Have Certain VJ Members Designated As Guides

[Andy 2]

As one of the very original VJ members, I was poached by the guy who set this site up from another immigration forum where there were guides and rather tightly moderated threads. By comparison, this place was refreshing and able to develop a far better sense of an open community. The intention was for it to remain that way, and VJ became a far better resource for it.

The reason I stayed around as an active member for some years was because there was need then for someone who had been through the system and understood it to help nudge everyone along. Likewise the reason I stopped contributing in an active capacity was because as the first generation of VJ members progressed through the system they needed whatever guidance I could offer less and less and began to help the next generation themselves. That's what made VJ a great resource, and continuing in that vein will keep it so, far more than having old timers like me come back and continue to guide.

Now I visit only rarely, and see people who were panicked, lost and at the beginnings of their own journey come back and help others, and I know that if the person who created this site knew how well it was working still, he'd be pleased as punch!

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

... if the person who created this site knew how well it was working still, he'd be pleased as punch!

He? I thought this site was founded a long time ago by fuzzy asexual creatures from a galaxy far far away?

[Andy 2]

Ah no. The site was first set up by Steve, a K1 applicant who's petition was stuck in the Texas Service Center along with many many others at a time when processing times for I-129Fs were running at close to a year, and Texas in particular has almost ground to a halt.

Steve was frustrated by the immigration forums of the day which were mostly just question/answer, when he felt (and VJ has proved) there was a need for more of a community focussed on self-help. So he set up the first version of VJ (it wasn't called that then - it was the 'INS Forum') and the first members started gathering. Out of that he organized protests outside the Texas Service Center which then spawned others there and at California and Nebraska - which actually forced the regional directors to restart and re-prioritize K1 cases.

After a year, the site was hacked and Steve had to rebuild it - hence the oldest members here are from spring 2003 when the original site had been active from January 2002. After that, it was renamed a couple of times as the INS (as was then) changed it's name first to BCIS then USCIS, and then it was renamed to Visa Journey after a vote by the members, who had grown markedly from the early days.

Unfortunately, one of the members who joined was an immigration attorney, who started by providing some helpful information and guidance, but then began to attack contributors who offered answers to questions for what he claimed was the unlicensed practice of law. He bullied the regulars, made the membership miserable, had a dramatically chilling effect on posts in the various areas of the forum except in Off Topic where the only topic for months was the lawyer and unlicensed practice of law. If that were not bad enough, he then threatened Steve with legal action and began to bully him remorselessly to the point that Steve gave over control to the good Ewok (and galactic crew) and he then disappeared. I'm not great at timelines, but I reckon that was in 2004.

Steve was one of the few people I have ever come across who took his own case and used it as a battering ram to force the authorities to process cases when they were trying hard not to. He was right in thinking there was a need for a place where people stuck in their own cases could provide each other with mutual support and help. None of VJ would have existed but for his hard work and dedication to the community here.

[MichelleandCraig 1]

For the umpteenth time since I've joined this board....YAY STEVE! M.