I-129F APPROVED!!
by admin on Sep.01, 2008, under Love
It’s Official! Our petition for the fiancée visa was approved today!!!! YEA!!!!!! You cant imagine two more ecited or happier people than the two of us when we got the news :) Our lives are all filled with highs and lows and we mark our journey through life by them. I can in all honesty say I have never been overcome by such joyful emotion as I was when I first got the news. And the timing really was coming at a point that some good news was needed. We both have struggeled trying to keep from getting down about it taking so long and so many hoops to jump through to just simply be together and share a love sent from heaven, as well as the worry with my mom being in the hospital ICU in serious but stable condition.
Well I should start with getting the news. Both of us had signed up at the USCIS website to receive email updates about our case when any action was taken. Well there are only two instances of action in this particular petion, one is the receipt of it and the case pending, and the last one is the approval notice, we get NOTHING in between which only served to make us that more anxious waiting for word. Yesterday (I’m editing this a day after I made the post) was a busy day for both of us, with me working and then planning to go to the hospital after, and Alison at the time entertaining a friend for dinner at her house. With all the things going on with mom I have been keeping up with the family and friends by email a lot and have been in a habit of checking it on my phone a lot here lately. Well something told me to check it yesterday, one of those feeligs we get, and to be truthful I just thought it was someone wanting to know about mom or something like that. Well I knew alison was busy , but she still sends some kisses right often too :)
Anyway being in the state I was I was sort of in one of those worried states and when i saw the name “CRIS” whch i recognized from signing up at the USCIS site, my heart just seemed to stop and turn
iPhone inbox
180 degrees around! I never have felt so much jubilation as when I saw that notice! I stopped right then and sent Alison a text (I started to cal her but her cell has been going south for a while now and the battery goes very fast on voice calls unless she is plugged into the charger. Here’s the text I did send, excuse the French ;)
Those few minutes of texting and then her trying to call and speak were like something I hvae never experienced before, both of us jumping up and down likely and telling everyyone who would listen! well everyone knows how badly we wanted this day to come,andnow its here and soon when she is called to go to the embassy there, she will have her visa to come! :) We will have our Christmas together this year! :-)
You know its seemed like an eternity waiting for this thing to be approved, and looking back now its was just 3 months, well i say just… to us it seeemd so much longer. From what i have seen though the average waitign time now is close to 10 to 13 months and I was so down we wpuld end up seeing another year go by, but somehow God and our angels pulled off another one and made us even happier than we have been :) But its nothing will compare to that day she gets off the plane here and I hold her in my arms and knowing its for good! Love you baby! XXX
Leave a Reply
-
YEA!
The fiancee visa has been issued and Alison will be here the early part of December! :)
September 3rd, 2008 on 12:35 am
I love you Chester sooooo much , my heart is still racing from getting the news that soon I will be in my way to be ’stuck with you ‘ the rest of my life and there is no where else I would rather be , roll on to get the final date of my flight x x x x God is good.
September 15th, 2008 on 8:46 pm
I am sending my petition in tomorrow. Is there a way to expedite the process? How long did your application take?
September 15th, 2008 on 9:25 pm
Hi Gus, I wish there was a way to expedite these things, the only thing I can tell you is to make sure you inclide everythign they ask for and double check yourself before submitting it. They received our petition on June 4th and we got the notice of action of it being approved the 1st of September. Just this last week i receved notification they were sending my info to the State Department for background checks on me and got a letter from them very shortly after saying they were done and were forwarding the info to the embassy in Cyprus within a week. From here we dont knwo how long it will take, she hasnt as yet recieved her packet from them which will give her a lit of things to be done and set an interview date and then the visa will be issued, I can only say it takes a great amount of patience and faith to get through this part, there is still a lot more ahead of us to do, but at least after this we will be doing it together! :) It depends a lot too on your fiancee’s citizenship I think, some countries are seemingly not as long to take as others. With Alison being a Brit I think it makes it easier as the US and UK have a close relationship as far as information sharing and collaboration. On the other hand i have seen stories from where the fiancee s from the Philippines or the former soviet Union countries where the process can take a very long time, years instead of months. Where is your fiancee living now? Its not much use trying to contact the USCIS, they will only give you the very same information you would get online if you register, that they have receievd your petition and its pending… (you will be able to find your case number on the back of your cancelled check if you dont recieve the first notice of action in the mail, I never did get it. I called and they said wait 30 days and if its not there repeort it, so I waited and no notice, so I called again and they said give it another 30 days… it can be aggravating, just keep patient as much as you can, trust me we both know its not easy, maybe thr hardest thing we have had to do is life is to be apart from each other like this. But I can tell you that the mosnt we got the notice the petion was apprived wasone of the most emotional, joyful hapy moments of our lives! Good luck! Thanks for posting too!
September 18th, 2008 on 2:19 pm
Congratulations. I hope you will unite together pretty soon. I am just wondering when did you exactly apply and when did you receive letter of approval. Was it at Vermont Center ? did Government make any enquiries for further information from you ? Or, it just got approved without any questions. I would appreciate your help.
thanks
venky
September 18th, 2008 on 3:49 pm
Hi Venky, thanks for posting!
Yes I hope its soon we are reunited! its been a year almost since we have been together! WAAAAAY TOOOO LONG!
I sent in the petion on the 29th of May and they received it the 4th of June, we had signed up for email notice so I received that on the 1st of September, I think about a week later from the email notice I recevived the official notice of action on the approval through the mail, along with the State Dept saying I had been checked out and the info was being sent within the week to Cyprus; about 3 months was the wait for us. I see and read many stories of much longer waits for others. There werent any issues at all I guess with either of us in any of the checks so I am sure that was helping. We ddint have to submit anything else as I made sure everythig they wanted was included and in detail, from copies of our emials and screenshots of the totals along with cell phone records, photos etc… Made sure every i was dotted and every t was crossed! YEs it was the Vermont Center that processed the petiton, and I hear they are the slowest but in our case it seems we got through quickly, well not quick enough for us, but in general it is quicker than what it appeared it would be looking at the dates on the USCIS site. Hope thats some elp to you and answers any questions. Have you sent your petition already? Wish you luck too, this is one of the hardest thigns in life I have had to do is to wait not knowing what the status is, it was such a releif to us both. wish you luck and happiness, thanks again for posting!
Chester
September 19th, 2008 on 10:40 am
chester,
thanks a lot for your response. Please keep posting with anyother correspondence that you receive from USCIS. I would like to understand the whole process.
Venky
October 10th, 2008 on 11:33 am
Hey.
You know i dont even know you from a bar of peanuts but when i read your story, i cried. I felt your euphoria so I can understand your situation. Im crying inside cause iam in the waiting stages myself. Before i get to to ask you some questions (if you dont mind, ill add them as i write) i would like you to hear my case out.
I have been with my partner for 6yrs. Im Australian , he’s American and apart of the U.S Army. Through-out those years, due to repositioning and deployments and deligations of my own here in Australia we didnt have the chance to met until Nov07. When we did, everything feel into place. In Nov 07, after i returned home , he deployed to Iraq for his 3rd tour of active duty. He’s been in the military for 7yrs, out of those 7yrs, he’s spent 5 yrs total in Iraq. This would be the 3rd deployment i had to endure, and i can tell you, they are the most horrifying and distressing things to ever go through, and knowing he had almost been swipped by an RPG once before, you dread getting ‘that’ call.
In May 08, we met on his R&R, where in June he proposed then went back to Iraq 3 days later. It sucked. Soon after i arrived home, Early June 08, i had told him that we should file for I-129F. Because he has deligations there he procrastinated on it and now as the time is winding down to when his tour of duty finishes in Jan 09 we realise the two months wasted is ‘precious time’, costly, and could’ve mad ‘all’ the difference.
Moving on, his mother has power of attorney so he had her do most of the filing for him. I had read and read and read until my brain went dead about the processing, the outcomes, what to do’s etc etc. I spent countless weeks basically studying it to understand it. The more i read i realised i better start preparing myself for the outcome so i got into the planning for the actual K-1. Prior to that i sent him and his mother the Instructions for the form and told them both SPECIALLY what was needed to be done. I thought they would read it the same way i did, but they hadnt.
When his mother sent the petition, she didnt add the filing fee (dumbest mistake concidering its the first thing mentioned on the USCIS website). It was sent back to her, then she sent it back with the fee. It was returned again stating that the fee was too much and to correct it. (so much time wasted, and pretty dumb for someone who was a legal secretary, i dont want to be mean , but i seriously think i wouldnt be half as dis-stressed if i could’ve been the one to file it) She sent the right amount and we then received the NOA. In this time i was busy getting my head around ‘what if it was approved’ and was stuck into preparing the forms and so forth for the Visa, that when i came back to the petition (being curious and all the feelings you felt) i re-read the instructions for the petition and i then remembered, ‘Wholy fuck, we didnt send any of the initial evidence needed! FUCK’. I cursed til i basically couldnt breathe. I realised, why in gods name , knowing that this wasnt my deligation in the first place, didnt she pick up on this? Shes an X legal secretary afterall.
Now it’s Oct08 and iam playing the waiting game.. (its killing me) I wondered in this time, and my partner and i have been so frustrated and usually fight because of the frustration but know we still love each other dearly and remind each other daily that we’re not going to give up, but why weren’t we sent any notice while the petition was being sent backwards and forwards that the forms and evidence needed for the petition werent attached? They are meant to notify us of that correct? Or did they just want their money and couldnt care less if we made mistakes and had to pay more to file it a second time?
We have tried contacting Customer Service in California but seriously, the prompts arnt that acurate and we can never get through!
We are asking for the petition to be expedited.
We’re shattered and are totally scared that we’re going to get denied. I know it wont get approved so iam praying that we will receive a RFE. Referral for Evidence. That would make me more excited then a DENIED stamp.
I just want to know, from the time you received your NOA how long did the whole process take?
And what did you guys do to make it through being apart?
I mean, i seriously think it’s sad that people that are in love get put in line. I can understand for other visas but for this, no-way.. at this rate, my partner fights for the freedom of his people , specially the government to stand, for these people at USCIS to go home to their loved ones whenever they want, have a shower whenever they want, eat whatever whenever they want, sit on their asses in aircon all day while he’s miserable in Iraq, hot showers on hot days, cold on cold day, the food is crap and constantly makes him sick cause its not a healthy intake, the sand and dust storms are sickening too, water is sometimes not available, sits in a boiling hot pilots desk, goes out and patrols, dies for the touch of his loved one when his shift is over, wakes up and the day repeats.. He does that for what? Ya know! Seriously , for them to have those luxuries, take them for granted and deny him his happiness in return?
He deserves the love and life we want to be together..
Congratulations! I hope everything turns out well for you’s in the future!
Hit me back a line when you get the time.
October 10th, 2008 on 4:22 pm
Hi Ashka, nice to hear from you and thank you for your comments and congratulations to us! I hope soon we can say congratulations to you too :)
I’ve been meaning for a while to update this site to include the answers to some of the questions you’ve asked, but its been a rough time lately with my mom having some serious medical problems and I’ve just not had time to do anything much online, and when I do get time t mostly all spent staying in touch with Alison. I’ll try to answer your questions the best I can. I can relate to what you went through trying to understand the ins and outs of the petition process, I did the very same thing, must have read the instructions 20 times before I did anything at all, just to get it all clear in my head and of course I had Alison reading it and giving me her take on it as well. I can relate also to you not being able to contact customer support. I must have tried 50 times to get through over the first couple of months and only succeeded twice which in the end still turned out to be a waste of time as like I said in the post or one of the other comments, they would only tell me the petition was there and pending :( it is really a very frustrating process, and I agree whole heartedly there should be an easier way for this type of visa. But what does the government know about love ?! Well let me start with our time line and give you a condensed version.
May 29, 2008 I mailed off the petition
June 4, 2008 they received it. I got no notice at all from them by mail as I should have and when I did get through that first time they told me to give it another month… int he end I never got the first NOA by mail at all, only on the website.
Sept 1, 2008 we got the petition approval notice from the website and a few days later I got the approval NOA in the mail, and also a letter from the State Department saying my background check was completed and the petition would be forwarded to the American Embassy in Cyprus within a week.
Serpt 10, 2008 (I’m not certain of the exact date without looking it up but it was about that time Alison received her packet of instructions from the embassy and she began working on that end of things. she had already got a good head start from reading about it on the USCIS website and some others online of what they needed, liek the certificates and and police background checks and that sort of thing so she had them ready before she even got the notice. She sent the first forms in to them a few days afterwards acknowledging the receipt and her intentions to proceed and providing some personal background information. The next step was her getting a medical exam at a doctor of their choosing which she has done just this week on Wednesday. they will mail her the results in a packet to take to the interview. She is supposed to call them once she is ready to set the interview date. Being a smaller embassy there and not so many visas of this type to deal with there isnt much f a wait. I think the normal process is for them to just provide a date for the interview and you have to have everything done by then. Well anyway she has it all done but maybe one or two things to still get, but I expect we will have an interview date set very soon. and we’re praying its not going to be much longer either before she can let out her house there and find a good home for Benji, the family pet.
So thats around 5 months until now to where we are. I figure at the earliest as far as obtaining the visa it could be within a couple of weeks from now actually, but maybe another month or two to settle all the other things before she can leave. We were blessed to have it happen as fast as it did i think. Well to us it seemed an eternity coming, but reading other sites like this online I am seeing some horror stories of some very long waits. In retrospect we too should have started the petition a bit earlier than we did as it was a lot to get done. I think it was actually around the first of April when I began in earnest to put everything together, it is a lot more work than it reads on paper. :( but we had some other things going on too that needed attention and well anyway we are finally having things going our way now.
I am sorry to say I have to agree with your feeling about your petition not being approved right off, especially with it missing the initial evidence. You can still submit it though, there’s something on the site I remember reading that if yu have to add anthing you send it in and label it a certain way they state on the site. I don’t think they are of the mind to feel obligated to request something you left out, well not meaning ‘you’ personally, but they only contact you if they need some clarification on something you did submit, not something you left out. that’s the way I read the instructions, its really up to the petitioner to provide everything they outline and ask for, so I spent a whole lot of time double and triple checking everything and including even more evidence than I thought they would need as they did specify it was highly important to provide evidence of meeting and intention to marry. I know it seems a lot to go through but I guess we have to keep in mind there are very many who abuse this system of getting into the US, well what else can we do, its all about the money too. I just hope they will accept a submission of additional evidence to attach to the petition. Well I think thats all the technical questions you asked answered best as I can, if I missed something ask me again, I dont mind to help however I can, just know I am not online so very often at the present.
As far as the other question of hwo we manage to deal with being apart and dealing with the frustration, I can only say we have both been of the mind and heart that we would do whatever it takes to be together, for us there isn’t any other option and yes its pure hell and agony to be apart physically, but we stay so closely connected in spirit and through every means we can, cell calls and texts, email, chats, and we try and have a live skype session almost every day. That more than anything makes us feel so very close. We have never had anything near a fight over anything caused by this separation as we went into it knowing it wasn’t going to be easy. we just love each other more than anything else in the world and have seen what life can bring us and we have to look only to the day we will finally be together forever. Yes I known its not easy at all and i know we have both cried a ton of tears of being apart, but at the same time we have such an amazing happiness and devotion to each other we can do nothing else but stay patient. Our love is meant to be and we know it! There are so many other things we do and share online; photos, videos, ecards, just anything that keeps us feeling close, as well as occasional surprise like flowers and gifts and cards and letters. Well I dont want to say its hard work, but in a way it is, it’s taking a lot to work to deal with just the time difference and the distance and the lack of a physical relationship, although thats there in a few ways too, and as I said we are both determined and devoted and without doubt that we can do nothing else but endure the time it takes, she is the Only one for me in this world! We just truly have been blessed with a love from heaven and have faith that all will be perfect to come.
Oh my heart does go out to you too , just knowing how hard this wait is, and dealing with the visa petition, especially with him not being the actual one doing it, we will pray things go well for you and your very long wait will soon come to a beautiful end as ours is getting ready to do. Please keep in touch and let us know how its going, and I will try an update this post or do another to let everyone know our progress. and the wedding date too ;)
take care and thanks again.
Chester