March (2012) filers...

[kmulenga2012 7]

That means you are next!! 8 left on my list.

They sure are going slower than I thought they would for a Tuesday on the end of the month, but it's only 2:30 EST yet. Out of curiosity, did they start at either end and work their way to the middle with your stack, too?

No, they hit the first few petitions pretty hard at the start of the month. And then last week I noticed before and after my number had lots of RFEs handed out. Today I've seen1 RFE and 3 approvals yesterday. Nervous.

[Andie 147]

Well, hi there .. I haven't participated on this thread very much at all, but I read it at least once a day and know how you are all feeling because I am going through the same emotions. Our story is long and involved and at present just waiting and waiting. There is no reason why we should be denied at all, but our petition was lost, we didn't ever get an NOA1, the cheque was finally banked in May. We contacted them several times over that period. Eventually got someone who actually did something and found our file, it was in different places, somehow split up. She put it together and said that they seemed to have everything they needed.

Weeks, months have gone by and nothing further in spite of all that. We are just in a waiting game now. We have been apart for 21 months - we text and talk for at least 2 hours a day. I am not working - never expected to be so long apart and not a lot of opportunity for short term contracts in my case.

Anyway, it has given me opportunity to do some things I haven't had time for in the past and with the help of you all I try to stay positive. I am sure there will be a lot of approvals here very soon, when everyone can move on to the lives already planned. Thank you for the support I receive from reading your posts...

[kmulenga2012 7]

My heart is pounding right now.. a denial... wow.. for the first time I felt relieved when I saw "initial review" in there..

I e already decided if we get denied we wil go the CR-1 route. It's cheaper apparently and if we are going to have to spend the same amount of time waiting... I'd rather at least be married and wait. I've always wanted to get married in Africa, we just knew starting here would give us travel abilities later between the two countries. Seemed like the smart choice...

[TigerFlower 61]

Well, hi there .. I haven't participated on this thread very much at all, but I read it at least once a day and know how you are all feeling because I am going through the same emotions. Our story is long and involved and at present just waiting and waiting. There is no reason why we should be denied at all, but our petition was lost, we didn't ever get an NOA1, the cheque was finally banked in May. We contacted them several times over that period. Eventually got someone who actually did something and found our file, it was in different places, somehow split up. She put it together and said that they seemed to have everything they needed.

Weeks, months have gone by and nothing further in spite of all that. We are just in a waiting game now. We have been apart for 21 months - we text and talk for at least 2 hours a day. I am not working - never expected to be so long apart and not a lot of opportunity for short term contracts in my case.

Anyway, it has given me opportunity to do some things I haven't had time for in the past and with the help of you all I try to stay positive. I am sure there will be a lot of approvals here very soon, when everyone can move on to the lives already planned. Thank you for the support I receive from reading your posts...

I really do have positive thoughts for you. I am sorry you have been hosed by VSC. You SO deserve to be together. Please feel free to share in how you met, what you plan to do, etc. Welcome to our little family.

I e already decided if we get denied we wil go the CR-1 route. It's cheaper apparently and if we are going to have to spend the same amount of time waiting... I'd rather at least be married and wait. I've always wanted to get married in Africa, we just knew starting here would give us travel abilities later between the two countries. Seemed like the smart choice...

You will not be denied.

[islandgal 74]

I e already decided if we get denied we wil go the CR-1 route. It's cheaper apparently and if we are going to have to spend the same amount of time waiting... I'd rather at least be married and wait. I've always wanted to get married in Africa, we just knew starting here would give us travel abilities later between the two countries. Seemed like the smart choice...

That's my plan too... CR1 if denied...but I'm thinking positive.

[HoneyBoo-Boo 1]

THANK YOU to all of you who have responded. I always feel better when I've read your responses, knowing that we're all anxiously waiting together. To see that you each can relate to how I'm feeling, gives me relieving confirmation that I am not going insane. LOL. This thread is my personal support group because none of my friends can truly understand whenever I whine and complain to them. I'll continue on praying for all of you and myself. Congratulations on the members who've received their NOA2 within the last week. May your journeys speed up much faster for happy reunions very soon!

For today's topic, what do we plan to do when my fiance gets here to the U.S.? I'm probably going to take him to an amusement park and have him ride on one of the roller-coasters with me. He's never seen one or rode on one! I'm afraid of roller-coasters so I think it'll be a fun experience for him to start his adjustment here in the States. He wants to try McDonald's too. Big Mac value meal #1 for him. :-D We're also planning a family vacation to Disney World!

[Milan&Pam 4]

Well, hi there .. I haven't participated on this thread very much at all, but I read it at least once a day and know how you are all feeling because I am going through the same emotions. Our story is long and involved and at present just waiting and waiting. There is no reason why we should be denied at all, but our petition was lost, we didn't ever get an NOA1, the cheque was finally banked in May. We contacted them several times over that period. Eventually got someone who actually did something and found our file, it was in different places, somehow split up. She put it together and said that they seemed to have everything they needed.

Weeks, months have gone by and nothing further in spite of all that. We are just in a waiting game now. We have been apart for 21 months - we text and talk for at least 2 hours a day. I am not working - never expected to be so long apart and not a lot of opportunity for short term contracts in my case.

Anyway, it has given me opportunity to do some things I haven't had time for in the past and with the help of you all I try to stay positive. I am sure there will be a lot of approvals here very soon, when everyone can move on to the lives already planned. Thank you for the support I receive from reading your posts...

OMG! They should have moved you to the front of the line just for their mistake!! Did they offer to push you through faster or tell you "5 months"?

[islandgal 74]

OMG! They should have moved you to the front of the line just for their mistake!! Did they offer to push you through faster or tell you "5 months"?

That's what I thought too... It sounds like grounds for expedite. Did you ever request one on the basis of USCIS error?

[islandgal 74]

In my grouping of 16 petitions, all have been touched but 3. I am in the list of 3. Everyone else has been approved or received an RFE.

Not one in my group has been touched (well, maybe one)... Maybe the box with all in my group has been lost? Like it's sitting in a pile somewhere?

[TigerFlower 61]

THANK YOU to all of you who have responded. I always feel better when I've read your responses, knowing that we're all anxiously waiting together. To see that you each can relate to how I'm feeling, gives me relieving confirmation that I am not going insane. LOL. This thread is my personal support group because none of my friends can truly understand whenever I whine and complain to them. I'll continue on praying for all of you and myself. Congratulations on the members who've received their NOA2 within the last week. May your journeys speed up much faster for happy reunions very soon!

For today's topic, what do we plan to do when my fiance gets here to the U.S.? I'm probably going to take him to an amusement park and have him ride on one of the roller-coasters with me. He's never seen one or rode on one! I'm afraid of roller-coasters so I think it'll be a fun experience for him to start his adjustment here in the States. He wants to try McDonald's too. Big Mac value meal #1 for him. :-D We're also planning a family vacation to Disney World!

That sounds exciting! I'm terrified of them. I made the mistake of riding the Jurassic Park one at Universal Studios and lost 5 years of my life. My fiance also tried McDonald's, as well as other fast foods here. We are both foodies. I plan to help him check each and every one off of his list! I hope your NoA2 arrives swiftly. There is no reason why we should suffer so. You're not going crazy... this is a truly infuriating situation because there is nothing we can do. No one around you will understand, because they have never been in this position.

Not one in my group has been touched (well, maybe one)... Maybe the box with all in my group has been lost? Like it's sitting in a pile somewhere?

I'd love to be a fly on the wall there, to see what is really going on.

[Nick + Elizabeth 54]

That's my plan too... CR1 if denied...but I'm thinking positive.

Same here. At this point I'm almost wishing we went that way initially. This has just taken FAR too long already. It's hard not to feel angry about it, but then what does that solve? My fiance will hear none of it. He doesn't even like to think about what's going on because it makes him angry as well and he doesn't like getting worked up over something so futile, as well as not liking to see me get worked up. Though sometimes I just want to vent so thank God for this thread! It's funny how my feeling about all of this have evolved over the past few months. I've gone from hopeful, to worried, to sad, to angry... and now I'm teetering on hopeless. Hopeless is a really bad place to be. Though I guess helpless would be more like it. As a person that likes to be in control, I can't stand having my hands tied over this whole thing. Not only is there NOTHING you can do, but you have to be completely in the dark about everything which makes it that much worse. Have they lost my RFE? Are my papers on someone's desk next in line? Have they been shoved to the back behind a massive stack of other I-129fs on some anonymous shelf somewhere? Urgh. And.... End rant....

[TigerFlower 61]

Same here. At this point I'm almost wishing we went that way initially. This has just taken FAR too long already. It's hard not to feel angry about it, but then what does that solve? My fiance will hear none of it. He doesn't even like to think about what's going on because it makes him angry as well and he doesn't like getting worked up over something so futile, as well as not liking to see me get worked up. Though sometimes I just want to vent so thank God for this thread! It's funny how my feeling about all of this have evolved over the past few months. I've gone from hopeful, to worried, to sad, to angry... and now I'm teetering on hopeless. Hopeless is a really bad place to be. Though I guess helpless would be more like it. As a person that likes to be in control, I can't stand having my hands tied over this whole thing. Not only is there NOTHING you can do, but you have to be completely in the dark about everything which makes it that much worse. Have they lost my RFE? Are my papers on someone's desk next in line? Have they been shoved to the back behind a massive stack of other I-129fs on some anonymous shelf somewhere? Urgh. And.... End rant....

Nice one!

[Milan&Pam 4]

For today's topic: What do you plan to do when your fiance gets here to the U.S.?

I am fortunate enough to be in Macedonia right now and will be waiting outside the Embassy while he interviews! So we will be leaving together and flying into JFK. He has never been to the U.S. and we will spend a couple of days in NYC just so he can see the Big Apple before coming to his new home in my small town in Florida. He must experience Wal-Mart, Starbucks and some really good real American food. He also has no idea what a Taco Bell is so we will have to hit the drive through for the experience! The next two months will be spent with family during the holidays, teaching him about pilgrims and American college football, more immigration i am sure, drivers licenses, I.D. cards, Sunday drives and a lot of loving! <3

[Nick + Elizabeth 54]

Nice one!

Haha, thanks! I'm getting to be a pro at it!

[Andie 147]

Thank you everyone...

We met in primary school in NZ - his dad is an American and his mother was a NZer. They came to live in NZ and we were in a very small school where everyone knew everyone. We always got on really well and as we grew up we were great friends though never dated and went to different high schools, didn't see each other so much. We lost contact and he started travelling at about 18. He found me online many years later in 2009 via my brother - we had both been married, had kids, were on our own again and I made 3 trips to see him in 2010. On the third visit I was held up in immigration for 5 hours. I had worked all my life, but had taken time out and hadn't been working for several months by then. They told me to apply for a B visa if I planned to return. I had sufficient funds to support myself and didn't realise it was becoming so complicated.

I applied for a visa but was denied due to the fact I didn't have a job or proof with me of sufficient ties to my country. We had talked about getting married on the last visit, but I guess we were just cruising along and just assumed we would be together. After the visa denial he proposed on Valentines Day (2011), since we didn't ever want to be apart again. He sent in the petition, but left out some supporting docs. Everything was there, it was just a silly mistake, made while in a rush and keen to get the paperwork underway. We hadn't found VJ by then and didn't really have a structured plan to follow. He waited for the NOA1, and sent a copy of it with the rest of the documents.

After 5 months we were denied since our two lots of papers were never connected - I have since seen others on here that were given an RFE, but it can go either way. We tried in the following months to get it sorted out but with that failing and with other 'life/home' issues - we sent another petition in March. That is the one that we are working with now and they lost information. It has now all been found and put together. Everything with that petition was 'perfect' - nothing missing at all.

OMG! They should have moved you to the front of the line just for their mistake!! Did they offer to push you through faster or tell you "5 months"?

They have since said that they would fast track it but that was several weeks ago and still nothing.

I agree that the difficult part is not knowing - it would be great to know that you can depend on updates early on and that they could confirm they have all the information they need to work with. It is an overloaded and broken system, but that part is totally out of our control.

We send each other care packages and I talk to him almost every day in his lunch break and every day after work for at least 2 hours. On weekends we talk longer and talk while he is food shopping etc. We discovered early on that we had even travelled the same roads in the US and Canada at about the same time in our late teens, early twenties without knowing it then. We were only within a few hours apart at least once on the same roads in BC when I was 20. We are sure we are meant to be together. It will happen ..(soon pleeeeeeeeeese???)

Anyway... my best to you all... this part is just awful, to say the very least - but a result has to happen and soon.