two should change their uniforms, I started speaking (minor) Russian to the PL customs officer who came into our cabin, before being told I was using the wrong language. Oops. Exhausted when we got off the train in Warsaw, I found a luggage locker and just locked it there, to annoy us less in zombie mode. We took a pair of huge binders, with T's package, and my duplicates, along with hopefully way more than they would ever need.

We got slightly lost, but hey, I bought a map, and we did good. We realized we should brush our teeth, so brushed on a park bench, casually spitting when no one was looking, and wishing we'd brought some water. Ok, so we had planned on some sleep on the way, then a cafe for some coffee, but we had a little adventure. T had been in Warsaw before, and the rain notwithstanding (yeah, ok, the umbrella was right next to the bottle of water, back in the train locker..), holding the folding file upside down so the papers wouldn't get wet (only a light occasional few drops or I would have found another umbrella, before I'm chastised :) ). We eventually somewhat loosely guided/wandered the right way, and found the embassy. Early, even.

We were told to go to the Red line, while everyone else was on the yellow or blue; we thought, woo hoo, we're first! Ok, not quite. We got a number, starting with an 'I,' which apparently is for immigration Visas- Poland, regardless of USCIS and DOS, classifies K Visas as Immigrant visas, I'm unsure anyone can say why. Most of the others got letters starting with 'H,' and apparently, they go first. Or something.

The windows were sort of like OTB or movie theatre tickets, just a line of numbered windows 1-10, with 3 of them through a doorway, the rest all in the 'big room.' At one point, we were called to one of the windows, and we got ready to hand over the stack of paperwork; nope, false alarm, but T did finally get fingerprinted, then we went to another window (once called by number) to pay the $360 new fee, then back to hand in the full package, although they wouldn't take more than my I384 (just the one page, none of the rest, no relationship evidence, said all would go to the CO if he/she wanted or needed it. Eventually, the 'H people' (possibly work and non immigration), even those after us, went. Most of the windows weren't open. There was a younger guy in window 7, who we could see going through people's paperwork with a red pen, occasionally looking at a computer screen. Another covering 8-10 windows seemed mostly a clerk, and window 1 cashier. There was one other window open, I never did see the woman, but somehow I felt like I wanted us to get the guy, I can't say why for sure, but he seemed professional and nice to me. Ok, plus, in reading all other Warsaw reports, it seemed like at least one woman there wasn't so nice, and most people said 'the guy' was friendly and good to deal with. We had nearly no sleep at all, I might have caught 30 minutes, T was doing amazingly well on energy considering it all, but hey, we had 20-30 pictures, we had apostled, notarized, certified translations, even though they had tried to throw us a curve ball already back on Thursday when we had found ONE document with her name wrong, so spent 14+ hours correcting it back in Minsk, and train rides, we had originals to everything, and many copies (we had at least 5 inches of actual paperwork on hand)....we're up, nervous, but..we're up.

'TG' (The Guy) thanked me for coming, saying it was rare for the USC to attend. I told him I wouldn't miss it for anything to be there with T. He swore her in, said we had a very well put together package, asked us when we planned on going to the US, mentioned something about a mis-spelling on her name on a prior Visa record for her, but that everything was fine. So we waited to be able to hand off the 20-30 pictures (there were already a half dozen in the K1, plus 30+ pages of email and skype logs, tickets, etc) plus another inch or two of papers, and - he never asked. Everything seemed fine, he gave us a piece of paper to come back between 8-10am in the morning, mentioned all is well, just the overnight for names database or some such, then we'd leave her passport and come back to get it at 3-4pm.

Of course, neither one of us had heard of the whole 'come back at 8-10am' piece, so we were expecting to finally have 'release,' but instead, we're kinda, mostly, pretty sure everything is OK, but.

There was another woman there who was also on a K1 (the only other out of all of them, there alone), so we waited for her outside the Embassy to ask if she also had to come back at 8-10am. She took a long time, but then finally came out. Uh oh. The medical facility in Minsk managed to screw up her paperwork, apparently a single form. You know, one they've done thousands of times before? One that is sealed, so neither the petitioner nor beneficiary can even make sure it's all right. She was not happy. She did have a note from the US Embassy requesting expedited service (it is usually a ~2 week turnaround for Polish Visas for BY citizens). I thought I had a good idea, and mentioned that she could redo the entire medical in Warsaw, same day, to then go back and finish up her interview, but we think she's going back to BY. We do think once that's done, though, she's approved.

T is finally getting some sleep now; we did a little roaming Warsaw, found a cool cafe, until our bodies said it's time for sleep, NOW.

We're apparently going back between 8-10am tomorrow, but after talking to a few random people coming out, as well as searching through more Warsaw interviews, it seems like it's all normal, but it's just such a tease; we've been waiting to exhale, to not celebrate before that Visa is in her passport, but now are still technically waiting, again.

I won't write about contingency cases lest I jinx us somehow, but I will say that while no donkeys were involved, I did actually bring a picture of a horse along with us in the stack to give to TG. Ok, I'm passing out soon, at least for a little while now. Hopefully in less than 24 hours..hopefully.

Hey, you will get it tomorrow, you will see!!! lough a lot with the horse pic, come on write as soon as you get approve, if you have a chance, i went down desperate to see the approved word... but tomorrow we all going to see it!!!! get some rest, have a celebration day tomorrow waiting for you guys...

[ukprincessemx 0]

You sound like everything will be fine, you guys did to much work to cover everything by the sounds of it. I look forward to readu=ing that important word tomorrow.....I hope that you manage to get some rest before then. You must feel soooo frustrated not 100% knowing. Im feeling for you. Good luck.....we await tomorrows post

[CF1404 0]

Thank you! And thank you, solmarc, for sympathy for my Mom. She's doing much better now. I spent most of this hot day in the pool, yummmm. The Geordies have adjusted to the heat and have definitely embraced the love for pools as well. Tomorrow we're going to Six Flags and on Tuesday we're going to Atlantic City, woo hoo!

I hope soooooo hard that Peter gets his passport back tomorrow and then we can finally buy plane tickets. I'll work the pole before I go to bed tonight.. let's see if it works.

Lohninck, I'm glad to hear that your mom is doing better! Did the doctors ever figure out what caused this? I'm hoping for you and Peter that he gets his passport back tomorrow!

I've also called the Customer Service Center to report a problem with our application since we are still waiting for our NOA2. it was a relief to hear the man on the other side say that ours is outside application processing times and he put in an inquiry for me. Hopefully we'll hear something soon. If not, I'm going to keep calling!!! Has anyone else had any experience with this?

[solmarc 7]

Lohninck, I'm glad to hear that your mom is doing better! Did the doctors ever figure out what caused this? I'm hoping for you and Peter that he gets his passport back tomorrow!

I've also called the Customer Service Center to report a problem with our application since we are still waiting for our NOA2. it was a relief to hear the man on the other side say that ours is outside application processing times and he put in an inquiry for me. Hopefully we'll hear something soon. If not, I'm going to keep calling!!! Has anyone else had any experience with this?

Really happy, at least they will finally work with your case...

[solmarc 7]

Really happy, at least they will finally work with your case...

Hey you Guys, Honey called today... nothing