Thank you Stacey, (LOVE that Hula Girl), William, (have a great reunion), Sheeba, (your turn will come soon!), and all the rest that sent kind thoughts.
I am still so excited. He has to pick up his passport with the visa on Monday afternoon and then apply for his exit letter from his country. He was a little disappointed that he could not begin this process the day after the interview, because we do not know how long the process will be for the "Carte de Salir". We have not seen each other for nearly 6 months and we had hoped he would arrive mid-October. We believe his arrival will now be sometime around the holidays, so again the wedding plans have gone on hold.
I am so happy that this part of the process is over that I don't mind having a bit of time to myself to get ready for his arrival, without the pressure of the interview hanging over our heads. There is no one that I am acquainted with in my immediate circle of friends that is going thru any part of sponsorship, for any reason. Unless you are or have been, it is hard to describe to anyone what the rollercoaster of emotions are like for both people, especially with the distance between you. I appreciated being able to come and read at VJ and make friends also with people that were going through the same as I.
I will be happier yet not to experience the feeling of dread everytime I got my phone bill in the mail, even though I had phone cards to lower the cost......they always ran out at the most inconvenient times.
My Fiance is an engineer and the interviewer asked him a few questions about his education and the fact that he had traveled outside of his country several times. She asked him how it was possible that a Cuban could leave the island as a tourist or for work. He had also traveled to Japan as his father resides there. She also asked if I had every visited him in Cuba, (No), and how and why we had decided to meet in Peru. He has family there and we flew there 4 times to meet and we had an apartment in Lima, so we could vacation whenever I could get there.
I had been married before, more than once, and I have children, 2 grown and gone and 1 still at home. He has 2 children, but has never been married. We are both older, but there is a difference in our ages of more than 7 years. I share that now, because I was a little nervous about how this information may impact our case. I had taken my youngest child to meet him the last time I went to Peru and she spent a great deal of time gong over our pictures and asking him a variety of questions about our families, birthdates and where they resided, including my deceased father and extended family. He took over 200 pictures with him to the interview, including a scrapbook that I had made for him/us from the beginning of our relationship.
While the woman was polite and courteous, I would have to say to anyone that perhaps our interview may have been a little more in depth because of our personal information, I believe that truly it was not, it was just a matter of the interviewer we had and she was just the curious type. From everything that my Fiance has shared with me about the interview and how the questions were asked, it is apparent that she acquainted herself very well with the information in our papers wehn he turned them in before the interview. So, my advice would be to others waiting for their interview is that we may have been over prepared, but it helped him to be comfortable.
Warmly,
2manypapers
(We had worked very hard on his language skills over the last year and he was nervous, but I told him he was ready.....what a star!)
