David A.

David - Holy heck am I glad to see you! How have you been? Awe I remember when your wife just got her visa. I am so glad to see that things are going ok. I know that the work situation sucks, but it means that you will have more quality time I think.. Ok maybe I am convincing myself of that Anyway i hope you two lovebirds are doing ok!

Yup everything is good...

Nice to see you pop back in! Glad your wife is up and running although the 2 week vacation-shock sucks. What line of work is she doing? Most companies give about 3 weeks nowadays unless it's 2 weeks of normal vacation coupled with a week or so of "sick days".

Depending on the job she might luck out and eventually switch to a European company with US offices. My sister is switching jobs to one that is European owned. All of a sudden she gets 6 weeks vacation! What the hell?? I want a deal like that.

Anyway, glad you two are doing well otherwise! Don't be a stranger. I plan on visiting here even after the wifey FINALLY gets her visa and moves over. I'd love to pay it forward and help folks starting their journey. I've learned so much just hanging out here.

Take care man.

Nice to see you pop back in! Glad your wife is up and running although the 2 week vacation-shock sucks. What line of work is she doing? Most companies give about 3 weeks nowadays unless it's 2 weeks of normal vacation coupled with a week or so of "sick days".

Depending on the job she might luck out and eventually switch to a European company with US offices. My sister is switching jobs to one that is European owned. All of a sudden she gets 6 weeks vacation! What the hell?? I want a deal like that.

Anyway, glad you two are doing well otherwise! Don't be a stranger. I plan on visiting here even after the wifey FINALLY gets her visa and moves over. I'd love to pay it forward and help folks starting their journey. I've learned so much just hanging out here.

Take care man.

She's working for Navy Federal Credit Union. If I ever get stationed overseas somewhere... there's always a Navy Fed Credit Union so while I'm in, she'll just work for them in the meantime...

Glad you're still around.

Heya David!

Not sure if you remember me but I remember you Hope all is going well for you both of you.

Oh meant to say also - Thanks for the link!

Yup I remember you. I hope your process is moving steadily. I think you were one of the few who was hoping for a quick DCF process also but got shafted. Anyway, just count your blessings... things will work out.

Take care.

I haven't been on here for "minute" (for a while). I hope all the newbies are finding this to be helpful.

Right now... my wife has finally made her way into the working class and is feeling more home sick than ever... after realizing that Americans work their asses off for 1 year and only get two weeks off for it. So enjoy your 1 month annual leave while you've still got it. It made her realize why middle class Americans can't go on these nice long European holidays...

Anyway, I found a website for her to vent with other Aussies. Mates Up Over Anyway, she only moved over here for me.

Hope everyone one is doing good... for those who know me =)

Lyndel..

Congrats on the wedding!!! Wish you the best.

David

Hi Guys,

I have a few quick questions about traveling.

I’m originally from Australia, but have been living here in the US, with my wife, for the past year and a half. I have my US Permanent Resident Green Card, and my wife is a US citizen.

We are planning on traveling together to Australia for a 4 week holiday in July. Am I able to travel with my original Australian Passport? And reenter the US using only my passport and Green Card? Or are there other documents I require to leave and reenter both countries?

Thank you for your help.

I believe if your passport is still valid and your green card is still valid, then I don't see why you wouldn't be able to travel.

Check with the Aussies on the LandDownunder thread under Asia: East and Pacific forum. Land Down Under

congrats on everything arriving for your wife David...how is the job prospecting going...great that you now can start your life together as husband and wife...

take care

kath

I'm trying to find her an office job here at my hospital. If not there are plenty of other places she's qualified for... so things are looking promising.

Hey everyone... an update on mine and Stephanie's situation here.

Last friday, we recieved her Social Security Card...

And yesterday, we recieved her Green Card....

So all in all, it took a little over two weeks to get everything.

I'm glad that process was much quicker.

Hi everyone

I have been lurking around VJ for a couple of weeks and officially introduced myself in the intro section last week but only found the Aussie thread now This seems to be the best place to be! Though I doubt if I can read through all 114 pages right now just to catch up on everybody's situtation, though I'm sure it'll become evident very soon as we all go through "the journey".

Before anything, I guess an intro of the situation that my American fiance & I are currently facing: we met back in 2003 at University. He was doing his first year in Honours in Nanotechnology and I was doing my first year of my Masters. Since 2003 he has spent of his time here in Adelaide with me only going home during his summer holidays from Uni (Christmas time) or when having to attend his best friend's wedding. In the nearly 4 years we've been together I am very ashamed to say that I haven't been to the US (Missouri, to be exact). It just worked out that his parents would always come down every year and work wasn't really keen on letting me go for an extended period so taking a holiday to the US never came about.

Now it's March 2007 and we're now taking the steps for me to move from little ol' Adelaide to Missouri (Columbia, MO to be exact) as soon as the US Government can allow me to I have to admit that I never would have realised the whole DCF process if it wasn't for VJ only to realise that even though Zach had been living (as an International Student) here in Adelaide for 3 1/2 years, we wouldn't be able to take this route. This is crushing since DCF seems to be the quickest method of petitioning somebody.

As for our immediate future, he's currently back in Missouri (since his student visa has expired) and will be back here in June 1 (our 4 Year Annivesary, how appropriate) and I guess we start planning our wedding so that we can speed things up. At the earliest we're looking at a November/December wedding as he needs to be back in Missouri to start his PhD by mid-January 2008. Originally we were looking at a November 2008 wedding but we figured that the quicker we make our union "official" in the eyes of the Govt, the quicker we can start our permanent future together. It might sound like it's taking the romance out of the wedding, but we don't necessarily look at it that way.

Hmm...this has become somewhat of an essay. Sorry! I guess now we've got to either just face the fact that we can't go for a DCF or try to either a) convince the Consulate that "we're a special circumstance" or B) have Zach move here as a "resident" (as classified by the US Govt) from June-Dec (that's 6 months!) and then we can go for DCF. Or am I kidding myself?

Alright, enough from me. It's just good to talk about these type of things with people who have/or are going through this at the same time. It is definitely comforting to know that I am not alone and that others have gone through the journey and the end result of this whole thing is one of eternal happiness. I know this is all worth it.

Hey, my wife is from Adelaide TOO!!!

Thanks Meauxna... my wife wants to hurry to find a job.

Can someone tell me how quickly my wife would recieve her Green Card and SSN in the mail. She arrived this past sunday... She wants to look for a job but is just waiting on the SSN.

Hey everybody... Wifey arrived last night here in Pensacola, FL. The whole thing at the LAX POE went great... except the first lady my wife encountered was being a b!tch and someone saw and took her envelope from her and got her through quick, the other lady apparently has issues.

Anyway, it's a beautiful day in Florida.

Congratulations Elle,

You're right, the same person must have been working on our visa's because Rose had no idea what was going on. As far as Walter was concerned. He did the same thing to my wife during her interview, tried to trip her up, but my wife kept correcting him... So ya, same ease as yours. I'm glad it's all over. You have been waiting this long, you guys deserve it.

The Journey is finally over...

I cannot begin to tell you how much of a relief this is.

I think I heaved a sigh of relief with you, David.. felt so bad for all you all stuck in the middle with that. You handled everything so well, I'm not surprised at your outcome, just happy for you!

Thank you guys... I can't begin to say how much appreciation I have for people who keep their head up and give people realistic advice...

Vylex, hang in there. You know what... with this whole thing that happened, if I had just done it the way it's done now back in September... this would have been finished probably around the same time and we probably could have saved thousands of dollars. But that's just the way life is sometimes. You just deal with the situation and move on. But hang in there... you'll get through it. Believe me.

OMG DAvid...what a story! I am so glad you all made it through...and technically it did still take shorter than a K1 route...WAY more stressful...but it's all over.

I'm not kidding about a meet up I hope we can work it out!

Yes, I told my wife about you... and how you followed my journey since I joined this thing. If we ever come by Jacksonville, which I'm sure we will, if not this year, at least by next, we'll ring you up.

Hey MEAUXNA... speaking of which... yes... that definitely was an expensive ticket... especially since it barely lasted 3 weeks because Sydney ended up telling us that the visa had been approved! I wish they could have told us that it might take a couple weeks rather than months! Well, my wife flew back, and sent off her passport to get the visa placed in it and she recieved it back today. My wife is flying back for good this sunday... we are done...

want to read about it go here... Land Downunder

The Journey is finally over...

I cannot begin to tell you how much of a relief this is.

My wife and I were caught between that Adam Walsh Act of Jan 2007 (added the date because that's when it affected us, but was actually passed last year) and had a fairly rough set back.

Due to the lack of knowledge and information Sydney had about this new legislation, my wife and I were in a state of limbo.

Yet, we kept our faith.

Sydney tells us that it may take months until they find out what they would do to the pending petitions. A few emails and all they can say is "please check back with the website or email us."

Luckily my wife kept her interview date in Sydney... and was allowed to submit her packets.

Upon her return home to a town called Adelaide... we decided that it be best to be together through this dilema. Since Sydney stated that it can take many months until this is resolved maybe even up to a year... I can't believe they said that!

It put a strain on both of us because we had our hopes up from the very beginning. So I bought her a plane ticket to stay with me in America for up to 90days. And yes, my wife did tell the POE Officer that she was visiting her husband and was still allowed entry. Why? Because she told the truth.

February 12th, my wife arrives in Florida!

February 22nd... Rose from the consulate apparently called my wife's cellphone and leaves a message stating that her visa had been approved. Mind you, my wife is here in the US. So we get no email, no other calls... they had my wife's home number where they could have left a message with her mother, and they also had mine in the US. That message would eventually be erased since my wife's prepaid plan expired.

I send an email on the 25th of February and get an email back on the 28th stating that they tried contacting us and that the visa is ready to be issued. Yes, they will try and contact you once... and that's about it. They will toss you aside... so always follow up in any situation!

If I didn't email them, I would have never known that my wife's visa had been approved. If this went into April, Sydney says that my wife would have had to resubmit all her forms to get revaluated. Which means even more delays.

My wife calls the consulate asking if she would have to return to Australia and they said yes, she physically has to to be in Australia to send off her passport.

So my wife flies back on March 5th, returns to Adelaide and immediately sends off her passport.

Wednesday the 7th... wife calls the Consulate. Oops! They are in conference for the next 3 days.

My wife leaves two messages with Rose asking her to call back.

Monday the 12th... my wife calls the Australia Post asking her if her passport made it to Sydney. She gives them the parcel number and guess what, there is no record of it. Apparently someone was too lazy to scan it into the system for tracking. Holy shiet... my wife and I go crazy! At this point we don't know what to do.

Finally, Rose calls my wife's home number on the 13th and tells her mom to tell Stephanie to call her as soon as possible. Stephanie was at Uni doing homework. Well my wife didn't have enough credit on her mobile to call Sydney since she's on prepaid and didn't have a place nearby to buy any credit.

So I call her myself that afternoon. Rose asks me if my wife is in Australia. And I said yes, she arrived last week and sent off her passport last week. I asked her if she recieved her passport because an overnight parcel would have been there by now... and guess what she tells me... "no, I have not recieved it yet... please have Stephanie call me as soon as possible..." If it was that important, why couldn't she just call her cellphone!

So my wife and I are freaking out... we had no idea where her passport is and the post says they'll return our inquiry within 10 days! Well, my wife doesn't have 10 days... we thought this would have been a flight home, and a quick return... so it doesn't totally disrupt her studies.

My wife calls this morning on the 14th and Rose is too busy to talk because she's conducting interviews...

1pm Adelaide time on the 14th guess what shows up on the door... yup... the parcel, my wife recieved her visa and passport.

Apparently Rose, had no idea somebody else over there was working on it, and apparently the people inside the consulate don't really communicate with each other.

So all I can say is, I'm done dealing with Sydney! We have the visa in hand!!! Wife is arriving here on Sunday... just as we expected.

Thank you to all who were there for me in the beginning... Aussiewench, Lunamel, CarolineM, Kath... and the list can go on and on...

If it weren't for visajourney, I would have been lost...

To everyone else who has started their journey recently... this definitely has been a place of support, friendship, and guidance. Use these people wisely, that's why we are all here.

Goodluck to everyone!

Glad to see some new names in here.

For everyone else who was following up on my status... Stephanie has sent her passport back to Sydney last week and we're just waiting to get it back. Tickets back to Florida is going to cost me nearly 1700$ USD. But that doesn't mean much to me... having her here is priceless. We're hoping she'll be able to fly out by this friday. Depends on what Rose says when my wife calls her later.

Hey Kath... yes, we thought this was going to take months... we didn't believe it would be that quick. They gave us the impression that it was going to take months. My wife made a call to Rose at the Consulate, we have a direct line to her and my wife spoke with her today. Rose said that my wife does have to return and post her passport as soon as she returns to Australia. My wife did leave an express envelope with them.

So what's this thing about a brown envelope? What does it contain?

Anyway, thanks again for everyone's support. And I do apologize to those who were hoping DCF would continue in some new way... The best thing now is to get into gear and get your things sent off right away.

I was one of the few who got caught in the middle of this situation... and we got a call from Sydney stating that my wife's visa had been approved. We originally filed DCF and a week before the interview, Sydney said they can no longer issue the visa. They allowed my wife to keep her interview date a week after this new Adam Walsh thing took affect, while my I-130 was pending. I assume Sydney sent my info/name to Bangkok USCIS to get a background check... and of course it ran clear.

My wife who is here in the US at the moment will be flying back to Sydney to drop off her passport.

I'm just glad this stupid thing is DONE!!!

Thanks for everyone's support and info...

My wife got her VISA! Well, actually not yet... because she is here in America at the moment. But I emailed Sydney and they called on the 22nd of February to issue her visa.

That's fantastic news!! Consulate is going to be closed from 7th March - 9th March.

How did they contact the other person who went through Sydney DCF? Do you know when that person's original interview was supposed to be?

From the DCF thread, John and Sonya got their interview date re-scheduled!

So it is slowly progressing...

Just a question regarding the final interview:

Is this all that's needed:

• Medical
  
• Police cert + copy
  
• Marriage cert + copy
  
• Birth Cert + copy
  
• Passport
  
• Passport photo
  
• I-864
  

Am I forgetting anything else? Are the questions basically from the DS230?

This person emailed the consulate and the consulate told them to send in their passport. They had their final interview back in early February I think... and we were all in Limbo.

Great news for those caught in the middle of DCF...

At least it is something in writing. Those of us in LIMBO now have an idea of what will happen. I've already recieved an email from someone else who did DCF in Sydney, that Sydney is requesting for their passports so they can be stamped with it's final approval of the visa.

I'm just waiting to hear from them myself to get my wife's visa put into her passport.

http://www.uscis.gov/files/pressrelease/I1...pdate022707.pdf

One more thing... if you haven't already filed your I-130 petition... you must now file it in the US. This only pertains to those who have already filed the I-130 at an Embassy or Consulate abroad. So hurry and get those petitions in... We all lost over a month due to this big headache.

Finally! Something in writing.

September?! Vylex... your wife would probably be done with the process by September if you went ahead and filed here in the US.

Really? Hmmmm...what to do what do. I am not sure what timelines to believe when filing for IR-1/K-3s. I keep having fears of it taking 12 months or more. I have practically everything ready to go. The only difference is that with the DCF I have more confirmation of the time frame and it is a definite Visa (no K-3 / AOS / EAD overhead). I'll give it 1 more week and then if no news, I'll go ahead and get the ball rolling.

Thanks...and congrats on being re-united safely! I'm wishing you the best on the rest of the process!

Some timelines I've seen have taken 6-10 months, but for Australia, it wouldn't take more than 12 months.. If you started in February, you probably would have been done by the end of the year.

And of course you can wait until this whole DCF thing is sorted out... who knows when that will be

I'm for happy for David and Stephanie as well! I know how close they were to getting the Visa before the rug was pulled from under them. I'm so happy she was able to get through! I have positive feelings that the people caught in the net will be freed soon enough.

I still have high hopes for the DCF's return. The only good thing is that my wife was not planning on coming until September anyway. The problem is that I am on the verge of filing the I-130/K-3. I just hope this mess gets straightened out in the next few weeks. I want to know if I should get the ball rolling now because I am already expecting a 6-12 month waiting period after filing.

September?! Vylex... your wife would probably be done with the process by September if you went ahead and filed here in the US.

My wife (U.S. citizen) and I are planning visiting the U.S. for a few weeks while we are waiting for our I-130 to be processed in Frankfurt. We got married in January.

What I was wondering, at passport control they have a section for U.S. citizens and one for foreigners. Last time we travelled together I explained to the POE officer that my (back then) girlfriend was travelling with me but had to go through the U.S. citizen section. Since we are married, would it perhaps be a better idea to walk up to a POE officer in the 'foreigners' section together? We are both living in The Netherlands currently, my wife has been here for the past 3.5 years (legal resident). I thought together we might be able to ease the mind of the POE officer more easily in case he/she thinks I want to become an illegal immigrant.

I'm sure most of the POE officers understand that it's not very likely that people from Western Europe (or other countries with a quality of life comparable to that of the U.S.) would want to become an illegal immigrant in the U.S. without any rights, benefits, medical care, insurance and so on.

I don't believe she can enter through the US Citizens line because she does not hold a US Greencard or US passport. Maybe someone else can enlighten us on this situation.