mrsB

We've been trying to contact everyone we can think of... every time I call the embassy here, I hear the same thing... that our embassy can't do anything about it. They can't influence USCIS in any way. And in USA everyone seems to have their hands tied as well. It's starting to feel kind of ridiculous, especially when every day someone asks me or someone in my family if I'm still here... and wonder how it can be taking so long. Every day I hear my mom explain to someone this whole situation and every day it's just kind of being rubbed to my face. I've tried so hard not to think about it, but these days it seems to be ALL I can think about. It's been soon 6 months since I saw my husband... and with no idea of when I'll see him again... It's hard.

I'm so jealous of you... how it's all actually moving along... and that nicely. I guess you're a fellow Finlander and... well, much luckier than I am. I'm constantly having to prove our relationship to someone and our case still hasn't moved one inch... And it's been 1,5 years since we got married. I just want to see my husband.

Good luck to you and congratulations.

Hello everyone.

I just wanted to share my story with you all as I'm starting to run low on hope.

I'm 25 years old, college graduate from Finland. I married my American husband in December 2007, here in Finland where I still am now. My husband is in USA, living in the apartment he had rented for us and working long days to keep it all paid for as neither of us was prepared for all of this to take so long. I made the mistake of giving up my apartment in Finland before the wedding as I went to set up our place in USA a few months prior to the wedding, thinking I'd be back there with my husband in no time. This obviously hasn't been the case. Almost everything I didn't have to sell here, I shipped to USA to wait for me. I only brought a suitcase of clothes to Finland with me. Now, about 1,5 years after my arrival to Finland to prepare for our wedding, I am still sleeping on my parents' couch as I have no idea when I actually can get to USA. During this time I've finished my college, but I've been unable to really move on with my life due to this unstable situation.

After the wedding we started to gather the neccessary documents needed to start our application process. By February 2008 we had both of our papers together and mailed them. It wasn't until April 2008 that we received note that it had all been received by the USCIS. Already I began to wonder how long would this all take after all... That was actually the last we heard from the USCIS. In October it had been 6 months since the papers had been received and I was told (by the embassy in Finland) that it'd take about 6 months to get my visa. Nothing came. No info what so ever. In December my husband called the USCIS and they stated that the case had been recently forwarded to the person who deals with them. The process had started. 2 months after I should've had my visa, according to the embassy. We have since sent out a service request 4 times (which was supposed to speed it all up) but the USCIS has never contacted us about anything. All the info we've got has been due to our own activity. I was worried sick about absolutely nothing seemingly happening and I contacted the embassy again in the beginning of February 2009 and they were shocked to hear that I still haven't gotten anywhere. They said I should've indeed had everything done in last October (2008). They instructed me to tell my husband to contact a local congressman, which should solve the case quite quickly. My husband quickly got in touch with his congressman who then soon sent a letter to the USCIS requesting information. The information he got was that FBI was doing a background check and that there'd be nothing that we could really do about it. My husband called the USCIS and they said we shouldn't worry about our case until it has been a year (around mid-April 2009).

I'm curious as to why all of this has proven to be so incredibly difficult. During the (soon) 1,5 years that we've been married, we've been able to spend 2 weeks together. Am I alone in thinking that it's rather ridiculous?

Let's think about it all for a moment. I'm not a kid, I have no kids. I've never been married before, I have a college degree, I speak English well enough (as you can see here) and I haven't got so much as a parking ticket on my criminal record. I've known my husband for years before we even got married so this wasn't just a sudden thing. He has spent close to 2 months in Finland, whenever he could get a holiday (which are hard to come by in USA). I've spent about 10 months in USA over the course of these years, during my college and it's holidays. I consider myself to be a decent person and I come from a country that (to my knowledge) has a good standing with the USA. A harmless, small northern nation. Everyone in the world who knows anything about Finland can agree with me that this is hardly the kind of country anyone would be eager to leave for "something better".

There has been plenty of proof provided about our relationship, including several testimonies from family and friends.

This has been the hardest time in my life so far. Not being able to be with the person I love and being generally stuck in my life, due to the fact that I have no idea what'll happen next month, much less in 6. All I would want to know is why this is all happening? Am I somehow a suspicious person? Why can I do NOTHING to move this thing forward?

I've been asking the embassy if I could at least go see my husband in USA... We both miss each other so much. The last time we saw each other was 2 weeks in last October when he was here. The time before that was our wedding. The embassy says that I cannot get a visitor visa because I'm already waiting for a permanent one and that if I use the visa waiver program, USA can, if they feel like it, turn me back at the border, which would automatically result in my application being denied. For good. I'm just trying to figure out how can these people have the right to keep us apart for years like this? Shouldn't take too long to check my background. But apparently it takes months.

We're both young and would like to enjoy our youth together. I'm tired of missing his birthdays and him missing mine. I'm sad that he missed my graduation and that we couldn't spend our wedding anniversary together or Christmas, my favorite holiday. His birthday is in a couple of weeks and I'm once again going to miss it... I just wish it'd be the last event that we can't spend together.

Thank you for reading this.