Penny Lane

Good Heavens. I thought you were working on your other topic, RE: your letter. Now I'm seeing this post which very much annoys me.
You know what? My fiance is on at the USAF Base in Iraq. Just this morning he called to tell me there has been bombings in Baghdad and its not safe to travel. If its not safe, then military will NOT let the contractors off base to go home! And guess what?? I get to deal with it and so does he. That's the way it is. In fact, if we did get our NOA2 now, and he was scheduled for interview there is a very good chance he wouldn't make it because of situations such as this!!!
And while this is tragic in Russia,and SEVERAL OTHER COUNTRIES whom have been terrorized, there is not one day I don't worry he'll call me during our very limited 3 min phone connection before we lose signal just to say they're going to bunker and he'll call when its safe! That happened on Christmas Morning Al, and you have no idea what I went through for 3 days of silence until he called. And still, I don't get on the forum to whine and complain about it, or grab at straws for an expedited case file.
What you say here is a mockery of the US Govt. for attempting to use this tragic event of others and seeminly selfish of you to even think this is a way to get YOUR BRIDE here any earlier then the rest who wait patiently! Especially, for those who have remained calm, waiting for the day they see their [future] Husband or Wife come home from a war zone and knowing their life is on the line!
I think it was already stated by Bob and Jim that an Expedite is for the USC and it requires a hardship / emergency.
We didn't need this... it was offensive.
Mari
PS: Can you fly over to visit her?

To wish ill of anyone around here, that the visa for their loved one never be granted, is really really low. Believe me I've had my share of disagreements with people around here, but I would never wish that on them. Not even as a joke.
In fact there have been some folks around here who I've really really really argued with, but we worked on their cases together and resolved our dispute with each other. It's much better to wish people well around here, at least as far as their cases go.
You go right ahead and believe it is your right to bring a foreign spouse to the US. Little kids believe in Santa. Both beliefs are grounded on the same plot of reality.

Umm you are not even at 5 months in your process. You are told in the very beginning that 5 months is standard. Seems like you have no patience to begin with! Nice way to draw attention to yourself when you I-129f does get reviewed though. Not sure if it will be positive attention.

You have been told this because you are under four months into your process.
Though I must say, I'm glad you seem to be doing something a little more productive than coming up with new "witty" jabs in your signature.
Unfortunately, I believe that your complaints are going to fall upon deaf ears.
Good luck.

Right, you complained for yourself. This letter is demanding an overhaul of the system.

First of all... Hey, guys! The light of the group is here.
Am I too optimistic if I'm guessing NOA2 will come late February? I hope I'm not. I really want it and I rely on God. I always have.
"Many of us have fiancees whose native tongue is not English" Really? This amused me, "tongue". Hihi
Secondly, I was catching up on posts and hit the "vote this post" button. On Kayla and Coconuts and a few others. Until it said: Action failed: You have reached your quota of positive votes for the day. I was simply rolling on the floor laughing.
About that, "A watched pot never boils". You know, it actually does. With the application of proper heat, the water will boil eventually, whether someone is watching or not. Seems very relevant for this situation. NOA2 is coming, sooner or later. It's a question of time. Depeche Mode.
As for refreshing the Igor's List page a million times a day, talk about missing the forest for the trees! There are so many things to do while waiting, honestly, keeping busy and doing useful things for this process, planning ahead(what you are able to plan)... Given the progress of USCIS. They are actually working, they're clearly not sleeping.
They can go through over 80,000 applications and still have a normal life. So yes, it's possible to have our NOA2 maybe sooner than we expect!!

I am unsure, if I were a VSC adjudicator, that I would want to 'step it up' and work harder for people that bash me publicly for obeying the orders of my boss.. and who are so ungrateful for the work I do just because it takes longer than what they deem as 'reasonable.'
That comment is no way about a single person here, but it about a general attitude as a whole.

It won't take until October to get NOA2. We will definitely be there this Spring 2011. Come on, just have a little more patience and be positive and a bit more optimistic. It's coming. Losing patience will get you nowhere... It will, actually, to the doctor, like Florina said!

It is a PRIVILEGE not a RIGHT to bring foreign national spouses to the US. This is a very crucial misunderstanding.

You sound a bit ranty here, and tbh...since you've decided to speak for 'everyone', you really can't say why certain cases are denied. And is it really fair to blame USCIS for 'forcing them to abandon their loved ones'? Don't you think that's a bit over the top? Marriage is about working together through strife, true partners in every sense. If a marriage cannot survive a 6 -12 month physical separation, then how strong is that marriage to begin with? I don't think it's fair to blame USCIS for cases like that. Check the waivers forum...check the couples who have been separated YEARS, and who continue to fight to be together.
Furthermore, the USC always has the option of 'pursuing happiness' by emigrating to the spouse's country.
I'm not trying to ####### all over your effort here, but if I rec'd this letter, it would read to me as very ranty, confused, full of unrealistic expectations, and over emotional. Figure out what you want to say in a very concise manner, and streamline it before it just goes in the 'rant' pile at your Congressman/woman's office.

I suppose it helps to have a place (here) to come vent. And for some people, it helps them to write letters and make phone calls.
Personally though I think there are some things in our lives we can control, and others we can't. If you let something you cannot control eat away at you, it gets to you in other aspects of your life. Every time my husband and I every got extremely frustrated at things happening to us during this process, we would end up sad and upset and maybe fussing at each other. It was pointless because neither of us were responsible for what was going on. We were better off to focus on each other.

I totally agree with you.
Each service center goes through its busy times and slow times. CSC was dragging along a couple of months back and got caught up. I mostly see people who are around the 2-3 month mark complaining about this issue on here, not even people who have reached 5 months plus. People need to learn that patience is sometimes not easy, but necessary. Consider this a test to your commitment to each other and wait it out. Nobody likes having to wait, but be glad that (in most cases) your foreign fiance is safe and healthy. If they are not, I am sure an expedite would be valid in this case. People need to think outside of their own existance sometimes. Perhaps these issues are caused due to humanitarian cases being processed, perhaps funding has been cut, perhaps people are just trying to do their jobs and probably working overtime to make impatient people happy. The letters, constant calls to USCIS and general negativity about the process as a whole does not help workers to process YOUR pending cases any faster. If they drag on to 7 months, 10 months, or a year, then I think these complaints are warranted. Every case is different and I am sure not every application is perfect, so relax a little and think about how grateful you are to have love in your life and the privilege of living in a country that supports (even just a little) your love and vision of your lives together. Not everyone in this world is so fortunate.
If your relationship is strong, you will weather the storm of this process. If you cannot, perhaps you shouldn't be applying after all.
Sorry but I felt it had to be said.

You are on a forum full of people who have been through exactly the same process as you're going through and they've gotten through it. Thousands of success stories on this forum alone. They've all reached the goal you are so desperate to achieve. It will happen. You'll get there. In the meantime, you're surrounded by people in the same boat you are. Take advantage of that in a positive way instead of a negative one. Instead of spending so much time crying about the injustice of it all, use the forum to deal with the wait in a productive way.
Accept the things in life that you cannot change or control. This process is one of them. It'll take as long as it takes. That's life.
You are barely three months into this. There's a long way to go, even after NOA2. It's going to be a long, miserable road if every minute is spent being angry at how unfair everything is.

There is no need to be so overly dramatic. They aren't ruining your life. They are going to do EXACTLY what you want them to do. But because they aren't doing it as soon as you snap your fingers and they aren't doing it on your schedule, suddenly they are an enemy. To be so angry this early into the process isn't going to make it any easier.

Simply because an unreliable timeline on a website is not going your way does not mean that things are going in the wrong direction.
Once again, your anger at the system a little over three months into the process has reared its head because Igor's list isn't giving you the information you want. When I first applied, California was so far behind Vermont. Then California got ahead, and then Vermont, and then California ... point is, it changes day by day, week by week ... if the results of Igor's list is impacting you so negatively, I suggest no longer looking at it and keeping your sanity.

While it is our only measure of progress, it is such a small sample size that it can't be dependable. Since it relies on so many factors (being a member at VJ, actually updating your timeline, etc) there's no reason to assume that since Igor's list isn't updated, that VSC hasn't approved any petitions that day.

I understood exactly what you meant. Your supposed "right" to get married is not really a "right" because there are substantial government imposed restrictions on it.
The rest of your rant wasn't worth responding to. Your sense of personal entitlement is offensive to people who believe in the democratic process, which is what most people in this thread are endorsing. If you want to change the way the US government works then rally the support of your fellow citizens and present your grievances to your elected officials, but be willing to accept the results if you discover that most Americans don't agree with you. Stamping your feet and demanding recognition of rights you don't have makes you look like either a petty dictator or a child throwing a tantrum.
...stepping off my soap box now...

Make sure everything gets in the envelope and that the correct address is on the outside.
When your envelope arrives at USCIS it will be disassembled and placed into one of their folders in the order they prefer. No matter what you do, it will look exactly the same as everyone else's a few minutes after being opened.
I suggest paper clips on the relevent documents and a binder clip on the whole thing. Thye do not like if you use staples, but there is no particular penalty for doing so. Clips are better.
ALWAYS send it by some verifiable method. USPS with delivery confirmation is good enough, you do not need the extra cost of the return receipt, just delivery confirmation. ALWAYS use some form of delivery confirmation. ALWAYS make at least one copy of EVERYTHING you ever send to anyone in this process.
Use a personal check for payment, it is easier to find out it has been deposited and you can get your case number off the back of the check. The case number and the delivery confirmation = everything you will learn on the NOA1.

Marriage is a right? Glad to hear that. Try to marry your first cousin, or your same sex partner, or your 14 year old girl friend, or add a second wife. Let me know how it goes.

First, I think the title and the warning of this thread were great! Gave a good idea of what expect and for that, I'm withholding all my comments but one.
The one comment I'm making is to Al. The attitude that 'Everybody should [feel the same way as you] is an attitude you were chastising others that disagree with you for having. When they say 'Al, you should be happy to wait and you should feel the same way we do.' you would get horribly upset and tell us that its not right for someone to tell others 'how they should feel.'
Just my observation! Anyway, rant on! (Again, nice thread title.)

Ramisgreat, what do you think would happen to VisaJourney if all the members who were already reunited left the site? Do you think there would be any information on here for people like you who are still in the thick of the process?
My husband's case was processed in 2005. Since that time, he came to the US and we got married. It's been five years now. Five years. It's hard to explain to you and the others how this whole mess fades away once it's over.
For those who stick around though, i guess we want to help or we still wouldn't be here. I've always wished we could be some sort of "beacon of hope" for the rest of you. Like, look we survived it all! We remember it; we know it sucks; we lived to tell about it; you can too.
We tell you the reality. We tell you how to get through it. We tell you it will pass. Some people say things differently than others. But saying that those of us who are reunited don't remember - well that's just wrong. We must remember or we still wouldn't be here trying to help you out.
I hope you get what you want soon. Then you will understand.

I'm sorry, but you unfortunately have a long time to wait. Five months or more, on average.

Again, a US citizen does not have the right to bring a loved one into their country.
A US citizen has the right to PETITION to bring a loved one into the country.
I think that we are forgetting here that when people here are stating that is it a privilge, it is a fact, not an opinion.
In the eyes of the USCIS, a US citizen does not have the right to demand this, they have a right to ASK.
Wrong or right, that is the way it is, and the law that we as petitioners or beneficiarys must follow.

Uhhh..The thing is..it is what it is..It took me over a year just to get a fiance visa...There were times I wanted to pull my hair out it was so frustrating..But it is a system,not a perfect one,but then who's is??...You know that phrase.."you can't please all of the people all of the time" applies to the immigration system very well..This country owes your Fiancee absolutely nothing..but it is trying to accommodate you..don't you agree??..For that you should be grateful..Once again,you always have the option of living in Russia,maybe they're immigration system is easier?..If it's here you want to live..Then it's USCIS rules you have to follow...take a deep breath.

9/11 was a tragedy, God rest all the souls who died that day. But you're missing the fact that 1000's, perhaps Hundreds of Thousands, even Millions, have been saved because those with terror agendas have been unable to take root in the US, because this system prevented them. It wouldn't just be 9/11, it would be 9/12, 9/13 and that would've gone on. Maybe this system needs to be tougher than it is. But at this moment in time, it is preventing thousands of terrorists who wish to do harm from taking root in the US and creating definitive bases. It was never designed to prevent foreign terrorism swiping at the US, it was designed to stop foreign terrorism migrating to the US and taking root and thats what it does.

GO to http://www.usajobs.opm.gov/ and apply if there are any job openings available. If you think you can do better, then please apply for a position in the government, they are always looking for new ideas.
The immaturity I have seen lately from those going through process just amazed me.