AKW65

It's been years since I've logged in but I was up, bored on line and googled myself and Yesenia to see what is still out there and came back across this thread.

Well, I'm happy to report that my Lovely Wife and I have been married going on 5 years now and she is also a proud U.S. Citizen! We are each other's best friend. In fact, she tells me I'm the best part of her life every single day and I still an in disbelief at my good fortune to have ever found her in the first place.

All the best to everyone. Hope you are all well.

Adam

Wow! I'm so sorry for what you are going through. I'd say that no matter what you do, you'll have to confront her before you do it. Ultimately, life is short and it isn't worth living in misery. Me personally, I wouldn't offer any more assistance, I would just cut my losses and move on with as little as possible emotion or drama.

Lastly, if she is already being dishonest, it's likely to be part of her character. I believe that most good or bad things people do TO or FOR you are not based on anything you do, but based on who THEY are. It's not personal.

In my opinion, God gave me the right to breathe! God is the foundation of the US Constitution and it authors had stated Gods involvement in the rights of the people with Gods blessings. My money I spend every day says, In God we trust. If you would like to rid yourself of such God thrashing down your throat paper, please send it to a local church. How fast we forget were we came from and start changing history to fit what we like and feel comfortable with. Whats next, a K1 for gay couples?

My opinion!

YES! I couldn't agree more!

Love knows no bounds and some rights are God Given.

Your 'rights' are spelled out in the Bill of Rights.

They were given to you by our founding fathers, not God. And there's nothing in there about 'love' either.

Don't confuse spiritualism with the law.

"Our founding fathers" COMPLETELY based the laws on the bible in case you aren't aware. Don't tell me because I mention God I'm being "spiritual". Give me a break. Why is it in this country that anytime someone talks about ANYTHING, you have to leave God completely out of it?

For you to pick my one quote to spout off about is silly. Love does know no bounds. If you think it does, I feel sorry for you.

I have no problem with you referring to God. I have my own relationship with the Lord - I just don't beat my chest about it in the forums.

I am only referring to the laws of the land.

Which in case YOU aren't aware, specifically reference a separation of Church and State.

Your rights as a citizen of this country were crafted by men and as such are the laws of man, not God.

The boundaries of love have nothing to do with immigration. The boundaries of nations, on the other hand, have everything to do with it.

You are confusing the emotion of your marriage with the process of immigration. It's my opinion that to make it out sane at the end of this process, you need to separate the two.

I'm not confused...

I wouldn't say I was beating my chest by the simple mention of God. In fact, I'd say it's the other way around. You couldn't let my statement go by without trying to "correct" me and influence the way I believe. You don't have to agree with me, you are not obligated to correct me either. My statement is what I believe, if you believe differently, good for you. Your comments have compelled me to be defensive, which in and of itself is sad because all I did was use the word God once. Never in my life have I engaged in a public debate about God such as this, BUT, I’m not afraid to do so either. You act like I said, “hey everybody, God is great, follow me to Jesus” or something like that. Do you feel that you are entitled to voice your opinion more than I am because you feel you are politically (or legalistically) correct?

Now that you have me on the defensive, I will say this: People are afraid to even mention God for fear of getting a reprimand from someone like you. As an example, many people now say "Happy Holidays" because they are afraid to say "Merry Christmas". If I mistakenly say “Merry Christmas” to a Jewish person because I don’t know they are Jewish, most would probably realize I am just wishing them well.

The phrase "God given rights" has been used in literature, speeches, and numerous other communications countless times throughout history. Then (and now), I'm sure it wasn't used as a way to beat one's chest, try to convert the masses to Christianity or force a belief system on anyone.

Have you ever heard the statement "One Nation under God"... Now everyone wants to keep God so separate that to even mention God in the context of a legal discussion brings out all sorts of emotional distress. We've kicked God out of our schools, out of our courts, and for the most part out of our lives. I don’t think this has produced positive results.

Millions of people’s last thoughts in life will be “God help me!” I wonder how many of them will have worked so hard to keep God out of their lives and been afraid to even mention him up to that point… I wonder how God feels about that… Believe what you want. I wish you the best.

Love knows no bounds and some rights are God Given.

Your 'rights' are spelled out in the Bill of Rights.

They were given to you by our founding fathers, not God. And there's nothing in there about 'love' either.

Don't confuse spiritualism with the law.

"Our founding fathers" COMPLETELY based the laws on the bible in case you aren't aware. Don't tell me because I mention God I'm being "spiritual". Give me a break. Why is it in this country that anytime someone talks about ANYTHING, you have to leave God completely out of it?

For you to pick my one quote to spout off about is silly. Love does know no bounds. If you think it does, I feel sorry for you.

I can't say one way or another what they post to the automated system or not. Here's how it went for me:

• I called the automated line and punched in my case, it wasn't found.
  
• I then sent an email and it wasn't answered in a day or two.
  
• I finally called and got a live person who was kind of rude but did say they had received my case and it woudl go out in about two weeks. I asked why two weeks, was there a problem? He said no, it was standard procedure to wait.
  

The next day, I got an email from them with the case number.

Good luck everybody.

I don’t think you have any reason to challenge my right to do so.

Last time I checked, an immigration benefit is a privilege and not a right. Therefore, taking it to its logical extreme, you cannot have a right to marry if that means your right to marry will abridge US sovereignty in terms of letting someone in that the US government feels should not be here. Similarily a corporation does not have the right to sponsor any immigrant worker it needs. (Corporations are deemed persons under the 5th and 14th Amendments).

We can argue day and night about how we will determine who is eligible to come and who is not. That is not the issue. But once that determination is made, your right to marry cannot trump US sovereignty. Thus, if one of the criteria for not letting someone in is done for the benefit of the foreigner, i.e. to make sure they don't enter a relationship with a US citizens who has "abused" the immigration "privileges" with too many K visas or has a criminal background, then so be it. Not happy with that, you can vote your congressmen out of office.

Thus the US government must distinguish between your rights as USC and immigration benefits which is purely under congressional discretion. In case you wanted to challenge the law on equal protection grounds it will be looked under a rational basis which the government easily passed with IMBRA. Immigrants are not a suspect class or insular / distinct minorities. And by disconnecting your rights from the immigrant's rights you have no fundamental right to marry claim. Because technically the government isn't telling you, you can't marry this foreigner. It simply says "that this type of foreigner" cannot enter the US.

Famous Quote on this issue:

"Whatever the procedure authorized by Congress is, it is the due process as far as the alien denied entry is concerned.”

Shaughnessy v. United States Ex Rel. Mezei (1953).

You must be a lawyer? I don't agree with you. My opinion is that the law allows me to marry a foreign woman of my choosing, period. There is a legal process in place, I'm following it. How is that not my right? IF that legal process were to fail and she were to be denied entrance, I'm free to leave and move somewhere else to be with her. THAT is MY RIGHT. So your saying my relationship (or all of the relationships on this site) is a challenge to US sovereignty is not valid. There is no law (yet) that says it is illegal to meet a foreign person on the internet or ask a foreign person to marry you!

My comment to the article was about the fact that meeting someone through a foreign website is very similar to meeting someone on eharmony or yahoo personals, etc. If I have the right to do that, I don't understand why that right is altered simply by a change in geographical location outside the borders of the U.S. Love knows no bounds and some rights are God Given.

Adam,

Please let Yesenia know that all of us at VJ welcome her to America. The fact that everyone here is doing it according to the laws sets us apart from the immigration debate. It is insulting the way people are treated when they try to use the system legally. My wife was laughed at by some illegals in her English as a Second Language class last spring because she was waiting for her work permit before looking for work. By the way, she speaks much better than they do, and is only looking to improve her English.

The article in the NY Times just continues to stereo type people. It is true that many applicants fit the profile of middle aged men, (myself included) but everyone is different. For the NY Times to make it seem that the vast majority are men looking for submissive women is a disservice to everyone. As matter of fact, looking at Captain Ewok's statistical analysis, it looks as if the rate of abuse cases is actually dropping.

I think we should organize a letter campaign to the NY Times and get everyone to write a letter the same day. I have always been a supporter of the press and the job they do, but when we see such blatant misuse of the written word for the purpose of sensationalizing the story then it is time to react.

The new media has to be questioned also.

Thanks very much! You are correct. I was completely misquoted, stereo typed, and basically throw in the gutter to make us all look bad when my intent was to try to do some good. For the most part, the fallout has died down. I did write to the editors, they never responded. At this point, I'm happy to let this story stay in the past.

It's the same for me. My NOA 2 was dated October 16th and I haven't heard anything from them. I believe there is a recent trend of this next step taking about a month for many cases from the CSC but then again, some go right through.

I figured since I was one of the "men portrayed" in the article she is quoting, I'd send her a thank you email. It's WAY too long to print here but here's an excerpt:

The last time I checked, this is a free country. I should be able to date and meet any woman I choose, from anywhere in the world. There is a system of background checks to exclude terrorists and wildly inappropriate relationships from going forward. I love Yesenia with all my heart and intend to do my very best for her. I don’t think you have any reason to challenge my right to do so. Can you honestly tell me that if you met an intelligent, handsome man from say Italy, or even Colombia and fell in love, you’d be ok if our government said you didn’t have the right to do so, or is it just men you feel should be punished and regulated? Also, in your choice to quote the statistics about abuse, did you do your own research or is the New York Times the authority on that? Trust me; they couldn’t even quote a simple guy like me correctly. Did you happen to notice that the rise in reported cases matched the rise in visas being issued so they are actually the same ratio? I’ll admit the ratio is high and I don’t like it. I don’t think women should ever be abused. I can’t speak for those men. I can only speak for myself. That being said, I don’t need you or the New York Times to do it for me.

Hope you are all doing well!

AW

Very well said. This thought hit me this morning, it's true that there may be some men who seek a forign bride with aspirations of having a woman to cook, clean and listen to them. Not all men are nice, not women are either. So, IMBRA is written to protect those relatively few women who fall victim to that kind of man.

It's also true that some executives (Senators or Representatives as well) might hire a young female personal assistant or administrator to handle their paper work. SOME of these men will seduce or sexually harrass these girls, they might have affairs which would destroy families. There isn't a law that requires these men to provide background checks to these women before they hire them in order to protect them... To me, IMBRA could lead to pretty much all men having to provide background checks to all kinds of women...

There are a lot of cases of foreign women who victimize men, so maybe there should a law to require background checks on the women?

... the story didn't come out the way it was meant to be.

For the record, I apologize to anyone who has experienced any stress as a result of this story. I had hoped for something completely different. In fact, if you go to the audio/multimedia link, you can hear an interview with her and I over the phone, we don't sound like the story reads at all.

ALSO, the quote attributed to Sam Smith is taken out of context. I spoke to him today and he was flabbergasted!

I forgot to mention one other point, I NEVER went on any "romance" tour, used a translator, etc.. The ONLY thing the ILoveLatins.com agecncy did for me was to give me Yesenia's email address. That's it. Nothing more. I contacted her on my own, got to know her on my own, and went to meet her, eventually get engaged, and plan for our future on my own. This is not any kind of arranged "mail order bride" situation where I'm spending thousands of dollars on some company to provide me with a service and eventually a wife!@#$%. I got her email address, that's it. The rest we did as any other couple might if they met on Match.com, eharmony, or any other site...

Adam

Hi Adam,

No need at all to apologize as your intentions were totally reasonable. We are getting mistreated through an ill-conceived new government requirement that is based on an unfair stereotype. The rate of abuse of foreign spouses is NOT increasing and there were no attempts to see if it is in any way different than the rate for the general population. There's no question the rate of happy marriages with foreign spouses is also dramatically increasing!

The article could have explained more about the completely botched execution of the law. The delay in releasing the proper form, much longer wait times, random processing of individual petitions - some fast, others incredibly slow, and the total lack of information or access to the processing centers. IMBRA was a new requirement but it was terribly wrong to have the law take effect before the USCIS was ready to handle it.

I'm glad you set the record straight here about your own situation because I could see that the article was pushing the "mail order bride" stereotype rather than trying to see if things have changed simply because of the much easier ability today to meet someone a long distance away and maintain a close, daily relationship through live chatting. If you ask me, this is the real story of foreign spouses.

Well good luck to you and Yesenia. We wish you a very happy life together!!

Very well said.

Thanks for your support everyone. I can't wait for Yesenia to get here and I know this site will help us both with the AOS process and beyond.

Very well said. This thought hit me this morning, it's true that there may be some men who seek a forign bride with aspirations of having a woman to cook, clean and listen to them. Not all men are nice, not women are either. So, IMBRA is written to protect those relatively few women who fall victim to that kind of man.

It's also true that some executives (Senators or Representatives as well) might hire a young female personal assistant or administrator to handle their paper work. SOME of these men will seduce or sexually harrass these girls, they might have affairs which would destroy families. There isn't a law that requires these men to provide background checks to these women before they hire them in order to protect them... To me, IMBRA could lead to pretty much all men having to provide background checks to all kinds of women...

Thank you everybody! I forgot to mention that yesterday was also my birthday so this was the best present ever for me! I wish you all the best with your cases from here on out!

God Bless!

Adam and Yesenia

129 days later, I have my NOA 2. Thank You GOD!

Adam,

That is precisely one of the things that IMBRA is targeting - the giving out a foreigner's contact information. Without first getting the background of the American person to whom they are giving the contact information , sharing that background with the foreigner, and getting the foreigner's 'go-ahead' to provide the contact information to that particular American person.

Yodrak

....

I forgot to mention one other point, I NEVER went on any "romance" tour, used a translator, etc.. The ONLY thing the ILoveLatins.com agecncy did for me was to give me Yesenia's email address. That's it. Nothing more. .......

Adam

That may be true BUT, Sam Smith had his wife call Yesenia BEFORE giving me her contact info to ask her permission. Yesenia was a registered member of their agency with a profile on their website not unlike ANY OTHER DATING website (Yahoo Personals, Match.com, Eharmony, etc.) There is no difference other than the main geographical difference. Yesenia is educated, speaks English, supports herself, etc. This is absolutely not a situation where I looked up a girl in a "mail order bride" catalog or something like that. IMBRA should not be treading here in my opinion.

Thanks.

William,

You threw 3 strikes in a row with these posts. Congratulations.

Yodrak

AKW65,

I would be hesitant to conduct and interview with a reporter, especially with the ambiguous storyline. As you know, reporters are notorious for hiding the true intent of an interview, until published. Since the storyline has shifted several times, I call this suspect.

At this stage, it sounds as if the agenda is slanted towards "seeking spouses outside the US" as opposed to the impact of IMBRA. The latter, being your primary concern.

If I were you, I would withdraw. Up to you though.

.....

As I understand it, Editors usually drive the agenda for a storyline (did you not see the movie: "The Paper")?

.

I posted the following in another thread where someone called me a "creepy middle aged bitter divorced guy" or something like that... In any case, I wanted to follow up here in the original post with a reply.

Well folks, I don't know what to say about this except that some of you VJ'ers warned me NOT TO TALK TO THE NEW YORK TIMES!!! You were right. The article is about me and is COMPLETELY TWISTED INTO B.S.!!!!!!

I can tell you that I met the reporter in person face to face, we talked for two hours and then he took me to dinner. EVERY single quote attributed to me is either twisted, or taken completely out of context. There is of course some truth to it. I am divorced. I am not bitter like I was made out to be. It is true that I don't want to have a relationship with someone with children again. I have my reasons.

The pictures they used are the worst possible pictures of me. They failed to mention:

Yesenia speaks fluent English and put herself through classes for two years prior to meeitng me.

Yesenia has a college degree in Business Administration.

Yesenia has her own business in Colombia and is NOT some poor girl looking for any man to take her away from a difficult life.

Yesenia has her own business there and takes care of herself. I did buy her a computer so we could talk more easliy, but the way they say it is as if I'm purchasing a bride.

I have talked to her EVERY day for over a year now. She's had many other offers. I've even told her from DAY ONE, that if she ever had second thoughts, all she had to do is tell me. I would NEVER want her to feel "stuck" with me. She loves me and I love her. I am NOT some creepy middle aged guy like you might think. You can think that if you like, it's not my problem.

The funny thing is, Yesenia is such a positive person that she won't care about the way this reads. She knows how she feels about me and I know how I feel about her.

In closing, I will say this, I got an email from the reporter BEFORE I even knew the story was in the paper apologizing. Here is what he had to say to me today at 10:41 AM:

Hey Adam,

FYI -- a version of the story is in today's paper. I can't say I'm too proud of it. It was cut in half by my editors and stuffed into the paper at the last minute. A bit of a disappointment, really. But it's there.

Anyway, all the best for you and Yesenia.

Eduardo

I'd say that about sums up the fact that the story didn't come out the way it was meant to be.

For the record, I apologize to anyone who has experienced any stress as a result of this story. I had hoped for something completely different. In fact, if you go to the audio/multimedia link, you can hear an interview with her and I over the phone, we don't sound like the story reads at all.

ALSO, the quote attributed to Sam Smith is taken out of context. I spoke to him today and he was flabbergasted!

I forgot to mention one other point, I NEVER went on any "romance" tour, used a translator, etc.. The ONLY thing the ILoveLatins.com agecncy did for me was to give me Yesenia's email address. That's it. Nothing more. I contacted her on my own, got to know her on my own, and went to meet her, eventually get engaged, and plan for our future on my own. This is not any kind of arranged "mail order bride" situation where I'm spending thousands of dollars on some company to provide me with a service and eventually a wife!. I got her email address, that's it. The rest we did as any other couple might if they met on Match.com, eharmony, or any other site...

Adam

Well folks, I don't know what to say about this except that some of you VJ'ers warned me NOT TO TALK TO THE NEW YORK TIMES!!! You were right. The article is about me and is COMPLETELY TWISTED INTO B.S.!!!!!!

I can tell you that I met the reporter in person face to face, we talked for two hours and then he took me to dinner. EVERY single quote attributed to me is either twisted, or taken completely out of context. There is of course some truth to it. I am divorced. I am not bitter like I was made out to be. It is true that I don't want to have a relationship with someone with children again. I have my reasons.

The pictures they used are the worst possible pictures of me. They failed to mention:

• Yesenia speaks fluent English and put herself through classes for two years prior to meeitng me.
  
• Yesenia has a college degree in Business Administration.
  
• Yesenia has her own business in Colombia and is NOT some poor girl looking for any man to take her away from a difficult life.
  
• Yesenia has her own business there and takes care of herself. I did buy her a computer so we could talk more easliy, but the way they say it is as if I'm purchasing a bride.
  
• I have talked to her EVERY day for over a year now. She's had many other offers. I've even told her from DAY ONE, that if she ever had second thoughts, all she had to do is tell me. I would NEVER want her to feel "stuck" with me. She loves me and I love her. I am NOT some creepy middle aged guy like you might think. You can think that if you like, it's not my problem.
  

The funny thing is, Yesenia is such a positive person that she won't care about the way this reads. She knows how she feels about me and I know how I feel about her.

In closing, I will say this, I got an email from the reporter BEFORE I even knew the story was in the paper apologizing. Here is what he had to say to me today at 10:41 AM:

Hey Adam,

FYI -- a version of the story is in today's paper. I can't say I'm too proud of it. It was cut in half by my editors and stuffed into the paper at the last minute. A bit of a disappointment, really. But it's there.

Anyway, all the best for you and Yesenia.

Eduardo

I'd say that about sums up the fact that the story didn't come out the way it was meant to be.

For the record, I apologize to anyone who has experienced any stress as a result of this story. I had hoped for something completely different. In fact, if you go to the audio/multimedia link, you can hear an interview with her and I over the phone, we don't sound like the story reads at all.

ALSO, the quote attributed to Sam Smith is taken out of context. I spoke to him today and he was flabbergasted!

I forgot to mention one other point, I NEVER went on any "romance" tour, used a translator, etc.. The ONLY thing the ILoveLatins.com agecncy did for me was to give me Yesenia's email address. That's it. Nothing more. I contacted her on my own, got to know her on my own, and went to meet her, eventually get engaged, and plan for our future on my own. This is not any kind of arranged "mail order bride" situation where I'm spending thousands of dollars on some company to provide me with a service and eventually a wife!@#$%. I got her email address, that's it. The rest we did as any other couple might if they met on Match.com, eharmony, or any other site...

Adam

Well folks, I don't know what to say about this except that some of you VJ'ers warned me NOT TO TALK TO THE NEW YORK TIMES!!! You were right. The article is about me and is COMPLETELY TWISTED INTO B.S.!!!!!!

I can tell you that I met the reporter in person face to face, we talked for two hours and then he took me to dinner. EVERY single quote attributed to me is either twisted, or taken completely out of context. There is of course some truth to it. I am divorced. I am not bitter like I was made out to be. It is true that I don't want to have a relationship with someone with children again. I have my reasons.

The pictures they used are the worst possible pictures of me. They failed to mention:

• Yesenia speaks fluent English and put herself through classes for two years prior to meeitng me.
  
• Yesenia has a college degree in Business Administration.
  
• Yesenia has her own business in Colombia and is NOT some poor girl looking for any man to take her away from a difficult life.
  
• Yesenia has her own business there and takes care of herself. I did buy her a computer so we could talk more easliy, but the way they say it is as if I'm purchasing a bride.
  
• I have talked to her EVERY day for over a year now. She's had many other offers. I've even told her from DAY ONE, that if she ever had second thoughts, all she had to do is tell me. I would NEVER want her to feel "stuck" with me. She loves me and I love her. I am NOT some creepy middle aged guy like you might think. You can think that if you like, it's not my problem.
  

The funny thing is, Yesenia is such a positive person that she won't care about the way this reads. She knows how she feels about me and I know how I feel about her.

In closing, I will say this, I got an email from the reporter BEFORE I even knew the story was in the paper apologizing. Here is what he had to say to me today at 10:41 AM:

Hey Adam,

FYI -- a version of the story is in today's paper. I can't say I'm too proud of it. It was cut in half by my editors and stuffed into the paper at the last minute. A bit of a disappointment, really. But it's there.

Anyway, all the best for you and Yesenia.

Eduardo

I'd say that about sums up the fact that the story didn't come out the way it was meant to be.

For the record, I apologize to anyone who has experienced any stress as a result of this story. I had hoped for something completely different. In fact, if you go to the audio/multimedia link, you can hear an interview with her and I over the phone, we don't sound like the story reads at all.

ALSO, the quote attributed to Sam Smith is taken out of context. I spoke to him today and he was flabbergasted!

Adam

I have more primary evidence of our relationship because I visited Clara last month again, should I include that in our RFE (which only requests my Belgian Birth Certificate). ?

Secondly, because it takes like a week for post to arrive overseas, would high quality color copies be fine, with a statement its truthful ? How about the letter for the translation? The signature of the translator would be a copy. Is that a problem?

I just responded to the RFE and I had to answer Yes that I had met my girl through an "international marriage broker". Long story but I don't agree with that term! Anyway, I had to answer yes and it allows for an additional sheet of paper to explain so I added a one page letter explaining again how we met (I had included this in the original submission) and I had just returned from my third visit so I threw in one ink jet printed photo of us on that last trip with a date and a photo copy of the plane ticket. I don't know if that will help or not, but I don't see how it could hurt either. I don't see how they could deny a case because of TOO MUCH evidence? Then again, we are subject to a broken down system and the whims of the case workers at the CSC.

All you can do is hope and pray.

Right now, it means nothing. Mine says September 24th or something like that. I don't even look at it anymore. My attorney says my fiancee MIGHT be here by March at this rate and I have an NOA 1 date of June 12th!

Read my signature, I got the RFE email on 9/11. To this day, I've never received it at all. Luckily, I hired an attorney and he gets a copy of everything so he ended up sending me his. I filled that one out and sent it back.

There are other posts about lost RFE's and other lost documents. The CSC is awful.

Good luck!

Try to RELAX. There are still people on here waiting since MARCH!!! My NOA 1 date is June 12th and I'm still waiting for approval. My case is pretty cut and dry AND I even hired a visa attorney.

You can't let this portion of the waiting get you down. I know it completely sucks, BUT, in the bigger picture, you have to imagine that you (hopefully) found a person you will spend your life with which will be many years down the road. I know it doesn't seem like it now, but there will be a time later on that all of this waiting will seem like it never happened after you are together and moving on with your life. With that in mind, be patient and focus on what you will do then. It will make it easier to deal with the waiting you have to do now...

Good luck.

I understand how you feel. I got the email that my RFE was sent on 9/11/06 and I've never received it at home either. Luckily for me, I hired a visa attorney and he also receives a copy of everything that goes to me.... He ended up sending me his copy of the RFE (it was just the IMBRA one) and I over nighted it back to them the next day (last week).

FINALLY, a full week later, they sent the standard email saying they had received my RFE back and are continuing to process my case.

If I were you, I'd find a copy of the IMBRA RFE and fill it out and send it back. You might be lucky and find that is all they've asked for. MAKE SURE you put a cover letter in there with your proper address verified so they can double check their files at that end to ensure it is going to you at the right place.

Of course another option would be to fill out the NEW I-129-F form that includes the IMBRA questions, mail it to the CSC with a cover letter asking them to use it as an ammendment to your initial petition with a photo copy of your original receipt. Explain that you have been waiting for 60 days for your RFE and it still hasn't arrived. That may help, it may not...

Good luck!

Good luck getting your RFE. I got the email last week that it was mailed out to me on 9/11/06. It's still not here!!!!!! I'm hoping it will show up before I leave this Saturday so I can get it sent back in a hurry!!!

I a BIG thank you for taking the time and getting our story out! I look forward to seeing it in print!

There is another NY Times reporter speaking about immigration on our campus (University of Utah) this coming week. I will be giving her some of the statistics that I generate on the arbitrary nature of the process. I hope it helps.

(And of course, sitting in the audience for an hour first will give me a better sense of where she's coming from. If she is not sympathetic, I will just stand clear.)

Tom

If you end up chatting with her and she does seem sympathetic, ask her if she knows Eduardo Porter that works at the times. That's the man who interviewed me. He seems very nice and sympathetic while at the same time trying to remain unbiased. Hopefully, this will end up being something more than just passing interesting reading but I sort of doubt it. There are millions of stories out there and it takes a huge one to make the public stop and take notice. Either way, a little publicity can't hurt.

Good luck!