Any February 2012 filers?

[afoyoswa 178]

The other thing is how do i get a ticker on my profile, can someone help me out and give me a link or show me how to do it?? Will really appreciate it. God bless all of us and lead us on this hard and painful journey...We all need a bit of encouragement and I leave you with Jeremiah 29:11...will give you strength when your reserves are low..Hang in there everyone. Help is on its way...

It seems that things are looking up for the couple I mentioned, so I'm hopeful that their story will have a happy ending soon. I'm still very worried about Nairobi, but we should all try to only be worried to the extent that it can motivate us to do productive things that will help at the interview phase.

To get a ticker you just need to go to one of the websites listed on someone else's ticker. They'll walk you through putting in the dates, choosing images, and customizing everything. When you're done, you'll get a block of text that you can copy and paste into your signature here. Let me know if you need more specific instructions. Another forum I used to post on was very anti-ticker, so even though I sometimes feel a little reflexively eye-rolly when people have 3 or 4 huge flashy blinking ones, I really love having mine. At least *something* is changing in our signatures, even though our visa journeys are completely sitting still right now.

Edited March 28, 2012 by afoyoswa

[StarGirl 13]

The other thing is how do i get a ticker on my profile

I had hard time figuring out it too This is the website where I got mine from, http://www.tickerfactory.com/ezticker/ticker_designer.php In the end when you done with the choosing your ticker, they will give you codes. The one you need to use is bbCode. Just paste it into your signature and you will have pretty picture on your posts. Hope it helps! Can't wait till it's time to make a ticker called "how many days passed since your NOA2"

Edited March 28, 2012 by StarGirl

[afoyoswa 178]

Argh. Just yesterday the timelines page was saying Nov. 1 for CSC and Nov. 10 for VSC, and now it is Nov. 4 for CSC and Oct. 29 for VSC. I really should stop looking!

Of course, there were 3 VJ approvals today at CSC, and only 2 yesterday at VSC, so that must be part of it. On the plus side, one of the VSC approvals yesterday was a January petition: the first one I've seen come through there! (On the minus side, though, it's someone from Cuba, and most of the weirdly fast ones have been Cuba or Dominican Republic.)

Edited March 28, 2012 by afoyoswa

[StarGirl 13]

most of the weirdly fast ones have been Cuba or Dominican Republic

yeah.. I noticed it too (( I've read about at least 3 cases - ALL from Cuba - with unrealistically fast approvals. Lucky ones ..

[Z&A 2]

Amen and Amen! Yeah, we really have to trust in God to see us through all of this and yes, I do believe that God is able to even shield us from people like that CO who would interfere with what God wills for us. I got a tourist visa from the American embassy in Kenya last year and honestly, I think it just depends on who you end up having interview you. It was so easy for me to get a tourist visa though there was a real chance of denial because I was going to travel with my son and they heavily frown when they see a single mother supposedly visiting the US on a tourist visa, to them, it looks like immigration. But God was faithful and gave me great favor before the CO and in a few short minutes, my visa was approved. Felt like I had just gone to have a nice chat with a friend, very painless. Let's pray for smooth interviews like this one and I do know it is possible for things to go so well that we end up wondering if it's all really that easy. Thanks for your encouragement.

Took me a long time to figure out how to do my ticker and now I can't remember how I did it, hope someone here can help :-)

Having a nice CO at the interview is something we all pray for. I didn't have any problems at all when I was applying for a student visa Even though me and Aaron we will wait as long as it takes, we are hoping for a 3,5 - 4 month approval. Anyway, if it takes longer than that, he is going to visit me again in summer, or in autumn (possibly for my sister's wedding).

[R&RM 11]

Having a nice CO at the interview is something we all pray for. I didn't have any problems at all when I was applying for a student visa Even though me and Aaron we will wait as long as it takes, we are hoping for a 3,5 - 4 month approval. Anyway, if it takes longer than that, he is going to visit me again in summer, or in autumn (possibly for my sister's wedding).

Lucky you! Not seeing my fiance till we meet in the US, crazy! So yeah, feels good counting one less month. Wish I was from Cuba or Dominican Republic LOL.

[R&RM 11]

Argh. Just yesterday the timelines page was saying Nov. 1 for CSC and Nov. 10 for VSC, and now it is Nov. 4 for CSC and Oct. 29 for VSC. I really should stop looking!

Of course, there were 3 VJ approvals today at CSC, and only 2 yesterday at VSC, so that must be part of it. On the plus side, one of the VSC approvals yesterday was a January petition: the first one I've seen come through there! (On the minus side, though, it's someone from Cuba, and most of the weirdly fast ones have been Cuba or Dominican Republic.)

Yeah, those timelines aren't making much sense lately. I give up, all I know is that I should supposedly expect my NOA2 in late June or early July, that's about all I can guesstimate from their info. I will still be hugely relieved if by some miracle the timeline reflected a shorter time but I think I have to keep it at the back of my mind that the most realistic expectation for me is late June, early July.

[Z&A 2]

Lucky you! Not seeing my fiance till we meet in the US, crazy! So yeah, feels good counting one less month. Wish I was from Cuba or Dominican Republic LOL.

The thing is I was an exchange student in the US back in 2009-2010 :)So I am not in the USA now. The last time I saw my fiance was in February when he visited me on Christmas And the next time I will see him will probably be no sooner than in 6 months or so

[MissK 5]

Yeah, those timelines aren't making much sense lately. I give up, all I know is that I should supposedly expect my NOA2 in late June or early July, that's about all I can guesstimate from their info. I will still be hugely relieved if by some miracle the timeline reflected a shorter time but I think I have to keep it at the back of my mind that the most realistic expectation for me is late June, early July.

I hear you. I really try to think this. It's the most realistic, but what if we are one of the lucky ones?? I keep checking my email all the time, but I should really stop.

But now March is almost over. Only then April and May to go and we are almost there!!! How I see it, getting trough the next two months will be the hardest. I just hope we don't have to wait longer than July.

I think that's the hardets part now (except missing my love like crazy of course)not being able to plan everything in detail yet because we don't know when things will happen. I like planning!!

[MissK 5]

Just showing of my ticker! Thanks for explaining:)

[afoyoswa 178]

And now they've switched again: Nov. 4 (CSC) and Nov. 7 (VSC). CSC is really churning out the approvals lately, though!

<breathe> They will get to us when they get to us, and not a minute sooner, right? I'm also in the not-seeing-him-til-this-is-over club, which makes the waiting extra fun. I may have kind of snapped at the David's Bridal lady who called me yesterday asking if I needed a photographer ("No, I'm all set!" which I'm not, of course, but I DON'T GET TO PLAN ANYTHING YET--boo hoo).

[R&RM 11]

And now they've switched again: Nov. 4 (CSC) and Nov. 7 (VSC). CSC is really churning out the approvals lately, though!

<breathe> They will get to us when they get to us, and not a minute sooner, right? I'm also in the not-seeing-him-til-this-is-over club, which makes the waiting extra fun. I may have kind of snapped at the David's Bridal lady who called me yesterday asking if I needed a photographer ("No, I'm all set!" which I'm not, of course, but I DON'T GET TO PLAN ANYTHING YET--boo hoo).

I know, frustrating not to even be able to afford to be excited about the wedding because everything is so much up in there...that does raise a question I have been wondering about. A lot of people are asked to present evidence of wedding plans at the interview stage, how do you guys plan on addressing that? Seems tricky to me. You can't really make any rock solid plans because you do not have 100 percent guarantee of any date of approval, much less on if you are actually going to get approved. I for one had mentioned in the application that if at all possible, we would have loved to wed in August (true but probably unlikely to happen)but of course we haven't done more than just hope to get married sooner than later. Any thoughts and suggestions? We should probably ask the many that have gone before us on this journey as well.

[afoyoswa 178]

I know, frustrating not to even be able to afford to be excited about the wedding because everything is so much up in there...that does raise a question I have been wondering about. A lot of people are asked to present evidence of wedding plans at the interview stage, how do you guys plan on addressing that? Seems tricky to me. You can't really make any rock solid plans because you do not have 100 percent guarantee of any date of approval, much less on if you are actually going to get approved. I for one had mentioned in the application that if at all possible, we would have loved to wed in August (true but probably unlikely to happen)but of course we haven't done more than just hope to get married sooner than later. Any thoughts and suggestions? We should probably ask the many that have gone before us on this journey as well.

Since I already have my dress, I'm going to include a copy of the receipt in the folder of documents Aaron will bring to the interview (I could put in photos of me in it, but I don't want him to see! ). I've also already talked to the minister at my church where we'll have the wedding, so a letter from him could also be helpful. That's all I've got, though. All the rest of the planning I've done is either mental or not-concrete things like talking to friends about ideas.

[R&RM 11]

Since I already have my dress, I'm going to include a copy of the receipt in the folder of documents Aaron will bring to the interview (I could put in photos of me in it, but I don't want him to see! ). I've also already talked to the minister at my church where we'll have the wedding, so a letter from him could also be helpful. That's all I've got, though. All the rest of the planning I've done is either mental or not-concrete things like talking to friends about ideas.

Ah, sounds good, I have a picture of the wedding dress I want (also David's Bridal), maybe will just show them that I have picked it out along with the bridesmaids' dresses.Good idea about the minister, we have one picked out too so maybe we can get a statement affirming our plans as well. Guess we could also just say that the wedding will be held at his parents' backyard so that we don't have to worry about proving it will be at any particular venue. His parents have a place by a lake and that is an actual option though not one we will necessarily go with. I don't know if it will help to show things like types of cakes we are looking at, caterers and photographers we are considering and so forth. Not very substantial evidence but I guess shows serious intent to wed. So odd though, seems like for some people, it doesn't even come up at all.

[Darkmoonfaerie 19]

Argh! I'm with you guys on the frustration of not being able to plan. It's exactly 4 weeks for us today and it's like time has stopped. Alan gets here Saturday and we'll be doing a cake tasting and meeting with a reception site next week. I'll send copies of any paperwork that we get with him so he can take that to the interview. I've got some groupons for Vistaprint so will order everything I can for the invitations...anything without dates on them like the table cards, thank you cards, etc. I'll send him that receipt too. From what I've heard, London is very easy and they'll never ask for that but I'd rather be safe than sorry. I keep saying I want to lose more weight before dress shopping but I'm running out of time with that. I'm just glad that the bakery I want is very flexible and is willing to do tastings when we don't have a clue when we're getting married. The lady at the reception site has dealt with visas so she's incredibly understanding and excited for us. Right now I'm trying to not focus on the frustrations and am just super excited to see my sweetie and his boys

Argh! I'm with you guys on the frustration of not being able to plan. It's exactly 4 weeks for us today and it's like time has stopped. Alan gets here Saturday and we'll be doing a cake tasting and meeting with a reception site next week. I'll send copies of any paperwork that we get with him so he can take that to the interview. I've got some groupons for Vistaprint so will order everything I can for the invitations...anything without dates on them like the table cards, thank you cards, etc. I'll send him that receipt too. From what I've heard, London is very easy and they'll never ask for that but I'd rather be safe than sorry. I keep saying I want to lose more weight before dress shopping but I'm running out of time with that. I'm just glad that the bakery I want is very flexible and is willing to do tastings when we don't have a clue when we're getting married. The lady at the reception site has dealt with visas so she's incredibly understanding and excited for us. Right now I'm trying to not focus on the frustrations and am just super excited to see my sweetie and his boys