Finding Love Abroad, Then Support Online for Visa Quest

[~Nini~ 2]

Great article. Pity about the comments though - just waiting for some nasty trollers to come here flamin' away.

[no name 1]

I'm all for getting (good) PR for VJ & our plight - but did you guys even read the article? It is not flattering & makes VJers out to be obsessive & bored people!

I think it's quite unflattering towards Wendy as well. Did he really not get a denial letter after interview? She had to wait to get one? It makes sure to point out the age difference & says he didn't talk about his love at the interview.

*shrug*

It sucks, IMO.

----

This is what love has done to Wendy Brown: She's lost weight, resumed smoking and all but decided to move to the Balkans to be with her Albanian fiance. And each night, she spends hours in her cozy Baltimore apartment mingling online with strangers who are equally fixated on the same topic: getting their soul mates through the U.S. immigration system.

---

VisaJourney, a site whose 35,000 members are mostly Americans with foreign fiances and spouses, is at once a celebration of love and a condemnation of bureaucracy. Members, who call themselves VJ'ers, describe meeting their beloveds in Kenyan bars, Jamaican churches, online video games. They have posted thousands of photos of smiling couples in foreign lands. Their profile pages are adorned with beating hearts, clocks counting the hours since their last meetings and such statements as "feels like eternity . . . without him."

----

She applied for his fiance visa last October and began to plan a Las Vegas wedding. The visa was denied in April. His application was returned to U.S. officials for another review. Brown has heard nothing since.

After writing to members of Congress and federal officials, she has learned only that the visa was denied on the following grounds: "The interviewing consular officer has reason to believe that the engagement was entered into to evade immigration laws."

Brown suspects that Hasaj was not effusive about their love at the interview because he's the macho type. Their age difference -- he is 21 -- might also have sounded alarms, she said. She is confident that his devotion is real, partly because he welcomes the idea of her moving to Albania.

So every night, Brown researches immigration regulations and checks in with VisaJourney, where she "hangs" in forums with other fiances of Albanians.

Her speech is infused with immigration lingo: Hasaj's denial is "what we call a soft denial," she'll say, or Albania is "what we call a high-fraud post."

----

Edited October 29, 2007 by devilette

[nivesito 0]

In my opinion the comments regarding the article are just the consequence of some people not knowing anything about other countries or what's going on in Europe or any other continent. I can understand that because they are more concerned about what is going on in the States in order to be interested in anything regarding the rest of the world. It's not like everybody else (except US) are poor countries and politically unstable.

I know our visa is not going to be denied but I would like to share with you what my fiance's answer was after he read the article Oh, I love him so much

"Wow…………..I’m practically speechless. I can’t believe how much negativity there is out there. The bottom line is that the government has their processes and they have no reason to change them whatsoever. The only reason they recently change was because of 9/11. It seriously takes some sort of disaster on a monumental scale for these sorts of processes to ever get reanalyzed and possibly overhauled. I’m not worried in the least honey. You’ll be getting your Visa soon, and if for whatever reason they deny it, I’ll just move to Croatia……..it’s not a big deal to me where I am as long as I’m with you and everyone else who thinks otherwise can go to hell. "

[no name 1]

"Wow…………..I’m practically speechless. I can’t believe how much negativity there is out there. The bottom line is that the government has their processes and they have no reason to change them whatsoever. The only reason they recently change was because of 9/11. It seriously takes some sort of disaster on a monumental scale for these sorts of processes to ever get reanalyzed and possibly overhauled. I’m not worried in the least honey. You’ll be getting your Visa soon, and if for whatever reason they deny it, I’ll just move to Croatia……..it’s not a big deal to me where I am as long as I’m with you and everyone else who thinks otherwise can go to hell. "

It's not like you could saunter in pre- 9/11 & get a visa.

[nivesito 0]

Yes, I'm dreaming already about the house in Mediterranean style on an island

[nivesito 0]

"Wow…………..I’m practically speechless. I can’t believe how much negativity there is out there. The bottom line is that the government has their processes and they have no reason to change them whatsoever. The only reason they recently change was because of 9/11. It seriously takes some sort of disaster on a monumental scale for these sorts of processes to ever get reanalyzed and possibly overhauled. I’m not worried in the least honey. You’ll be getting your Visa soon, and if for whatever reason they deny it, I’ll just move to Croatia……..it’s not a big deal to me where I am as long as I’m with you and everyone else who thinks otherwise can go to hell. "

It's not like you could saunter in pre- 9/11 & get a visa.

True, but as I know there was no sending petitions to the US, everything was done by the embassy's, right or no?

[Ban Hammer 13,625]

Where does it mention about the token, communist who floods the site with ultra liberal propaganda? I thought for sure that would make it in the final edit.

hey, it was censored by the ultra liberal commie rag..the washington post...

dammit....next time we should call our own press conference and soft ball questions to each other.

get a job with fema first

[SonoranSongbird 3]

In my opinion the comments regarding the article are just the consequence of some people not knowing anything about other countries or what's going on in Europe or any other continent.

That's exactly what it is. To me, as an American who has travelled to other parst of the world and even lived in three different countries, that kind of provincial attitude is terribly embarrassing. I'm really embarrassed that there are people who think the whole world is just scheming to get into the US no matter what they have to do to get here.

And the idea that people with broad enough horizons to meet people from all over the world are "desparate" and "heartsick" and "unable to find someone" here? Wow, shocking as this may seem, there are people who don't define themselves by whether they have a partner at the moment, who actually go out and pursue interests and can meet people who share those interests who don't happen to live next door. Shocking, innit?

'Scuse the rant.

I don't think the article was negative, Devilette. Unfortunately, people who are negative will find ways to interpret it as they see fit, regardless.

[no name 1]

I don't think the article was negative, Devilette. Unfortunately, people who are negative will find ways to interpret it as they see fit, regardless.

Work in PR sometime, you might 'get it'.

[Amby 490]

hopefully this article will get more people to recognize what we all have had to deal with

[Ban Hammer 13,625]

I don't think the article was negative, Devilette. Unfortunately, people who are negative will find ways to interpret it as they see fit, regardless.

Work in PR sometime, you might 'get it'.

actually, dev, i read it the same way you did. it didn't paint us vj'ers in a very good light imo.

[Fandango 1,440]

I don't think the article was negative, Devilette. Unfortunately, people who are negative will find ways to interpret it as they see fit, regardless.

Work in PR sometime, you might 'get it'.

actually, dev, i read it the same way you did. it didn't paint us vj'ers in a very good light imo.

I agree with you Charles and Dev....

it is way cool that VJ is on the front page of the Washington Post...and as they say 'any publicity is good publicity'....but they did write us in not the most flattering light.

Edited October 29, 2007 by LisaD

[no name 1]

I don't think the article was negative, Devilette. Unfortunately, people who are negative will find ways to interpret it as they see fit, regardless.

Work in PR sometime, you might 'get it'.

actually, dev, i read it the same way you did. it didn't paint us vj'ers in a very good light imo.

we agree! The world is ending!!!

[Trompe le Monde 1,107]

I think the comments is very indicative of how the general public feels about it

[Ban Hammer 13,625]

I don't think the article was negative, Devilette. Unfortunately, people who are negative will find ways to interpret it as they see fit, regardless.

Work in PR sometime, you might 'get it'.

actually, dev, i read it the same way you did. it didn't paint us vj'ers in a very good light imo.

we agree! The world is ending!!!

yeah it is kinda cold around here, i think hades froze over