Forward march!
No, no approval as of yet. It's only Mid July, so that would be a miracle, and I think it'd hurt us more than help us. No, though we are both impatient to be on with this and be together, the timeline we have is the best course right now.
As it goes, I've been on visajourney religiously. It is truly a HUGE bundle of support and a vast wealth of information. For me, through this process its hard to keep your eye on the prize, and the end some days seems never coming. It is refreshing to know there are others in the same position as us, and some who are far worse off - one couple have not seen each other in almost 2 years!!!!! - and truly understand the hardships and the trials associated with such a long distance relationship. While I can never neglect my true home I feel a kin to these folks.
A great example is how there are threads on how to keep the relationship flourishing. As those who have been in any sort of long distance relationship know, it's not like we can go to dinner or see a movie or hang out as if the person were in the same city. Factor time zone difference (for Sarah and I it's 5 hours), it makes it difficult. One thing we started was by first off Sundays are our days. Unless absolutely unavoidable, we spend them together by phone, MSN, etc. One thing we've taken to doing is watching the same movie at the same time while on the phone. I've gotten a lot of side long glances about this, and a roll of the eyes. It sounds cheesy, but it's fun! It gives us something to look forward to, and in my opinion we are able to act like a "regular" couple (by bickering over what movie to watch, or playing the "I dunno, what do you want?" game!). Back to the original point, I thought this was out of the ordinary, but reading these forums, it is the norm! Sharing meals over webcam, texting through out the day, it's all normal.
So we've moved up from 261 to 246 on Igor's List. It's a good feeling. Seeing us moving forward, not backwards and not standing still. Again, Igor's is not the end all be all, and is only related to those members on visajourney (and who update their timeline!), but it's a good resource to see what time frame the CSC is at in "real time". uscis.gov is listing the California Service Center dates as of July 15th, as January 17th, 2008 - meaning they "should" be done with all case before that date and processing those from January 17th forward. Real time shows it to be more like end of February and now into March.
I'm going to try to get Sarah to blog a bit in here, as it feels a bit one sided. Though, I suppose it is, as all the action is on my side of the pond. Once it gets over to area, I'm sure she'll have quite a bit to blog about!
As it goes, I've been on visajourney religiously. It is truly a HUGE bundle of support and a vast wealth of information. For me, through this process its hard to keep your eye on the prize, and the end some days seems never coming. It is refreshing to know there are others in the same position as us, and some who are far worse off - one couple have not seen each other in almost 2 years!!!!! - and truly understand the hardships and the trials associated with such a long distance relationship. While I can never neglect my true home I feel a kin to these folks.
A great example is how there are threads on how to keep the relationship flourishing. As those who have been in any sort of long distance relationship know, it's not like we can go to dinner or see a movie or hang out as if the person were in the same city. Factor time zone difference (for Sarah and I it's 5 hours), it makes it difficult. One thing we started was by first off Sundays are our days. Unless absolutely unavoidable, we spend them together by phone, MSN, etc. One thing we've taken to doing is watching the same movie at the same time while on the phone. I've gotten a lot of side long glances about this, and a roll of the eyes. It sounds cheesy, but it's fun! It gives us something to look forward to, and in my opinion we are able to act like a "regular" couple (by bickering over what movie to watch, or playing the "I dunno, what do you want?" game!). Back to the original point, I thought this was out of the ordinary, but reading these forums, it is the norm! Sharing meals over webcam, texting through out the day, it's all normal.
So we've moved up from 261 to 246 on Igor's List. It's a good feeling. Seeing us moving forward, not backwards and not standing still. Again, Igor's is not the end all be all, and is only related to those members on visajourney (and who update their timeline!), but it's a good resource to see what time frame the CSC is at in "real time". uscis.gov is listing the California Service Center dates as of July 15th, as January 17th, 2008 - meaning they "should" be done with all case before that date and processing those from January 17th forward. Real time shows it to be more like end of February and now into March.
I'm going to try to get Sarah to blog a bit in here, as it feels a bit one sided. Though, I suppose it is, as all the action is on my side of the pond. Once it gets over to area, I'm sure she'll have quite a bit to blog about!