Losing hope! Any USC living overseas with their spouse?

[Team_Healey 6]

Hello!

I was wondering if there might be anyone who has experienced or may be experiencing the freakishly long wait for mail to arrive in from the USA? Preferably the USC Petitioner of your partner's visa while both living overseas. And maybe even some answers or ways around this kind of dilemma I am having or tips to get the gears moving?

My situation currently,

I had to renew both my License and State I.D. by the end of last year, and I am still waiting for both till this day! I could not believe the state DPS once I had called, they told me they do not allow tracking as an option even if they send overseas and offered to send again, which I took!

I can do nothing but wait, and it has been 2 months now calling back and forth and checking the mail box daily. Did the mail Gods devour my cards? Or someone in NZ have my embarrassing License picture to tote around? :S

Or maybe Customs has it and it may be a prohibited item? (I highly doubt it but my mind is going to all corners now).

It is very frustrating and I need these for a smooth landing once my Husband's (hopefully) soon to be CR-1 visa is given and I can start our lives back home with our child. State covered insurance, day care, signing up for a doctor, buying a car, etc. Not to mention proof of domicile while I am living with my Husband and Child overseas.

It is very hard to do things overseas but I wanted my Son to be with his Father as I knew the CR-1 process would be very long. I just feel helpless, any thoughts would help. I am currently awaiting till the 60 days review period after getting an RFE for putting $0 for my recent tax year as I do not make any US currency and it not matching my tax transcript. (Another annoying thing probably NZ and AUS residing petitioners have gone through).

Thank you for reading and more thanks for any response! I feel like I am able to do nothing at this phase but wait, not knowing if the cards will ever show up. Everyone, good luck on your journey!

[Karmalious 50]

Stay tough.

I was living with my wife in colombia for almost a year before I finally had to make the decision to come back to the states for money, among other things. In Colombia the wages were 1/5th of America. Every piece of mail sent back and forth was incredibly expensive. Oddly enough, it took less time for America to receive Colombian mail than it did for Colombia to receive it from the states. Packages sent DHL to the U.S. took approximately 2 weeks. Packages coming from the U.S. took up to a month + .

What was probably most frustrating is that I do not have a strong family-support-system in the U.S.A. I had to rely on an old friend to "receive" the mail from the government ... AND THEN, I had to have my friend mail it to me.

Which is what I will suggest to you... Have someone, even an old friend, receive your mail in the U.S.A ( so you know it will be delivered ), then have your friend use a courrier service to ship it overseas with a track #.

Edited May 3, 2015 by Karmalious

[Team_Healey 6]

Hello Karmalious and thank you for your reply!

I will stay tough and keep calling and waiting! Not sure how far I got this time as I was told no one can pick it up for me and it can not be sent to my domiciled address like I had requested in a letter with the order form. The man I spoke to said it would be illegal to do so since I am ordering from overseas it must go directly to me. My Skype call hung up and connection is pretty bad for overseas calls in New Zealand and it kept dropping. Thinking the man might think I hung up on him! Whoops. I am going to call this poor man up again and ask if at least I can set up a courier ticket to pick up and track to be sent to me overseas. I will update if anyone may be going through the same thing as I am! If it fails to get to me by the time an interview is on the way I will probably have to print out the correspondance via e-mail to at least prove I tried to renew my license and state I.D. cards. :c

Thank you again for your reply!

[Team_Healey 6]

**UPDATE**

Called DPS and the man working with me to solve this problem said all I could do was either wait or pick it up in person as he had sent it the maximum times for security reasons. I really did appreciate this man's help and patience after the long wait. On Wednesday, (May 13th for us) one of my cards had finally shown up, it happens to be the second license he had sent from overseas. All together, for mail from the USA to me in NZ it took from Feb.3rd-May 13th to get my card.

Any one might find this useful in regards to official documents being sent to them overseas! Keep calling and waiting, always let them know after at least 2 weeks of waiting that whatever you have ordered had not come in. In my case, to get my renewal, it took way too long but I am glad the second attempt went through! Good luck everyone!