parkpapa is right. The mail system sucks outside of Bogota. Look what happened to us. It took Wendy about 2 weeks to receive packet 3 and she lives in Barranquilla which is a big city.

Thanks folks. I will call myself and maybe have Paola call. I just bought the sirline tickets. WOW!!!!!! The flights were all full, it took almost 2 hours with a travel agent to get me there and her back with me. On top of that is was way expensive.
That is a good Idea to have the packet sent to the hotel/aprtment we are staying at. I am sure they will not mind. Then we would know we had it for sure. Thanks.

Where the heck is Andrea??????????????????

I really don't think Paola will get packet 4 at all, just like packet 3 so it's best to just arrange picking it up at the embassy. The mail system in Colombia is pretty bad but in Buenvaventura is even worse because of the guerilla/paramilitar situation going on there. But don't worry things will work themselves out.



Dre...........

What's up girl?!!! We're waiting for the good news!

Diana

Now they got me checking up... Come on Andrea, give us some great news!

YES!!!!!!!!!!! We got our approval, visa on Wednesday. I wont say visa in hand until it is.

Im on a reallllyy slow connection so Ill give you details tomorrow when I get home.

lol

dre

WAHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love the success stories. You two have earned your reward. Congrats to you both.

Great news!!!!!!!!!

Congratulations!!!!!!!

CONGRATULATIONS!!!! Can't wait to hear the details. You are an inspiration to anyone on this sight who's situation didn't go perfectly as planned. With every step you said, "ok, whats next"" congrats.

¡Felicitaciones Dre y Oskar!

Bill

Congradulations girl!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! From what i have read in the posts that you have been through no one deserves this more!!!!!

I think I have completed a miricle. I actullay got a Colombian to have a sense of urgencey about sometning!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I just got off the internet with Paola. She has assured me that she will get the invitation letter. A friend of hers who is also getting married to an Americano are going to travel by bus on Monday to get the letter. She says they have it all under control and for me to stop stressing out. I said OK, I will still have time to call and make arrangements if all else fails. Who would ever have thought this would be such a stressful journey. In the US, you can pretty much count on what is said and what will be done. In Colombia....................you have to pursue all and figure that nothing will be done. It may be in part to my personality, but I do not feel comfortable leaving things to the last moment. along with that, you can not make plans, such as airline travel or hotel accomodations at the last moment. Once you spend the $$$$$$$ for that, it puts a little bit of urgency on everething. I had a heck of a time getting a room for a resonable amout of money and plane tickets 4 weeks out. This has come down to a one time shot for me to be there for the interview. I can not refund the tickets. I can change the travel date for up to 60 days at a cost of another $100.00. I am taking notes and when we get the visa, I intend to write my thoughts, experience and advice, (for what ever it amy be worth) so that others who are just beginning this can maybe avoid some of this stress. I am gaining "hind site". LOL.

What we do when in love!!!!!!!!!! Both men and women!!!! LOL

Congrats Andrea... finally you can say you're over that part!

See you in the AOS forum!

CONGRATULATIONS ANDREAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm so happy for the both of you. You finally get to be together. Woohoo!!!!

Buck,

I think it's great that you're a worry wart. It helps you stay focused and it helps you in getting everything prepared for the interview. This whole thing will be all over before you know it.

Diana

Congrats Dre!!!!!! I will see you in the AOS side and Buck, keep on top of them!

Who would ever have thought this would be such a stressful journey. In the US, you can pretty much count on what is said and what will be done. In Colombia....................you have to pursue all and figure that nothing will be done

Buck,
I think you will change your mind about 5 minutes into SS, DL, and AOS.

Congratulations Oskar y Dre, it is great to hear the news that y ou finally made it happen, we are all very happy for you...................

Here, Here! The fun is only beginning Buck
Ripley's believe it or not: We were waiting in line at the New York City USCIS office for our number to be called to go to one of those little windows, there were probably 200 people waiting to be called. As you may expect in nyc, I would estimate 90% were immigrants from Spanish speaking countries. NOT ONE person working in any of the 10 windows spoke spanish. Every 5 minutes they would say, "does any one in the audience speak spanish and english that could help translate" My favorite part was that they kept saying "audience" like we were all there to see some kind of immigration show.

great news andrea!! you got through the difficult part, now lets hope things go well for you to receive the visa. this delay, although difficult and dissappointing, happened for a reason. Dios sabe como hace sus cosas, asi que felicidades, suerte con todo y que Dios los Bendiga.
JK

Quote: Here, Here! The fun is only beginning Buck
Ripley's believe it or not: We were waiting in line at the New York City USCIS office for our number to be called to go to one of those little windows, there were probably 200 people waiting to be called. As you may expect in nyc, I would estimate 90% were immigrants from Spanish speaking countries. NOT ONE person working in any of the 10 windows spoke spanish. Every 5 minutes they would say, "does any one in the audience speak spanish and english that could help translate" My favorite part was that they kept saying "audience" like we were all there to see some kind of immigration show.


Thank you......I am only going to worry about one thing at a time. LOL>LOL. I think your were seeing a "show". LOL.

How did you do it? LOL . . .

After three months of lost faxes, lost mail, the run-around from the embassy, and my incessant worrying, the embassy *finally granted my fiance a visa interview for August 21st. My Colombian fiance's response: "See, I told you not to worry!" My response: "If I hadn't worried, we would never have gotten an interview date!!!!" Although I admire his constant faith that things will turn out well no matter what (and that's one of the reasons I love him), I just can't change my innate nature as a worry-wart . . .

CONGRATULATIONS Oskar and Andrea. No one deserves this more than you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Aaaaaaaugh, going to the Immigration office is the worst thing ever! The people there are so rude, you have to wait for hours just to be called to the window and for some reason there is always an odd smell in there. I don't know what it is, but it just smells funny. I hate going there.

Hello all!

We are tying the knot today....in attempts to beat the USCIS price hike deadline. However I am happy that we are getting married however it's not what we really wanted...civil marriage. Next year we will have a 'real' wedding, the whole 9 yards, gown, tux, partying, etc.

Whaaaaaaat???!!! Oh my gosh! What surprise.

Let me be the first one to congratulate you both!!!

I totally understand about having to do it, the price hike is way too much, I certainly can't afford it with all the fees I've already paid and every other expense. My "wedding" wasn't special either and we keep talking about having a real wedding some day. Who knows if that will happen.

Anyway... CONGRATS LUCHO!!!!

Diana

I think this is leading to good info for those reading this and just beginning the visa journey.................it is expensive. If at all possible think about this before. I know "love happens". But to get into this and then not be able to complete the process because of lack of funds would be devastaing. This is not the same as having a relationship in your own country. I hired a lawyer........Holmes & Lolly........$2900.00, include AOS for her and her son. At this point in time I could have done it all myself. When counting the total cost to date over the last 1.5 years, including visits, lawyer, translations I am up over $18k in out of pocket expense and she is not here yet. I realize I have spent more then many and knowing now what I do, I could get by for much less. It is all relative to your income. I am about tapped out. What I am saying is, it is expensive. Know that going in and plan ahead. Figure out ways to keep cost a minimum. I have had to pretty much save every penny of my disposable income, setting aside some of the pleasures in life I used to enjoy in hopes of a lifetime of having my love here with me. It has been and I hope it will be worth every penny. Good luck to all.

On top of the $ is what's most important when planning a wedding....TIME. When applying for a K1 visa, you do not have the time to plan your wedding because you will never know exactly when and if your fiance will be able to travel to USA. We all know that it takes about 1 year in advance to plan a wedding. Plus its not really fair for the fiance's family if they are all in Colombia. To have a 1 sided wedding is not too great. I'm looking to having the ceremony in Colombia. It is much easier to have my family members travel to Colombia than her's coming to USA. Yes, we will be able to plan a nice ceremony to get married next year, but it is not the same because in the back of your mind you think "technically we are already married". So it sucks. This is the downfall with the K1 visa. However the most important is that we are together. Sorry for rambling on, but i'm

Wow, Lucho!! All the best to both of you.

I know what you mean, it's not the same. As much as you want to believe that a "real" ceremony is the "real" wedding, it's just not the same, you're already married. But we had a civil ceremony in Medellín at the Notary and I guess now we just have to plan the religious ceremony in Colombia. Bad part is the Catholic church makes everything so complicated to do anything over there, augh. PLUS, my husband is not even here so now we have to plan on when to go back and do it! Geez!

But regardless of that, you'll be married and there are so many wonderful things you can do in L.A. to compensate, just having a romantic dinner this weekend somewhere on the beach is plenty enough. I loooooooove L.A., wish I could live there again.

Diana

Congratulations!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Lucho...congratulations to both of you. I know exactly how you feel, we will have a REAL wedding sometime next summer, too.

Now...for the details...

Well, first of all Im ashamed to say that we got to the embassy 26 minutes late for our appointment. It was 7:26am and line 3 was empty!!! I asked the usher if we could go in and she said, no youll have to make another appointment. I showed her the email correspondence I had from the vice-consul and told her she was personally expecting us (which was the truth) and could she go in and ask her pleasssssssssssse. She agreed and 10 minutes later she let us in. IM SOOOO ASHAMED but we were up til 3am going over every document and question so yes, we overslept.

We went to booth #1 and the guy there was a PAISA (I hope by know weve established what this is) and since oscar and I are both Paisas, he was very nice to us. He asked me if this was our first interview, I said no, our 3rd. He asked me for the additional evidence and I pulled out our 3 ring binder busting at the seems and a 14 inch stack of 8.5 x 11 paper with all our IMs and he laughed and said, save that mountain of evidence for the consul when she calls you, it doesnt fit here and its obvious you did your homework.

About 45 min later they called us to booth 6 and we pulled out the stack again and put it on that ledge they have. The consul asked oscar about my trips to see him but he could barely understand her spanish so it over quick. She asked him if I was there, and I came to the phone. She says to me, do you know why we didnt issue your husband the visa last time? I say no. She says, well, the other CO that interviewed him speaks better spanish than me and he told her that after you were married you went on a 3 week motorcycle tour, but you said you left 3 days later, can you tell me why he told her that? I said, no, I cant speak for him but all I can say is that it is soooo nerve racking on this side of the glass that when she asked me several things I totally gave her the wrong dates and or information because I nervous and I think she just misunderstood his answer. The lady then has this paper in her hand and I though SHHHH((/&&, she is going to give me another denial, so I interrupt her and say, LISTEN I have every shred of evidence known to man here and I didnt fly on a $1500 for you to deny us based on the last interview. You have to review this evidence. SHe says, no, we are going to issue YOU your visa and hands me the paper and contines, but we just wanted you to know why you had this problem and why we made you come here again. She got up and walked away.

SO, we have our approval, but they were not happy about having to issue it. I dont care what they think, I just thank GOD for the approval. And a big huge thanks to Senator Saxby Chambliss of Georgia whos office was the driving force behind this success story. After that interview I know for sure that it was his intervention that caused them to issue us a 3rd interview and ultimately our visa, not a change of heart.

Thats the story guys. Im still in Bogota FREEZING my ### off. See you on the AOS side

I LOVE YOU GUYS

Dre

I think the embassy knew that they would have collectively broken all our hearts if you didn't get the visa this time We're so happy you'll be joining us over on the next step of wild and crazy times aka AOS. Great thing about AOS is you do it from the same place, so no matter how annoying it is, you're together.

lucho, one great thing about having your wedding in colombia is that you can have the wedding of your dreams for a tiny fraction of what is costs here. ours was a black tie affair at the prado with the ceremony at the inmaculada and it cost 1/10 of what it would have here..so enjoy it when the time comes.
JK

Congrats Lucho!!!! Happy for ya Dre.....I understand about the Paisas now!!!!!! I joke with my wife because a singer in a restaurant in Bogota called me a Costeno. I tell her I must be from Cartegena!

Dre...............in all your post's about your denials I did not see a good reason for the denial. Now I am scared!!!!!!!! You two seem to be a perfect canidate for the visa. I am happy for you both!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I lit another fire under my sweeties hermosa culo tonight, she was beginning to slip back in to tranquility. LOL>LOL.
Augist 17th is comming up fast and slow. I want it to be over with. I love the fact that you faced oposition and over came it. You do have fortitude!!! I am impressed.

Thanks everybody

Just got married....it's official, i'm off the market

I felt kind of bad getting married at the regristar/county clerk building. It was more funny than serious. The judge even scolded us for not taking it serious. I had told her that our real wedding will be next year, she replied, well its whats on the license is what counts, this is your real wedding. I replied, "A piece of paper doesnt mean much to us, the ceremony has much more value to us"

Hope she doesnt mess up our marriage certificate because of this. ooops

CONGRATS TO DRE. SHE DEFINITELY DESERVES IT. I HOPE TO BE JOINING THE OLD-TIMERS ON THE AOS SIDE SOMEDAY SOON.

Glenn,

If I may ask, why was your case put in a administrative process?

Very nice Luchco.............Married is married, I see that as just paper. I agree the ceramony is the biggie. We are planning to be married here in the US at a county court house. Then later after the AOS is complete we will go to Colombia and have a major blowout for her family and friends. My family could care less. I do have some freinds that will come down for the "real" ceramony. Congrats!!!

Legalize it buddy... felicidades!!

Glad to see taxpayer money working for taxpayers!

We will also have a family and religious wedding in Colombia. There would just be a complete and ridiculous horror story referring my future relatives that don't have European passports in Colombia to websites in order to get US B visas!!!!

It's good that you are very focus Buck and culos are burning, but remember that Andrea "Super Paisa" faced prejudice and scrutiny because her husband is a little younger than her. We all know that older men and younger women relationships are very common in Colombia. I look at your time line and see that you have known your fiancee longer than I did with mine, spent more time together and visted her more times than my case. I know each case may be different but my approval was the "classic". I know you will be on the AOS side next month. Oh while I am on the subject, just a heads up for all the members getting ready for approvals.
1. You will need a english translation of the birth certificate. May be cheaper and easier to get in Colombia
2. May be good idea to locate a knowledgeable civil surgeon in your area. Can use the civil surgeon locator link from the USCIS website. K-1 visa holders do not need to have a full physical again but many civil surgeon will insist or charge high fees. Your esposa or esposo only needs to have the a vaccination supplement form fill out. They may however need a few shots. That all.

Quick questions, now that i found that my fiance is pregnant, does that make my case more relevant, as far as evidence??? And my other question is, now that she is pregnant, im not sure that she can get all the shots because of it, will this be a problem, of course all of this if our NOA2 says "approved" ....

Way to go dude! Felicidades a tí también.

Byron I think some of the shots are safe for expecting moms and the fetuses, and some may not be so safe. Obviously, this should be disclosed at the time of injection and at the time of the physical exam so that an exemption can be obtained if the shot is not safe in "that condition".

not to stir things up but congrats, but you are there 4jul how is she just now pregnant?

Congratulations to everybody on everything! This thread is filled with good news today.

Lucho, I can hear hearts breaking from here now that you're off the market. And shame on you for laughing at the court house. I had a huge lump on my throat when we got married because that is not how I wanted my "wedding" to be. I sure hope I can get married some time soon in Colombia, the bad thing is planning it from here since I know my family there will be useless.

Anyway, again congratulations to everybody!

Diana

Lucho, we did the same thing in April. It makes life so much easier. Planning wedding from another country = headache. It was our plan, our plan changed.

Byron- How Pregnant is she? You have a lot to think about. Baby born in the US would be a US Citizen. But are you sure she is ready to have the baby in a new country far from her family and friends? Even if she is, you need to Make sure you talk through this situation before going further. The only date that you can be sure of (mas o menos) is the birth of the baby. Write this day down on a piece of paper in front of you and work backwards from there. The next thing to write down is how long before she gives birth she can travel, up to the doctor, but usually about 8 weeks. work back 8 weeks from your day you wrote down. This is your deadline to have everything approved with Visa in hand. any hiccups, and it's back to day one.

Remember, if she is pregnant, she can enter the US same as before once you have the K1 visa. Being pregnant is not evidence of anything except being pregnant, so I don't think it helps a case. Once the baby is born, she can't just enter with a K1 and a baby in her arms. you will need the K2. You can't apply for a K2 without a baby, and you only have a 6 month window for her to enter once the K1 visa is approved.
Don't panic, but you need to do the calculations now about what is possible and what is not possible.
Let's say she's 2 months pregnant, and she can travel up to 8 weeks before. That gives you until December to have a visa in hand. It's doable, but you will need to be on the ball by having a Ob/Gyn ready to take all the tests and records from colombia that you'll have done so far. This is ALL contingent on your fiance willing to have the baby away from her family.
You need to separate the inevitable from the plannable and figure out your plan. Your world has changed bro.

One small correction though, you don't have to file a K2 if the baby is born in Colombia. All you have to do is claim US citizenship for him because he'll be a US citizen through you. I'm not sure if you'll need a DNA test for that though.

But yeah, you need to think about the dates, it took Lucho about 5 months total for his wife's K1 visa. If everything goes as well for you as it did for him, you could have an interview date in October/November. Hopefully that will give her plenty of time to get here. Also, you need to find out how to add her to your health insurance because giving birth here in the States is very expensive.

Diana