Leahs Cafe

It has been two weeks since the California Service Center approved the I-130 petition on July 9. The file took one week to transit from California to National Visa Center (NVC) in New Hampshire. (You wonder how on earth files are still moving around physically in this computer age.)

However, NVC seems to move really fast, they received the file on June 15, we filed an expedite request on July 16, they generated the choice of agent and AOS fee bill on July 17, and this forms are sent out immediately, the big boy has received them on Monday July 21. The best thing happened today July 24, they approved the expedite request!

Which means NVC is forwarding the file to KL immediately. The normal procedure is to pay fees to NVC, wait for the fee processing, then submit documents and wait for documents verification, and that can take another 3-6 months before an interview appointment can be granted!

With the expedite request being approved, we are paying fees and submit documents to the KL consular. Since there is no backup of immigrant visa applications at KL consular, it should moves very fast from now onwards.

Bravo! Alright, at least we know not all government agencies are as rotten as USCIS. This jokers have caused much stress in the last four months, certainly would need wrinkle cream for all the lines result from that! After four months of dealing with the jokers who work at turtle speed, am impressed with the efficiency of NVC!

One of the proofs of bona fide marriage we are required to show to the consular during immigrant visa interview is the co-mingling of our finances. It can be joint ownership of property or lease, life insurance with the other party as beneficiary, name on spouse’s health insurance, joint saving or checking account.

The only document we have right now is a letter from insurance company that shows my name on his health insurance plan. Though we have been married for three years but we do not have a joint bank account. You will be surprised, opening a bank account can be a rather complex attempt without proper paper. We have been separated in two countries for the past one and half years, we couldn’t add each other to our bank accounts because the bank required us to be present physically to produce the relevant identity!

The big boy has a checking account that comes with a debit card, he gives me the debit card to withdraw money in Malaysia. His bank statements showed all the withdrawals on ATM machines in Malaysia and with the ATM withdrawal slips, may be they can be used as proof.

The debit card works out quite well, the only setback is: it charges a fee for every ATM withdrawal. It actually added up to be quite a bit over the past one year. We could have save some money if we know WaMu has a Free  checking account that allows free ATM cash withdrawals worldwide.

USCIS may not be efficient and its workers incompetent, but the ultimate culprit is the idiot husband who procrastinates and makes silly mistake such as omitting the marriage certificate and have his wife’s name wrong on the forms!

It took him three months to mail out a two-page form that already filled up except his signature. Somehow he managed to mixed up the form and submitted a draft copy he printed out earlier which has my name wrong! You have to salute him for his ability to screw up. I think he has allergy to paperwork!

It took one week for USCIS to generate the letter requesting for evidence(the missing marriage certificate), one week for the letter to arrive, one week for the response to find its way to the system, that was a total of three weeks of delay. We would have gotten the approval for I-130 petition in the middle of June if not because of the missing document.

The I-130 petition has been approved for a week now. While he was taking his time to figure out what he supposed to do next, I went ahead to email an expedite request on his behalf. However, after talking to the live operator at NVC, to my horror, found out the error in my name has not amended before the file was forwarded to NVC.

My fear is: the expedite request will not be looking at until the error in name is amended. I panicked and emailed a request for amendment on his behalf. After all this being done, he mailed the amendment letter by snail mail because he said the live operator told him they process mail faster than email. I hope the duplicate is not going to delay the process further.

The confirmed procrastinator is taking his sweet time in everything. It took him a few weeks to unpack the laptop we recently purchase. After moving in the new place for two months since May, he still live with the unpacked moving boxes! He also never throw away anything, he keep all every piece of paper. He still keep all the old shirts and Baseball Gloves that he will not use in those boxes. He certainly has tons of garbage waiting for me to clear, that’s for sure. By the rate it goes, I will be 64 by the time this whole cleaning process completes!