Engaging Wait: Red tape could delay wedding
Road to citizenship seems uphill

By Mary M. Shaffrey
JOURNAL WASHINGTON BUREAU

WASHINGTON


The invitations are waiting to be mailed. The florist and the reception site were booked months ago. But will the bride make it back to Winston-Salem in time for her wedding?

Maria Duque, 33, is stuck in her native Colombia, waiting on a fiance visa so she can re-enter the country legally and marry Jeff Hicks on May 19.

As a national debate rages over the issue of illegal immigration, the agencies that control access to the United States are burdened with a backlog of cases. Duque is one of millions caught in the bureaucracy that keeps track of foreign-born visitors to the U.S. and those who wish to step onto the path of citizenship.

read more here...

Parents, please give your kids distinctive (read 'weird') names.

Thanks for the article, captain.

Good read.

An update...

Visa finally clears, wedding will go on
By Mary M. Shaffrey

MEDIA GENERAL NEWS SERVICE

Maria Duque will have her American wedding after all.

Duque, a native of Colombia, is engaged to Jeff Hicks of Winston-Salem. She got word early Monday morning that her application for a fiancé visa was approved.

"I couldn't sleep ... [Sunday] night, I was so excited. And when I got ... [to the American Embassy], they just said to me, 'Your visa has been approved,'" Duque said during a phone interview from Bogota, Colombia.

She will fly from South America to North Carolina on May 2.

http://washdateline.mgnetwork.com/index.cf...286&GroupID=213

I wonder if the publicity had anything to do with her getting approved?

It's about time somebody acknowledged us !

You have got that right, for sure!!!!!

Thanks for the update AS! Read that article when it came out here (WS) last month.

good article