Update on my wife...
 

Well after waiting for four long years my wife finally got an interview to come to America. I was so nervous I was sick to my stomach. At 8pm here (10 am in Vietnam) she had her interview and was going to call me one hour later to let me know how it went.

An hour passed by....no call....another hour....no call....another hour...I knew something was wrong....and finally she called sobbing and telling me she didn't pass.

I've been in shock since then. If I must, I'll move to Vietnam to be with her. So I contacted our immigration lawyer and it turns it's not as bad as I thought.

After her fiance interview failed, we were told to give them more evidence. This time I didn't want any mistakes so I printed out 4 years worth of emails, gave them copies of reciepts from money I sent her, I gave them photos of us travelling all over Vietnam, I gave them my tax returns, I gave them our wedding photos, marriage license, wedding video, phone bills, letters, etc.

The interview is only 30 minutes long. They sent my wife away and told her they needed more time to go through all the stuff we gave them. They gave my wife back the wedding photos, reciepts for money, and wedding video but kept the phone bills, the original copy of our marriage license, our travel photos, and all of the printed emails from the year 2001-2002 (pre-wedding)

They kept everything they could verify. I think this will turn out to be ok.

My wife told me there were 20 other couples and out of those 18 failed and only 20 passed. They are turning away record numbers of people. My wife and I are in limbo until they can go through everything. I don't know if this will take a week, a month, or a year.

I'm still very sad because I figured she'd be here in a week or two, but I suppose we could be one of the 18 couples who got all their stuff back and were turned down.

Welcome to Homeland Security, Radar :( I'm so very sorry your case is working out this way. You did better than we did though, the consul in Manila didn't even look at my friends documentation and told her to leave the window in 2 minutes. No explanation, no details, total indifference, pre-decided. I really wish you luck.

Good luck dude.

Bummer. :( Do you think it might have helped if you were there for the interview or would they have told you to wait outside.
Come to think of it, it's probably better you weren't there. ;)


BTW- My offer to buy you a cheesesteak and all the beer you can drink if/when you come to Philly, was made before you became a family man.
What the hell, I'll treat her too.
But you better get here before the kids arrive. :p

Stick with it. Just stick with it. Don't give up. Don't quit. It will happen and it will be worth the effort.

When they review the docs you provided, they will reconsider. How is your wife handling this? Hopefully, she understands that y'all have to work the system and that getting pissed at the interviewer is counterproductive.

Have you considered getting her over here on a work or student visa? Once she's on US soil, it gets a lot easier.

Sorry to hear of your difficulty - it has to be gut wrenching to have government bureaucrats in charge of something so important.

If I had been there, my wife would have been a bit more calm, but they wouldn't have let me inside. If I had been there when they said they needed more time, I'd have made them sit down and read it right now or I wouldn't leave and if they tried to make me leave, it could have gotten very ugly...for them.

I'll be going to Vietnam in 2 months for 2 weeks because I haven't been with my wife since we were married more than a year ago. One of the things the Consul guys wanted to know was why I didn't go to Vietnam for 2 years at one point. I already wrote them a letter explaining that the economy took a hit and the tech jobs just weren't there and I had trouble finding work. They have my tax returns to verify what I've said.

I definately want to hit up Philly sometime and see the sites (liberty bell, independence hall, etc) and I'd like to see Washington D.C. too, though I might get in trouble there.

You see Radar, it'd delusions like this that can make certain aspects of your situation difficult.

You don't make the gov't do anything.

And you certainly don't let them think that you believe that. All it takes is for the paperwork to come to a halt on someone's desktop and you're done.

I hope you two are together soon. That's a bunch of bullshit, when a married couple can't live together in a free country.

Oh dear.

Hopefully it won't be this difficult for Kelove's fiance to come over from Croatia.

Putting out good thoughts for you and Mrs. Radar.

My understanding is that it got a lot harder only after she failed the first test, where she told a conflicting story of how the two of them met because she thought the real story would sound strange.

They are public SERVANTS, and I am their master. I am thier boss. They answer to me, not the other way around.


Actually that didn't have anything to do with it. They are turning away 18 out of 20 applicants right now. Ours wasn't turned down. But they do want to look at it more closely. I had a mountain of evidence to support our relationship. I had more than anyone else, including those who passed.

Let's step back from the ideal, which I agree with you about, and look at the actual.

But isn't it marked on the record that she was already denied once? Surely that's got to affect how they look at your case.

They also answer to 293,027,570 other masters.

the org chart is a bitch

She was actually never turned down. They sent her papers back to America because they didn't believe in her, but they were never closed, and never turned down.

Tough org chart, but those 293,027,570 people aren't demanding that my wife be kept out or that our relationship be judged. They only want to make sure she's not a danger.