DanVanessaSiempre

I'm just a little bit north of you, in the Fort Lauderdale area, so we're almost neighbors. I'm still on my own for the next couple of weeks, Vanessa's coming in on 3 October, with the wedding on Halloween weekend. If some plan for a local meetup does come together, I'm sure we'd at least try to make it if possible.

Per the Bogota embassy website, our interview is scheduled for October 19th!!!

Fan-Freakin-Tastic! You guys are really movin. Best of luck all the way through to the end...

Is it just me, or is anyone else having this problem too?...

My signature was working fine, and had been unchanged for at least 3 months now. It already included a photo, some lines of text, and a link to an off site located video file. All of this worked fine til this morning when I tried to update it with more current info.

Added 3 or four lines of additional text, hit the Update button, and it wouldn't accept the update. Insisted it was to long now, which it WAS NOT! Says limit of 40 lines of text, I was WELL under that. ANYWAY, after experimenting a bit, it seemed that it would not accept ANY update of ANY text length until I REMOVED the picture & the link. THEN it accepted my longer text as is. OK, so then I went back and tried to re-add the pic & the link - Now it won't accept the update with THEM, but it leaves the text there OK. EXTREMELY ANNOYING!!! Anyone know what's going on?

Colombia Club II VJ'ers Harold (Arizreynolds) and Sandra had a date at the Embassy in Bogota today...I haven't heard anything from him, but I suspect things went well...

Harold - Clue us in when you get this message!?!

They have had to wait SOOOO much longer than they should have, so I just KNOW they will finally get the big "YES" today

What is the plan, Dan? I would suggest that Vanessa return home and wait for the Diomesa package to arrive. That's my opinion. Things can be difficult to plan due to the variables being so different there. Good luck.

We thought so too, bought the ticket tonight to return that same evening...

Just a quick and informal poll here -

How many days after you were approved did it take Domesa to deliver your visa, and to where did it get delivered? Trying to estimate how long our wait might be for delivery to Medellin. And for those who stayed on in Bogota to pick it up themselves at the Domesa office, how long for that? So we can decide if it's worth it for Vanessa to stay on and pick it up, or just go home & wait, not to mention planning for the plane trip...

Thanks

A better question (to which I do not know the answer) might be if they would allow his interview to be conducted by a different USA embassy, located either in or much nearer to, the Cayman Islands?...

Hi Colombia Club i am so excited my love arrives today at the ft lauderdale airport. i will let everyone know how it goes for him!

I'm so happy for you, and I will be doing the same thing at the same place in another two and a half to three and a half weeks time. Been on that same plane myself so many times they ought to give me my own reserved seat, LOL. Hoping the weather is better for you tonight than it was here last night, and wishing your Juan a fast & easy trip through customs to find your open arms waiting for him outside the doors.

Vanessa has suggested that I look into using Magic Jack. Anyone have experience with that from the USA side of it for calls to & from Colombia, as well as using it for regular USA calls? Seems much cheaper overall than Vonage, but also seems like the equipment is more dependent on it's software using your computer than just plugging into your net connection on it's own like I believe Vonage does.

Always great to know that another couple is finally doing their own little Happy Dance!

Got the interview date! September 7 at 1pm!! :dance:

Congratulations, it's long overdue!

We got a tentative YES, but with a slight technical delay. Officially a 221G, but with assurances that it is only for this one item and the approval will be given as soon as it is corrected. Some of the medical tests had to be redone, and won't be back to the doctor before the weekend. Without the doctor's approved report, they can't officially issue us a final visa approval, but we satisfied every other requirement, and the consular officer at the interview (a very pleasant lady at window #6) assured us that all Vanessa needs to do is come back for a followup appointment on her own, probably next week, to make it official. She has a good friend who lives here in Bogota who she will stay the extra week or so with, and we got her return plane ticket changed for the local equivalent of only about US$9, so all is well. We are already talking wedding plans for the 30th of October as we'd originally planned, and Vanessa is joking about either her dress and/or the wedding cake being orange & black for Halloween, LOL. They were quite happy with everything that we originally submitted and never asked to see any additional papers or photos (though we had thick files of them ready to offer if needed.) The CO didn't even ask to talk to me, but I'm still sure that the fact that I was there at all reinforced her quick (less than 5 minutes) decision. Just waiting now for news from the doctor's office, and a return visit to finish it all up...

We got a tentative YES, but with a slight technical delay. Officially a 221G, but with assurances that it is only for this one item and the approval will be given as soon as it is corrected. Some of the medical tests had to be redone, and won't be back to the doctor before the weekend. Without the doctor's approved report, they can't officially issue us a final visa approval, but we satisfied every other requirement, and the consular officer at the interview (a very pleasant lady at window #6) assured us that all Vanessa needs to do is come back for a followup appointment on her own, probably next week, to make it official. She has a good friend who lives here in Bogota who she will stay the extra week or so with, and we got her return plane ticket changed for the local equivalent of only about US$9, so all is well. We are already talking wedding plans for the 30th of October as we'd originally planned, and Vanessa is joking about either her dress and/or the wedding cake being orange & black for Halloween, LOL. They were quite happy with everything that we originally submitted and never asked to see any additional papers or photos (though we had thick files of them ready to offer if needed.) The CO didn't even ask to talk to me, but I'm still sure that the fact that I was there at all reinforced her quick (less than 5 minutes) decision. Just waiting now for news from the doctor's office, and a return visit to finish it all up...

Leaving for the airport in 10 minutes - Bogota Embassy here we come!

Congratulations Ginna n Gerald, your paperwork really did move lightning fast!

Like walterynnifer,we also have our interview coming up on 12 August, as does at least one other couple from here at VJ, so it almost will be like a little club meeting, LOL.

If my memory is correct, Dan & Vanessa have an interview next week?

Right you are!

We're meeting up in Bogota this Sunday for the whole week, with Lab & Medical on Monday & Interview on Thursday. I'm prepared with a two inch thick accordian file that should contain just about anything they could possibly need to see, and a photo album with at least a couple hundred pictures (on removable pages that I think should fit through the pass through slot ok...) We'll have a netbook along on the trip, so if Martha's wi-fi is working, I'll try to let y'all know how it went as soon as we get back from the embassy.

Congratulations to another happy couple now allowed to continue their life together here in America.

My turn in just another 12 days, and I can't wait for my own good news to pass on then.

Thanks Mike, anything to help get a bit more familiar with what we have ahead of us is always helpful.

Great news for you! You might want to start checking on what the weather is like in Bogota around early October...

My fiancée lives in Bogotá but I'm glad I saw the hotel recommendations. She lives on the other side of town and the more I think of it, the more I think we will stay in a hotel closer to the embassy the night before. With the appointments starting so early, the last thing we'll want are any taxi/transportation problems.

After checking out all of the places recommended here on VJ and several other options as well, we've gone ahead and booked the large bedroom at Martha's for our week in Bogota. Being close to both the embassy & shopping was a big factor, as was being in a better neighborhood than most of the other viable options. Being by far the cheapest option was pretty good too.

Well Just saying, but If any CO would angry at you for speaking Spanish incorrectly they would have to be huge hipocrits. Some of those people sound horrible speaking spanish.

Congratulations on finally finishing what seems from your timeline to be a rougher journey than most of us tend to have here.

Do you mind my asking, for the possible benefit of others, if you have any ideas on why they gave you guys such grief?...

Congratulations on a smooth and successful interview, and welcome soon to the USA. My fiancee & I will be going through a different embassy; Bogota, Colombia in our case, but it's still helpful & reassuring to hear reports from other places, as the overall experience will tend not to differ all that much.

The Embassy site states that dates will be up 15th of previous month with updates coming the 20th and the 30th, well it's 27th and they still only list June and July's dates. UNBELIEVABLE!

You don't necessarily have to wait for the list to be postedto find out your date. If your appointment has been entered into their system, even if the list itself has not yet been posted, you should be able to obtain the appointment date by phoning up the DOS in Washington DC at 202-663-1225, then press 1, then press 0, and give the agent who answers your call your embassy case number (the one beginning with BGT) and they can check your most current status. They told me my 12 August appointment date a couple of weeks ago that way.

So happy for your good news, and wanting my own chance to celebrate too in just over 2 more weeks...

So happy for you two, it's the outcome we all hope for. Best wishes for a long and happy life here together.