Leahs Cafe

My friend PL was here for a visit over the weekend. She shared about the health benefit of fruit enzyme and how it’s helping her with stress related ailments that both of us share in common. She brought some fruit enzyme that she made to share with my family. She mixed with some water and made a cup of drink for me. It taste quite nice and it caused so much gases that night, it’s embarrassing!

Many of us probably have heard and read about this fruit enzyme as a few organic stores have been promoting it quite a bit lately. I remember reading about a Thai alternative medicine practitioner named Dr. Rosukon Poompanwong who teaches people to make enzyme from kitchen waste.

Apparently, they are a few Malaysians who went to visit the health farm runs by Dr. Rosukon in Thailand. They came back promoting the making of fruits enzyme and garbage enzyme widely in Klang Valley. PL went to one of those classes to learn how to make fruit enzymes. Knowing PL is always eager to share what she learns with me. I asked her to do a demo on how to make fruit enzyme at home.

And this is the product we have, two jars of apples enzyme and one jar of dragon fruits enzyme from twenty green apples, two dragon fruits, six lemons and about 500 g of organic sugar.

(It started as a full jar but I forgot to take a picture. This is how it looked like after two days. The osmosis was drawing the juices out and fermentation has begun. Can see bubbles forming and smell like citrus wine.)

The skins and seeds of the fruits do not go to waste, they go in a jar to make garbage enzyme that can be used as fertilizer, disinfectant and many more. (You can also make this from kitchen waste.)

You must be thinking, yuck, the fermentation of this garbage must be really smelly! Believe it or not, this bottle of garbage actually smell pretty good, a bit similar to the citrus based deodorant you have in the car!

Since the expedite request has been approved by National Visa Center on July 24, the file will be sent to KL consular by DHL express mail, hopefully by July 25. It will take 3-4 business days in transit. KL consular is an efficient consular with no backlog. Under normal circumstances, should expect to receive a packet of forms from KL consular within 1-2 weeks. Some consulates i.e. GuangZhuo and Montreal are so behind with their workloads, the files get store in the warehouse for 3-6 months, before they do anything!

We have already downloaded the forms from the internet and filled up. They are two forms: the DS-230 immigrant visa application form and I-864 affidavit of support form.

The beneficiary now the applicant (that’s me) needs to submit the DS-230 immigration visa application form together with the supporting documents upon receiving the packet from the consular. The supporting documents include the original long birth certificate from JPN, marriage certificate, Malaysian Certificate of Good Conduct, one US sized passport photo and photocopy of the data page of my Malaysian passport.

The petitioner now the sponsor (that’s the big boy) needs to submit the I-864 affidavit of support with all the supporting documents that prove his current income and employment. He needs to mail his IRS tax transcripts for the past three years, pay stubs for the past six months, letter from his employer stating his position, starting date and term of employment (part time or full time).

The affidavit of support is a contract between the big boy and Uncle Sam (that’s the US government), he has to guarantee that me will not become a public charge. If the immigrant has to claim mean-tested social benefits, then Uncle Sam has the right to recover the sum from the sponsor. The affidavit is binding as long as we are alive, even if in the event of divorce! In fact, very few conditions exclude him from the obligations of this contract, one of them is death, second is if I become US citizen (which I don’t plan to at this moment in time) or I have worked long enough to earn enough credits to be eligible for social security. In another word, the big boy is making a big financial commitment, imposed and enforced by Uncle Sam. :-)

After the consular goes through the the DS-230 package and I-864 package submitted, they will request for more documents if anything is missing. Else, I should receive another package which consists of the interview appointment letter and information on medical checkup. Then will have to go for medical check up, X-ray and vaccinations before the interview.

For the interview, would have to bring all the documents for proofs of bona fide marriage. Since we have been married for three years and KL is not a notorious consular that rejects immigrant visas for spouses with frivolous reasons, we are not too worry about the interview. But, we still have to prepare all the proofs in case they ask to see them. We have emails, letters, cards, photos, telephone bills, insurance letter, bank statements, etc. They are just too many if I would to print all of them, in order to save a few more trees, I will only select some of this to print out. :-)

The US, like Australia, has a similar two-part process for its citizen to unite with immediate family. First, the US citizen needs to file a petition to access his eligibility to sponsor a family member. Then, when the petition is approved, the beneficiary of the petition has to submit an application for the immigrant visa.

The big boy filed an I-130 petition for me in March 15. The petition was forwarded to California Service Center and he received a notice that said the petition was received on March 17 with a priority date of March 24.

We didn’t hear anything after that. I went for a surgery in April and went through a cancer scare throughout April and May. After much persuasion, the big boy then filed an expedite request on June 5. The expedite request was approved on June 24 and subsequently the I-130 petition was approved on July 9.

The approved I-130 then was forwarded and received by National Visa Center (NVC) on July 15. The big boy filed an expedite request with NVC on July 16 and it’s approved on July 24. The file will be forwarded to KL and continue with the second part of the immigration process.

The second part of the process is to have the beneficiary of the petition, that’s me, to submit an application for the immigrant visa. Hopefully, the second part is going to go fast, much faster than the first part!