Immigration Update

Well I thought it was time for an update to everyone. First things first, I'm officially done with immigration due to nothing being short of a miracle. God truly does work in mysterious ways.




As many of you know my Opa wasn't doing well which was really hard for me since I couldn't be there to see him. He passed away on Tuesday morning. Once I got the phone call from Mom & Dad I started trying to find information to see if there was anyway that I could possibly make it home for the funeral. First I looked on the immigration website online, at first I couldn't find a phone # to call.. eventually I did, a 1-800 # but it did me no good since I counldn't find the info that I wanted. Then while Johns mom was here I suddenly had a brain wave. I asked her if she knew what the name of the lawyer was that John had spoken too before we started the whole immigration process before we got married. She didn't know but told me that if I had a telephone book for her to look in she could probably find it. So we figured out who it was. That meant time for another phone call. I called him, and got put directly through to him.. no questions asked(really amazing for a lawyers office, I would know cause I worked for one). I explained the situation to him, and told him that so far everything had gone really well, except now that my Opa had passed away I really wanted to be able to go home for the funeral but didn't know if there was that possiblity. He asked me how far along in the process we were. When I told him that I thought we were almost done, and had already had our interview he wanted to know why we didn't have them already. I explained that I had to submit another waiver and some letters, but had to mail them out yet and was planning to do that today (tuesday). Then he said..."who is the immigration officer that you are dealing with" I told him.. he said "Let me tell you what, normally I may never do this but I'm going to make you raise your right hand and swear that you won't tell anyone this phone #" So I had to swear and then he gave me the phone # for the immgration officer that we were dealing with. This made it possible for me to make a phone call that normally speaking would never have been possible because the general public doesn't get that type of information.



Anyway, so I called the officer and explained the situation to him. He then asked me how I got his phone # when I explained he said OK, and then told me that I could come and see him in the next day or so between 10-3. Normally the only way you get into the immigration office is with an infopass which gives you an appointment to come in. Since I had been planning to go shopping(do some groceries) with John's mom in the Tri-Cities we changed our plans and went to Yakima instead and headed to the Immigration office first. We got there around 11:45 and at about 12:30 I walked out of the office with a stamp in my passport, and had been told the my temporary permentant resident card(valid for 2 years) would come in the mail in 2-3 weeks. Rigth now I can't find words to express how happy I am, and yet so incredibly sad at the same time. It really is a answer to prayer...



We hope to travel up to Alberta on Thursday morning, leaving Sunnyside around 12pm or so, flying out of Yakima/Seattle/Calgary, and getting into the Calgary airport later that evening. From there we take a rental car and drive home. The funeral is on Saturday morning, and then John plans to stay till Tuesday morning and I stay till the 11th.

Immigration update...

Well, it is time for another one of those wonderful updates... what a thrill! or not!!! anyway it could have been worse so I won't complain, just time to state the facts so everyone knows what is going on :)

Yesterday morning we had an appointment with the immigration officer in Yakima.. which I think John was more stressed about than I was LOL!  Anyway, we got there in plenty of time.. checked in.. went through security.. (yup the joys) haha and of course there is always a first time for everything! the beeper went off for me :P I think it was because of my zipper in my boots.. but who knows!

We had to wait for a little while and then it was our turn... the interview went pretty quick, which amazed me to a certain extent.. but part of it was he only asked a few questions and it was pretty much like he had to do it because of protocol. He gave us another form/waiver that needs to be filled out and sent in before the 14th of January as well as, John needs to write a letter stating why it would be a hardship for him if I would be deported.. LOL! as well as some other minor things! The waiver that needs to be submitted is the part that has us going.. seriously that is a rip off!! $500+ dollars later! booo immigrations stinks! :P

So other than that.. things are looking pretty good, and hopefully that means that I will be able to have my papers in a month or so :) We were told that pretty much the rest of the correspondence will be done by mail.

That about concludes my update :)

Yay! One more thing done...

.. so this morning I had my fingerprinting appointment with the US Immigration Office.. It went really fast and it was super easy.. almost easier than you can imagine! Wow! Technology now-a-days.. but that being said it is almost scary too! haha :P Anyway so now we see how things go.... I wasn't super stressed about it or anything but the lady said to me.. "relax" and then later.. she said "you are sure tense" I'm kinda like sorry.. but I can't help that LOL!