Today is:
- March, 1999... Sherly
and Bill are introduced online by Sherly's Uncle, Bill, and her Aunt Marie. We have a few
phone conversations, and exchange Emails daily. We become best of friends!
- May, 1999... We both realize that we are
fast becoming more than just friends, We admit it to each other in an Email... And Bill
buys a round trip ticket to Manila.
- June 12, 1999... Bill arrives in Manila
airport at 10:15 PM, and is greeted by the very maganda Sherly, her lovely sister Sheryl,
their guapa cousin Eva and Cute as a button friend, Vilma. All this beauty... Bill thinks he
has died and gone to heaven!
- Third week of June, 1999. Okay, we know
it... what we felt online and on the phone is for real, we are very much in love! Bill
asks Sherly to marry him, and she accepts.
- July 2nd, 1999... a very sad day. Bill has
to leave! We say goodbye, with tears in our eyes, and promise to keep in touch. We both
know it will be a very long time before we see each other again... Bill has to wait for
the final divorce from his first wife before he can file for Sherly's Fiancée visa. Then,
there is an average six month wait for the visa to be approved! Bill returns home to wait,
and to care for his daughter Vanessa, who he missed very much!
- October 4th, 1999... It's official, the
divorce is final! Bill mails the visa application
after he checks and rechecks all the papers and sends a large manila envelope via
certified mail off to the Vermont Service Center of the INS.
- October 7th... Packet
arrives at VSC.
- October 11th, 1999... Bill gets back the
receipt from VSC showing that our packet arrived on October 7th. Now we await the official
1st Notice of Action...
- October 13th, 1999... 1st NOA from VSC is
issued!
- October 20th, 1999... Notice of Action is
received by mail.
- October 26th, 1999... APPROVED! 2nd NOA is issued. 21 days
from the day our packet arrives, not bad for the INS!
- October 30th, 1999... Notice of Action,
APPROVAL, arrives in mail. Manila has been notified by cable. I want to share the
news with Sherly, but as luck would have it her Email is down until November 2nd!
- November 3rd, 1999... Bill finally
gets through to a very happy and excited Sherly and shares the good news.
- November 18th, 1999... Bill gives his
first try at reaching the Manila embassy to confirm that they have received the
petition... wish us luck, it is almost impossible to get through there.
- November 19th, 1999... 11 am, Manila time... Finally!
After an hour on the redial button (actually, the mouse button, I had to use the computer
to dial because 10-10-220 + the international number is too big for my phone's
redial to deal with!) I get through, finally, and am transferred to the visa section...
where the phone rings. And rings. And rings. After about 10 minutes I am greeted by a
pleasant Filipina voice. I give her my information, and she checks her computer. YES!
They just recently received Sherly's petition, and they
mailed her packet #3 last week. YEA! I am overjoyed,
but... I sure do miss Sherly. I inform her by Email about the good news, give her her case
number and instruct her that if it does not arrive by Dec. 1st, she is to go to the
embassy and get a duplicate packet. I wish I could see the look on her face when she gets
that Email, but I will have to settle for hearing the joy in her sweet voice when I call
her tonight!
- December 3rd, 1999... Yea! Sherly has received her packet #3 from the embassy!
She will go to Manila on Monday to turn in her forms at the infamous "green trash
bin" outside gate #2, and also see if she can accomplish anything else that she needs
to do. Good luck, my love! If all goes well, I expect her interview before early March,
2000... crossing our fingers.
- December 6th, 1999... Sherly goes to the
travel agent to check if her authenticated birth certificate has arrive. YES! It's there.
She decides to go to Manila Tuesday so she can take care of here CFO at the same time she
drops her packet at the embassy.
- December 7th, 1999... Off to Manila! Sherly drops her papers at the embassy... no
problem there. She is late for the 3:PM session at the CFO, and waits for the next
session. She attends the seminar, gets her certificate, and heads back home.
- December 12th, 1999... Sherly heads to her
home province to get her passport. She will get it quicker there than
going to Manila. She should return by weeks end. I hope so, there will be no Email from
her for a week. Sure will be lonesome time for Bill...
- December 16th, 1999... Sherly sends an
Email from the province. Her passport will be ready for pick up Monday at 4pm. She has
decided to stay until Wednesday so she can visit with her former college classmates and be
at their Christmas party. Have fun, Sherly!
- February 4th, 2000... Sherly
Arrived in her new home! Okay, I
haven't updated this page since then, we've been "busy"
;-)
- March 30, 2000...
We are married in a small civil ceremony.
Attended by a few friends and
relatives at the town hall in Ontario, NY. It's so pathetic, I can't give
you a link to Ontario's home page, they don't have one!!! Here's the best I
can do. (Wayne County NY
tourism )
- April, 2000.... A
trip to Buffalo INS.
Everything is approved, we expect smooth sailing and a green card in a few
months.
- Fast forward to Jan, 2002:
The INS screwed up! Still no green card
( 2 years later!) because Vermont claims
they have "No picture or fingerprint" Bullsh*t! We gave it to them
in Buffalo (see April 2000, above!) You think they could at least TELL us
this? NO! We made 2 trips to Buffalo to extend her Visa before
they told us! Let this be a lesson to you all... if you expect the INS to do
its job, you are wrong! ( just look at all
the screw ups the INS made leading up to September 11th! )
Moral of this story:: KEEP AFTER THE INS < NEVER LET THEM REST!>
We are due for the removal of conditional status in a few months, so the INS
won't issue her her "temp" green card because it's a "waste
of money". So now it's 1 to 2 MORE years before we see a green card. By
the way, the cost of removal of conditional status has increased from $75 to
$145. What a rip-off! And they say it would be a waste of
money to give us a $2 card? HUH??? Aren't we paying them enough? Where can I
get a nice cushy gov't job with the INS?
Well, that's where we stand right
now. Stop back and check on our progress and the INS lack thereof!
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Last update: Thursday, January 24, 2002 09:46 AM