Jason and May

For us, it didn't matter which we paid first. Since AoS was first on the screen and IV was beneath, I just paid the AoS bill, then when the screen refreshed, I paid the IV bill. Receipts were emailed to my wife and I. The payments showed as pending in my bank account, and in process on CEAC. I think it was about 3 business days later or so the payments showed "paid" in CEAC. Basically, they cleared from my pending payments in my bank account, and then next day, they showed "paid" in CEAC. We didn't get any emails or notifications from CEAC about the payments posting. But when I checked CEAC, they showed paid, and the links for AoS and the DS-261 were live, so we could start working on them and submitting documents. I already had the I-864 completed and all my documents saved in the cloud so I could just upload everything. Then, when we had time, my wife and I video chatted and screen shared, and we completed her 261 and uploaded all her documentation. Just be aware, at least for us, CEAC crashed repeatedly. (I believe the servers overloaded and we got booted, actually.) There's a thread or probably two in here somewhere of me ranting about CEAC.... 😬🤦🏽‍♂️ I hope it all goes smoothly for you both. 🤙🏾

Thank you, TBone.

When I lived and work in Mexico, I went up north with my then girlfriend as a volunteer to provide crisis and stabilization services to refugees. I hadn't been to TJ for over 20 years. When I lived in Mexico, I lived farther south in BCS and never entertained the notion of going north. El Chaparral didn't look much different than the Balkans in '91-'92. Without nudging this thread into a discussion on immigration versus anti-immigration and instead just sharing my observation, what was and is heartbreaking to me are the mothers who will do absolutely anything for their children to have a chance at a better life than where they made their journey from: Honduras, El Salvador, and so on. It strikes me the comments I sometimes read or hear about, "Well, if they wanted them to be safe, they wouldn't drag them through...." That's blinders on. Avoiding countertransference during those volunteer rotations were really difficult. I still have drawings from some of the kiddos. One of them has "[the little girl's name] and Jason BFFs" inside a heart. I see her face and smile in my mind, and I wonder if she's alive and safe. One of the striking things about those camps were that in many cases, you would see kiddos laughing and playing. The parents want that for them, and they do what they can to afford them happiness. I don't know what the answers are in terms of policy. That's one of many obvious reasons I'm not in politics. But I do know humanism, humanitarianism, and the thin grey line isn't so thin or grey. 🤙🏾✌🏾

We received the email today notifying us of the NVC case creation. I've been trying off and on over the course of the day to check the case status and see if we can set up the CEAC account and pay the bills. I continually get an error notice stating the server dropped the connection. In checking the VJ forums, it looks like this is a pretty routine issue, or at least CEAC being down/not working properly has been an ongoing and routine issue? I've attached a screenshot of the error message. (I get the same message via Safari and Chrome.) I'm using the URL https://ceac.state.gov/iv.

Hi all, I just have a question I thought I'd see if someone might have had experience with and can answer. My wife and I are in the process of her CR1 visa. She is from the Philippines and is residing there currently, while we await her visa. She was an overseas filipino worker, and she lived and worked in several countries over the years. So, we have started the process of gathering her PCCs so we are prepared when she ultimately gets to her interview. The one PCC we've run into some issues with is Qatar. We checked with the Qatar embassy in Manila, and we received from them instructions on how to apply for her PCC from Qatar. Qatar, however, requires as part of the application process a sundry fingerprint card. When my wife went to the Manila DFA to obtain her fingerprint card, she was told by staff she has to get an "endorsement letter" from the US Embassy in order to get her fingerprint card. OR wait for her "NVC" because her "visa hasn't been approved yet." The NVC thing doesn't make sense to me. I believe what they meant was she has her NOA 1--and she took that with her to the DFA--but her case is still processing and has not yet been transferred to the National Visa Center...? I've googled the endorsement letter issue. I've tried to reach the Philippine embassy in Chicago to ask about it and was unable to get an answer. If you've had any experience with this, could you please share with me how she should go about obtaining the endorsement letter from the US embassy or what the Manila DFA staff meant by her "NVC?" Thanks, all. Warmly, Jason