Great Expectations

[egolessvegan]

When we all started this fiancee visa process we expected a swift start and finish with a positive result.

Honestly, how many months did you expect for completion?

I was hopeful for 5-6 and now finishing up 8 months and still no interview date yet.

In spite of all this inconvenience, just think how lucky we are to be in this position.

Keeping it real, here in beautiful Jupiter, Florida.

Egolessvegan, better known as Ken

[nousername]

When i started i started i knew that it could be upto 1.5 years +, but i hoped for the best and thought "Maybe 9 months". A little more optimistic than the "standard" 10-12 months. But to be honest, I am still hoping for 9 months!!! hehe... maybe less!!! :lol:

 

At the same time, i am always trying to prepare myself for the worst... (BUT, let's not go down this path though, try to keep this thread optimistic!!! :D )

[egolessvegan]

Keep the positive attitude. It does wonders.

Ken

[warpedbored]

I expected a year and hoped for 8-10 months. It was 5 days short of a year.

[egolessvegan]

Did it seem like a long time looking back now?

Ken

[MarkLuvsShuPing]

Hehehe! When I asked ShuPing if she wanted to get married, I thought all I'd have to do was get there, get married and bring her back with me.

 

Then ShuPing had me talk to her friend's husband, Bob in San Fran and he kinda set me straight and turned me on to CFL (thanks Bob). This was at the tail end for the black hole folks and some of them were still waiting after 2 years.

 

I was told it could take anywhere from 8 months to 2 years. So my expectations were 8 to 12 months, I too try to be an optimist.

 

What burns my ass is that I made a mistake waiting until the end of my first trip to start on the paperwork, I couldn't download the forms to the computer I was using, and if I could've, I wouldn't have been able to print them. So I left China with none of it complete and ended up not getting it done until April.

 

If I'd have submitted the paperwork in January, ShuPing would be here by now.

[egolessvegan]

It is going to happen in spite of any delay!

Ken

[Jason+Joanna]

I am expecting the wait to be about 10 months. I started a poll on this awhile back now. It seems about 60% of the cases were around the timeline. The other 40% were either longer or they just started the petition / waiting.

[egolessvegan]

If we expect a longer timeline does the wait become more comfortable?

Ken

[lele]

If we expect a longer timeline does the wait become more comfortable?

Ken

   

We should do as best as we can. Getting sad and depressed will not help us.

 

But, it sucks *#(@ that the process is as it is.

 

Honestly (sorry for being crass above), it is quite unfair. The resources given to helping US citizens out seems to have racist undertones to it. In the white European and North American Nations, the times are much faster, the number of staff working on these cases is greater in both absolute number, and in terms of percentage of population served. The total time for a case is an ORDER OF MAGNITUDE SHORTER.

 

Wealth definitely factors in as well, and so do politics. However, the end result, to me at least seems clear. PREJUDICE.

 

This is a reason why I am so frustrated, and to see that people here think that it is China that is causing this. Well, my father's brother (only uncle) exploded when he realized that it was the US holding things up. I am sad that he was in the hospital when he found out, but it was lucky, or else he may have smashed something and then really been in trouble.

 

He then vowed that he would vote against the republicans for the rest of his life in response...in his view the people in power created this mess, and now it is personal (given that they live in a solid blue state, this will likely not have any effect). But the point is solid. I am not saying that either political party would have fixed this. But I certainly am mad as hell that the leaders of our nation do not seem to do anything other the propagate their own self-interests, including blatant racism and prejudice.

 

This is not what I was taught as a kid that we were supposed to be based on, so yes, I am mad as hell. However, I also know that getting mad can not be good for my health, or my work, so I try to deal with it as best as I can.

 

I can feel the pain and frustration that others are going through. However, I would like to tell to all that since we really care so much, we need to stand up and do something about this. Maybe not now, but we need to start soon, for our own sake and for those of our peers currently behind us in the process, and the many that will follow in our footsteps.

 

I do not have the solution, but I certainly have one idea:

DUMP EVERYONE WHO CURRENTLY HAS A SAY --- and let's get some new ideas in there!

 

Ok, sorry to vent.

 

GL to all!!!

[egolessvegan]

Do you feel better now? Sometimes we just need to go with the flow. Life is not always fair!

Ken

[MarkLuvsShuPing]

I don't know if there are enough of us to make a big enough stink about it, but I suggest everyone write their congress people a letter to explain the problems we seem to have. Offer solutions not complaints. If every Congressman or Senator started getting enough of these letters and e-mails, who knows.

 

On the other hand though, this isn't the first time this has come up on CFL. Most people just want to go about getting their visas and not be bothered with writing Congress. Although it hurts us all, there seems to be a feeling that it won't do any good, so why bother?

 

I had another thought, what if we got together a PAC, (Political Action Committe), figure out a way to fund it and try to change things that way? I don't think that's been proposed yet.

 

If everyone pitched in, we could buy our way into Washington. Are there enough of us to raise the money needed? I bet there are.

[Martytb]

When we started last December, I was telling Weiping 6 months.

She said "One year". I lose.

[ed and ying]

I have been waiting so long to start process, I fully expect it will be a year or so. Hopefully I have soaked up enough knowledge during the wait , that I will be well prepared and not make any silly mistakes. It has certainly raised my confidence. I think I know what to do, what to expect - in general handle the process

[MarkLuvsShuPing]

Gee Ed, you better stock up on the Cheetos.

 

I have no doubt that you're going to hit the 2000 posts mark before it's over.

 

But I really hope you only have time to reach the 500 post mark before she gets here.

 

(That's an off-handed way of wishing you a speedy process).