carla1

The fact of having your future in some nameless entity's hands that won't even give you the courtesy of a phone call was amazingly stressful. In addition I had to take a job that doesn't suit me and causes even more stress to be able to bring my beloved to this country. It seemed at the time that everything in my life sucked big time!
How did I deal? I tried everything but in spite of it I just got to the point where I was deeply depressed and couldn't climb out... and thank God for antidepressants and a Doc willing to prescribe!
Finally we got out Noa2 after about 5.5 months and we are now waiting on the embassy interview. Check out the embassy pages on this site for average wait times. I would push back the wedding date because that firm date in an uncertain process only causes more stress.
Good Luck.

The fact of having your future in some nameless entity's hands that won't even give you the courtesy of a phone call was amazingly stressful. In addition I had to take a job that doesn't suit me and causes even more stress to be able to bring my beloved to this country. It seemed at the time that everything in my life sucked big time!
How did I deal? I tried everything but in spite of it I just got to the point where I was deeply depressed and couldn't climb out... and thank God for antidepressants and a Doc willing to prescribe!
Finally we got out Noa2 after about 5.5 months and we are now waiting on the embassy interview. Check out the embassy pages on this site for average wait times. I would push back the wedding date because that firm date in an uncertain process only causes more stress.
Good Luck.

Word of advice for those just getting started:
1. Don't even bother with hiring a lawyer as long as you have internet access, are computer literate, can read and follow directions.
2. Refer to this site for all timeline information.
3. Confer with others that have been through the process.
4. Expect the worse-case scenario so you don't set yourself up for later disappointment. (Of course you should hope for the best, but expect the worst.)
I paid a lawyer to assist with filing the K1 visa in Jan of 2010. He told me that after getting all the paperwork together we would be approved in 6 weeks to 8 weeks and the embassy would take about 4 weeks more.....in total the processing time would be 3-4 months tops!
The "love of my life" and highschool sweetheart began gathering all the paperwork together in Chile to file for a K1, however Chile had a 8.7 earthquake and many of the government courthouses where they store historical documents were damaged and unsafe to enter.
Because it is time consuming to get a tourist visa to the US and we were told that the separation wouldn't be too much longer, I made a 5 day journey to Chile and returned April 1 2010.
Daniel finally got all his paperwork together and sent it to me in early June. The first of July I completed all the paperwork and forwarded it to the attorney to double check. The attorney gave his OK and I sent in our K1 in mid July. Our K1 was returned because of a simple error that the attorney should have easily caught. (I checked single on my status yet provided a divorce decree from my former marriage which ended in 1983).
I made this little change, and did my research which found that there were other little errors and resent in the K1. Our NOA1 date was August 12, 2010.
We were discussing Daniel visiting the first week of September 2010 as September was 4 months since we had last seen each other, however family members in Chile had been turned down for a tourist visa and afterwards were unable to apply for a visa for a year. We were very afraid of that happening, so I asked my PAID attorney who had no idea yea or nay about this. I contacted the Chilean embassy but got a garbled response that was ambiguous. We decided not to chance it as the visa would be coming through shortly.
Unfortunately I had not yet located visajourney.com and since my PAID attorney told me we would receive our NOA2 in 6-8 weeks we checked the USCIS status page every single day beginning at week 3. Those of you in this process are very aware of the sense of frustration, anger and hopelessness that resulted from seeing no updates, no touches, no nothing, day after day after day.
I left a couple of voicemails for the Attorney in October to ask why it was taking longer than he advised and never got a response back from him...and still haven't to this day.
When I was at my wits end and feeling very desperate in late October I finally found this website and discovered that my attorney was very uninformed about his job and not fit to be paid to do it. I also discovered that I submitted more than was requested and required for the K1 visa and if not for this I would have been able to get an earlier NOA1 date. (remember the earthquake in Chile and difficulty of obtaining paperwork).
And here we all are waiting and waiting and waiting. We are currently at 145 days (21 weeks) and no NOA2 in sight.
We finally got to where we should have been initially, to put it another way,we gave up and are expecting the worst case scenario. Daniel is attempting a 10 day visit on a tourist visa-his interview is Jan 31. He can show he has sufficient ties to return, and the visajourney community assures us that the year denial of a tourist visa will not affect the K1.
I am trying not to think any further than the tourist visa. We are both middle aged farts with clean police records, assets and no conceivable reasons exist to deny us a K1 visa, but having hope only disappoints and hurts every single day.
I am filled with anger at the way this is all working out. If we had done this the illegal way we would be together now and creating invaluable memories for our old age. I fully expected Christmas 2009 to be my last alone.
I live in Texas and run across illegals every single day. I swear this process has made me hate every single one of them because they are here and Daniel is not!
I am becoming hateful, vicious and despondent. I have am become a burden on my coworkers because of my attitude. Normally I am sunny, likeable and cheerful but that disappeared completely the end of November in the midst of the "holiday" season. (the " indicates sarcasm)
I am calling tomorrow to make an appt with my doctor and ask for anti-depressants, the truth is that without Daniel I see no reason for continuing. This is not living - it is existing and existing at a low level. Life has no joys, no happinesses nothing to look forward to.
I know this community understands exactly what I am saying, and I ask that the members please don't try to give me words of encouragement, I am way beyond that.
Just call me "48 and losing precious time together every day"

Word of advice for those just getting started:
1. Don't even bother with hiring a lawyer as long as you have internet access, are computer literate, can read and follow directions.
2. Refer to this site for all timeline information.
3. Confer with others that have been through the process.
4. Expect the worse-case scenario so you don't set yourself up for later disappointment. (Of course you should hope for the best, but expect the worst.)
I paid a lawyer to assist with filing the K1 visa in Jan of 2010. He told me that after getting all the paperwork together we would be approved in 6 weeks to 8 weeks and the embassy would take about 4 weeks more.....in total the processing time would be 3-4 months tops!
The "love of my life" and highschool sweetheart began gathering all the paperwork together in Chile to file for a K1, however Chile had a 8.7 earthquake and many of the government courthouses where they store historical documents were damaged and unsafe to enter.
Because it is time consuming to get a tourist visa to the US and we were told that the separation wouldn't be too much longer, I made a 5 day journey to Chile and returned April 1 2010.
Daniel finally got all his paperwork together and sent it to me in early June. The first of July I completed all the paperwork and forwarded it to the attorney to double check. The attorney gave his OK and I sent in our K1 in mid July. Our K1 was returned because of a simple error that the attorney should have easily caught. (I checked single on my status yet provided a divorce decree from my former marriage which ended in 1983).
I made this little change, and did my research which found that there were other little errors and resent in the K1. Our NOA1 date was August 12, 2010.
We were discussing Daniel visiting the first week of September 2010 as September was 4 months since we had last seen each other, however family members in Chile had been turned down for a tourist visa and afterwards were unable to apply for a visa for a year. We were very afraid of that happening, so I asked my PAID attorney who had no idea yea or nay about this. I contacted the Chilean embassy but got a garbled response that was ambiguous. We decided not to chance it as the visa would be coming through shortly.
Unfortunately I had not yet located visajourney.com and since my PAID attorney told me we would receive our NOA2 in 6-8 weeks we checked the USCIS status page every single day beginning at week 3. Those of you in this process are very aware of the sense of frustration, anger and hopelessness that resulted from seeing no updates, no touches, no nothing, day after day after day.
I left a couple of voicemails for the Attorney in October to ask why it was taking longer than he advised and never got a response back from him...and still haven't to this day.
When I was at my wits end and feeling very desperate in late October I finally found this website and discovered that my attorney was very uninformed about his job and not fit to be paid to do it. I also discovered that I submitted more than was requested and required for the K1 visa and if not for this I would have been able to get an earlier NOA1 date. (remember the earthquake in Chile and difficulty of obtaining paperwork).
And here we all are waiting and waiting and waiting. We are currently at 145 days (21 weeks) and no NOA2 in sight.
We finally got to where we should have been initially, to put it another way,we gave up and are expecting the worst case scenario. Daniel is attempting a 10 day visit on a tourist visa-his interview is Jan 31. He can show he has sufficient ties to return, and the visajourney community assures us that the year denial of a tourist visa will not affect the K1.
I am trying not to think any further than the tourist visa. We are both middle aged farts with clean police records, assets and no conceivable reasons exist to deny us a K1 visa, but having hope only disappoints and hurts every single day.
I am filled with anger at the way this is all working out. If we had done this the illegal way we would be together now and creating invaluable memories for our old age. I fully expected Christmas 2009 to be my last alone.
I live in Texas and run across illegals every single day. I swear this process has made me hate every single one of them because they are here and Daniel is not!
I am becoming hateful, vicious and despondent. I have am become a burden on my coworkers because of my attitude. Normally I am sunny, likeable and cheerful but that disappeared completely the end of November in the midst of the "holiday" season. (the " indicates sarcasm)
I am calling tomorrow to make an appt with my doctor and ask for anti-depressants, the truth is that without Daniel I see no reason for continuing. This is not living - it is existing and existing at a low level. Life has no joys, no happinesses nothing to look forward to.
I know this community understands exactly what I am saying, and I ask that the members please don't try to give me words of encouragement, I am way beyond that.
Just call me "48 and losing precious time together every day"