AKW65

The interview was last night and lasted several hours after which, Mr. Porter and I went to dinner to continue our conversation. He even called to Colombia to speak with Yesenia for about 30 minutes after which he was smiling pretty big at how sweet she was.

I'm not sure how big a part of the story we will be but I think it will be positive. He did say that he wants to inform the public about IMBRA and highlight some of the dynamics of a relationship with a foreign fiancee including the economics, the visa process, and the driving factor to search outside the U.S.

Mr. Porter was a genuinely nice man who grew up in Mexico and is married to a woman he met while living in Brazil. He has lived in many different countries working as a journalist and seems to have a pretty open mind as a result. I liked him. We will see how the story goes, but I'm sure it will be a positive bit of publicity for those of us enduring this process. I will post a new thread with the web link to the story when it is available.

Good Luck & GOD BLESS to all of you. I had two touches in the last two days and got an email the the RFE is coming. I know I will be with my Baby soon and I'm sure you all will too. This is a slow process but in the big scheme of things, it is a twinkling in time compared to a life with the person you love.

Adam

I agree. I remain cautiously optimistic that maybe some good can come out of the story. Of course it's hard to get a feel for a persons intentions over the phone. I imagine I will have a better idea when I see him face to face.

Ok, this whole thread got a bit off topic. In any case, the reporter called me back today and is flying down to meet me tomorrow. We talked for a while longer and now he is leaning towards writing the story more about the impact of IMBRA and working in the statistics about the number of people seeking spouses from outside the U.S.

Like many of you, I'm not sure how it will all come out but I promise to be careful and state the facts for the most part.

I got an email from the CSC today that they are finally sending my RFE out to me after 3 months. I hope I get that soon!

Good luck to all of you! I'll update this post after the interview in the next day or so.

Based upon this update, this news guy has a different agenda, than helping the abused victims of the Immigration process.

Mate, you are about to get exploited for a storyline, having nothing to do with your agenda; which is to get your Fiance here as expeditiously as possible.

Don't waste your time for this loser.

If you do, you will become the loser.

You are "Team VJ", I am looking out for you!

I understand. I think you are all right in that the planned story was not initially derived from the IMBRA mess but IMBRA did enter into it during the research phase. That might be a good thing, or maybe not. I'm withholding judgement until (and IF) I meet the man. I can say that the man did not seem to be malicious at all. We'll see what happened.

Ok, the reporter called me today and we spoke for about 20 minutes. He is now saying that he wants to fly down to Florida to interview me in person...

Apparently, his story is rooted in statistics that show the overall national marriage rate has seen a major decline. He went on to say that more professional or upper income level men get married rather than the other way around. It was in researching these statistics that he stumbled upon people seeking foreign spouses and IMBRA. I agree that he has not proven to be friend or foe yet and may not end up being either.

In any case, I will post an update if I hear from him with a schedule for him to come down here.

Thanks,

Adam

I sent this as PM, but don't think it went through ..... so I'm posting it on the thread.

Thank you so much for posting this thread!!

And if I may please beggggg of you, on behalf of everyone with a fiancé in the Dominican Republic, please help us to expose the immense backlog problem.

Although the long wait at USCIS CSC is troubling to many, the problem is 4-5 times worse once our petitions hit the Dominican Republic. The office has been SUBSTANTIALLY understaffed for nearly four years now, and currently has a backlog of 27,000 visa cases!! Nearly everyone waiting for an interview visa is moving at the pace of a mere 1000 spots per month ..... and obviously this equates to a wait times of nearly 27 MONTHS ... more than TWO YEARS!! And that's AFTER waiting nearly 6 months at CSC.

As I said, the problem is due largely to the fact that the US government will not staff the office adequately to process the number of visa petitions received (even though all other Latin countries are processing within the normal 1-3 month time frames (even Mexico!!). The problem is also due to the fact that priority is not being given to the US CITIZEN applicants (K1/K3 visa applicants), but rather all of the zillion US RESIDENT applicants that are trying to import their entire blood line. As natural-born US citizens this is increasingly unfair and infuriating. Citizen visa petitions should have priority over the visa petitions of immigrants.

Anyhow, as you can see, I, and many others, are PASSIONATE about this matter and are devastated and angry about the two-year wait that we are made to suffer through at the US Consulate in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. There is an entire forum dedicated to those of who are struggling through the process of bringing a Dominican to the US, and the website is dominicanstotheusa.com. We are a substantial and distraught group that has been writing countless letters pleading for attention and solutions to the matter (more staffing and re-prioritization of visa interviews). We would love to get this story to the media any way possible, as we think that it would explode. The US government has written that a K1 visa is meant for: speedy reunification of U.S. citizens with their foreign loved ones, within a six-month timeframe .... but this is CLEARY not a promise that they are living up to.

Soooo many thanks for receiving my story, and on behalf of everyone with a fiancé or spouse in the DR, I beg of you to PLEASE discuss this matter with the reporter, send this text to him in email form, have him check out previously noted website himself, or have him contact me for more insight.

Kind regards,

Wendy Turk

sailingturk@hotmail.com

Hi Everyone!

I received 3 private messages since posting this yesterday. I promise I will do my best to get the point across to Mr. Porter and most likely will just direct him to this thread so he can see the responses to it. My Fiancee is from Barranquilla on the coast. I can't wait to see her!

If anyone has anything they would like Mr. Porter to read to consider for his story, go ahead and post here. After I talk to him tomorrow, I will log back in tomorrow night and post an update as to how it went.

Take care,

Adam

Hi Everyone! I'm new here but I've been looking at this site for over a week. I met my fiancee through an online introduction agency "Ilovelatins.com" over a year ago. So far, everything has been wonderful except of course for the slow K-1 processing times due to IMBRA.

In any case, I wanted to let you all know that there is supposed to be a story in the New York Times soon. I believe it will be written to highlight a number of things including the impact of IMBRA and the growing attraction for Americans to seek out foreign spouses.

The reporters name is Eduardo Porter and he has already interviewed Gary Bala (a visa attorney) and Sam Smith of I Love Latins. Sam sent out an email about this last week and I contacted Mr. Porter too. I have an appointment for a phone interview with him on Tuesday afternoon to tell him about my fiancee and our case.

Hopefully, something good will come of it. If I hear about the story being printed, I will post a topic here to let everyone know. If anyone has any suggestions for something I might tell Mr. Porter, let me know! I'll be happy to pass it along.

Take care and thanks for everything.

Hi and welcome to VJ.

A 'touch' shows up as the Last Updated date on the USCIS website. You can access the website and check the status of your case by going here:

https://egov.immigration.gov/cris/jsps/index.jsp

and using the NOA1 receipt number, creating yourself an account. A touch simply means the last time anyone had human contact with your file. This could mean anything from spilling coffee on it, to passing it along for final approval. Some people never get touched and then get surprised with an approval.

Regardless, buyer beware. Checking for touches is HIGHLY ADDICTIVE!!!

Mo

I second that! Checking for touching is not only addictive... it can drive you insane. LOL!! Welcome to VJ! Cheers!!!

Thanks again everyone! It's nice to meet you all. I'll keep my data updated here in the hope that it helps!

panis

Pants! (bet 'cha were thinking of something else)

The complete guide for touches is located here:

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/index.ph...=80&t=22852

Got it! Thanks for your help! Can you fill me in on the "biometerics"??

Hi everybody! This is my first post so I apologize if this information is somewhere else. I searched the forums and the faq's too. I think my case has been with the CSC for just about 3 months now and I don't think it's been touched. I haven't received the RFE either. How do you find out if it's been touched? Also, what is meant by biometerics?

I'm going back to Barranquilla in 3 weeks to see my fiancee and I can't wait. I was only planning to go back one time to go to the interview but it seems like this will not be for a while yet. The extra trip is straining my finances but I need to see her again soon. At least we get to chat on msn messenger every day and I can see her on her webcam so it's better than just the phone.

Anyway, thanks to everyone for your help! I felt much better after I found this website because I knew then that I am not alone!