I get discouraged.
Easily.
Mostly because I’m not a patient person.
Every day for the last three weeks, since we received our second Notice of Action from U.S. Customs and Immigration Services, I have been calling the National Visa Center.
When I get a positive response, our case number will be sent to the U.S. consulate in Vancouver and I will start the K-1 application process.
In the meantime, however, I have:
- Hit redial on my phone or on Skype more than 1,000 times
- Spent somewhere around 11 hours on hold, listening to hold music and voices telling me my call is important
- Talked to NVC reps for a grand total of 48 minutes
None of them have good news for me. Instead, they seem to pull randomly from a list of times I’m supposed to spend waiting for my case number.
They say:
- Four to five weeks
- 25 business days
- 35 days
- 42 days
I chuckle before I hang up. I know the drill. I prepared for it off VisaJourney.com, where I’ve learned about the obstacles and expectations for this K-1 visa process.
At first, it was a chuckle of humour.
It’s becoming a chuckle of resignation.
I’m sure our time will come. The frustration comes from knowing other K-1 brides and grooms have received their case numbers. They received their NOA-2 around the same time as we did; some of them received it later than we did, even as recent as early October.
I know of other couples who filed when we did and they haven’t received their NOA-2 yet.
I know of brides who are waiting to escape war-torn countries or hurricane-ravaged lands.
I’m lucky. I was born in the greatest country of the world and I am separated from My American by only a border and a five-hour drive.
Not several time zones.
Not an ocean.
Not political strife.
It’s going to be so hard to leave, even though I know Canada is only a few hours away. (Note: I will endure several months of not being allowed to return, so someone will have to send me Aero bars and all-dressed chips.)
And yet I can’t wait to get there, to start my life as a married woman, to bring our little family together and plan easy camping trips and vacations.
But I can wait.
Because our time will come.
Now it’s time to start hitting that redial button.
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