[Sapphire]

Ok, so the hubby is right now on a night train to the Italian consulate to get a thumbs up or down on his US visa, and our moment of truth is less than a day away. As I sit here going bonkers in my apartment, I am trying to STAY POSITIVE and keep my mind on happy things.

So, I'm wondering, what are you guys happy about today?

[Achtung]

Well, other than beating Liverpool, still pretty happy about that NYC trip in general. Things worked out about as well as we could have hoped for, both soccer and non-soccer stuff.

Sapphire, sorry if you posted this elsewhere, but did you meet your husband in Italy? Seems strange they'd turn him down for a visa assuming you're a US citizen.

[FIFARay007]

I'm happy that have looked into the future and seen a great many things that will come to pass...

Tomorrow , Arsenal will tie Wigan 1-1 and therefore miss out on a trip to the Carling Cup final.

Wednesday, United will beat Blackburn 2-1 assuring us a place in the final against Wigan.

Sunday, United will beat the Wolves 3-0.

And sometime in the near future, a recruiter will call and offer me a job so I can stop bumming around my house going crazy from lack of work!

[Stud83]

Just recently reserved my tickets to Berlin for Mar 27-Apr 4 - planning a Eurotrip with 4 of my friends from 3 different countries Besides several German cities we'll visit Prague, and maybe other places if time permits.
So I am very happy about that and the fact that the plane ticket was not as expensive as I expected it to be!

[FIFARay007]

Originally Posted by Stud83

Just recently reserved my tickets to Berlin for Mar 27-Apr 4 - planning a Eurotrip with 4 of my friends from 3 different countries Besides several German cities we'll visit Prague, and maybe other places if time permits.
So I am very happy about that and the fact that the plane ticket was not as expensive as I expected it to be!

Just be careful... if you are advised by a stoned teen to go to a hostel someplace weird with the promise that you'll get laid and there'll be tons of beautiful women... stay away... I saw this movie about it and, well, put it this way... it doesn't end well.

[Stud83]

Yeah I saw that movie too. Remember this pic? If you look closely, you can actually see Dark Savante in there



But I'll try to be as careful as can be. At least when I am not drunk

[Sapphire]

Yay!! Lot's of happiness so far. . .

Originally Posted by Achtung

Sapphire, sorry if you posted this elsewhere, but did you meet your husband in Italy? Seems strange they'd turn him down for a visa assuming you're a US citizen.

We met in Europe--Belgium actually, but he's lived in a half dozen countries in the past 10 years, so we have alot of different paperwork and what-not. And I am a natural born US citizen with no criminal record or anything that would raise a flag. Plus, I'm an english teacher, so our application was impeccable, though it's also nearly five hundred pages now He is of arab ethnicity, which I suspect makes them look at us a little harder, but of course I'm fine with that, as he has nothing to be shy about and we have all of our papers in order. My one concern is I am a teacher/student, and I don't make alot of money, which hurts my ability to sponsor him financially (on paper, that is. In reality, we're livin on love and Ramen noodles until he gets a job here; it's no problem.)

Ultimately, we don't have a legitimate reason to worry he won't get the visa, but the problem is the process is soooo screwy, that he could fail to get it for a bizarre reason. I'll give you an example. His first interview was in December, after it took the state department 14 months to process his application. Now, it was only supposed to take them 3-6 months to process it. No problem as far as we're concerned; a little annoying because we've had to wait apart but no problem, right? Wrooong. Because the papers were more than 12 months old, the state department refused some of them because they were too old. [You may commence banging your head on your desk] We had to collect them again. Which is time consuming and expensive, but thankfully through some miracle only took us 6 weeks this time (it took nearly 4 months to get some of them together the first time). Now, we won't have that problem this time, but I'm just waiting to see what it's going to be. This is not really an isolated incident with this process either; it's been unbelievably chaotic for us so far.

That's why I'm trying to stay positive. It's so bizarre to have something so important hang on the 5 minute evaluation of some bureaucrat thousands of miles away. But, it's ok. Positive energy, positive energy. . .

[MtP07]

Originally Posted by Sapphire

Yay!! Lot's of happiness so far. . .


We met in Europe--Belgium actually, but he's lived in a half dozen countries in the past 10 years, so we have alot of different paperwork and what-not. And I am a natural born US citizen with no criminal record or anything that would raise a flag. Plus, I'm an english teacher, so our application was impeccable, though it's also nearly five hundred pages now He is of arab ethnicity, which I suspect makes them look at us a little harder, but of course I'm fine with that, as he has nothing to be shy about and we have all of our papers in order. My one concern is I am a teacher/student, and I don't make alot of money, which hurts my ability to sponsor him financially (on paper, that is. In reality, we're livin on love and Ramen noodles until he gets a job here; it's no problem.)

Ultimately, we don't have a legitimate reason to worry he won't get the visa, but the problem is the process is soooo screwy, that he could fail to get it for a bizarre reason. I'll give you an example. His first interview was in December, after it took the state department 14 months to process his application. Now, it was only supposed to take them 3-6 months to process it. No problem as far as we're concerned; a little annoying because we've had to wait apart but no problem, right? Wrooong. Because the papers were more than 12 months old, the state department refused some of them because they were too old. [You may commence banging your head on your desk] We had to collect them again. Which is time consuming and expensive, but thankfully through some miracle only took us 6 weeks this time (it took nearly 4 months to get some of them together the first time). Now, we won't have that problem this time, but I'm just waiting to see what it's going to be. This is not really an isolated incident with this process either; it's been unbelievably chaotic for us so far.

That's why I'm trying to stay positive. It's so bizarre to have something so important hang on the 5 minute evaluation of some bureaucrat thousands of miles away. But, it's ok. Positive energy, positive energy. . .

Wow...sorry to hear about all this, but at least some bright spot can be found. After reading about the difficulties you've had, Zinn will now be reconsidering his impending purchase of that Russian mail-order bride.

In all seriousness, I hope everything turns out ok for you and your husband.

[Sapphire]

Originally Posted by MtP07

Wow...sorry to hear about all this, but at least some bright spot can be found. After reading about the difficulties you've had, Zinn will now be reconsidering his impending purchase of that Russian mail-order bride.

Yes, I think the lesson is the age-old patriotic "Buy American". If I hadn't already wasted so much time importing the European model, I would definitely just shop locally next time

[Stud83]

And once he gets his visa, for how long is it valid? When is he eligible for citizenship?