Spoon

hello, sorry but as much as i wanted to make an update, be proud & be happy,...theres really nothing to update for. my petition which i filed in july 8th and receive NOA1 july13th 2010, touched in Oct20&21 2010 respectively, since then our case seemed to be abandoned & forgotten to nowhere. im as much as frustrated like everyone else, its too sad that lot of us will be spending the holidays minus the special one of our lives just becoz USCIS doesnt give a damn. I think they already stopped working & all of them are already on a holiday mindset till 2nd week of january 2011 ( oh god have mercy on us)

I think you are pointing your anger in the wrong direction. As people have pointed out, the delays are probably due to humanitarian visas. If you haven't checked the news, people in Haiti are having a hell of a time (and a lot of other places in the world). I don't think it has anything to do with whether or not the USCIS cares. They don't. They have a job to do and lives to live so they will take time off around the holidays. As a government contractor, I saw how bad (and good) it can be. I'm not posting to jump on you but simply suggest that you might be better served channeling that energy to a productive use. I am in the same boat and I am just as frustrated as the rest of you. However, I am not going to let that frustration rule my thought process. Here is something that has served me well over the years:

'A BAG OF NAILS

Once upon a time there was a little boy with a bad temper. His father gave him a bag of nails and told him that every time he lost his temper, he should hammer a nail in the fence. The first day the boy had driven 37 nails into the fence. But gradually, the number of daily nails dwindled down. He discovered it was easier to hold his temper than to drive those nails into the fence.

Finally the first day came when the boy didn't lose his temper at all. He proudly told his father about it and the father suggested that the boy now pull out one nail for each day that he was able to hold his temper. The days passed and the young boy was finally able to tell his father that all the nails were gone. The father took his son by the hand and led him to the fence.

"You have done well, my son, but look at the holes in the fence. The fence will never be the same. When you say things in anger, they leave a scar just like this one. You can put a knife in a man and draw it out, it won't matter how many times you say 'I'm sorry', the wound is still there."'

If you want to read more

Awesome. Thanks for all the advice.

I am still waiting on my NOA2 but I like to plan ahead. I have been getting a lot of good info from this site but I it also gave me some ideas that I wanted to run past the community.

1. Proof of ongoing relationship - I am in the really lucky position of being able to travel to see my fiance quite a bit. Since we have filed, I have seen her twice and we have two more trips planned. My question is with all the talk of Skype and phone records, can I send my fiance in to the interview armed with a copy of my passport stamps and photos of us on all our adventures? Would it be better to have both phone records and travel records? My thought is that if we are meeting on a regular basis, that should trump almost any other form of evidence.

2. Assuming we get approved (*crosses fingers*) after the interview, how long does it take to get the package and the actual visa from the consulate?

3. Does going to the interview make any difference (bad or good)? I know I cannot be with her when she is being interviewed but I would like to be there for support and to celebrate our hopefully good news. In conjunction with my second question, I also would like to get her packed up and come back over with her as soon as we can. After we get the visa, is there any reason we can't jump on a plane and come home?

4. What's the process for getting through immigration at the POE? I know she has to give the CBP officer her packet and they open it, but I wanted to know how long it would take. I would love to be with her assuming that we fly to the US together so I am also curious if that is an issue or not. Waiting for two hours at the airport when she came over on a tourist visa when she was being grilled was not fun and if I can't travel back with her, I would like to be prepared.

Thanks for the help