Well it’s been almost 4 months since my VISA application was approved, but so far still nothing has happened; no papers have arrived anywhere and no one, not even the lawyer or the USCIS seem to have a clue as to why I am not in the USA yet.

We have called, written, emailed, called again and again but they’re just telling us the same thing over and over. “If after 30 days of notification you still haven’t gotten your papers, call again and we’ll resend.”. Then, of course, those 30 days pass yet again, and we have to wait yet another 30 days to be disappointed once again.

Obviously something somewhere has gone very very wrong and we are tired of waiting. The lawyer has even told my wife that someone else who applied in march was already there! They can’t figure out why I don’t have my VISA yet. Not like they seem to do a helluva lot to find out either though.

With the help of my dad and other family members we managed to get enough monies to get everything finished on my wife’s end, the bankruptcy and such, to get everything in order to do what we initially planned to do later. To fly them both here for what God willing will be a permanent residence.

Of course this whole ordeal is not without its own set of bumps and hiccups. I’ve tried to register our marriage here months ago but they wouldn’t let me. The local office (where I’m supposed to register) said I had to go to The Hague first but they told me the exact opposite. So that didn’t go anywhere. But now after many calls and inquiries I’ve finally managed to talk to people who actually have some knowledge about this topic.

Apparently it’s a bit more difficult than they first let on. You can’t just simply register, especially if your spouse is wanting to come live with you. We think we got most of it figured out though, and we (well, my wife mostly) have gotten the papers they told us we need to actually get this done. God I really hope there are no more nasty surprises, this is truly killing me deep inside.

Our one year anniversary is coming up very soon and I pray we will be truly together again before then. Right now our projected flight date is august 7th, which is soon, real soon. While I can’t wait and am nervous as hell I still can’t get excited too much until I actually have her in my arms again. I’ve simply been disappointed too many times in a row to start cheering prematurely.

So I guess it’ll be her being the alien, not me. I pray for a happy end.

A few things within the same theme:

As of two days ago Pluis and Stinky have a new home. Ever since my decision to leave for the Unites States my mother has taken in most of my cats. That made the total lot of cats go up to nine. These two in particular have always been the most ‘active’ ones. They were making some of the other cats nervous with their hectic behavior.

So this young couple contacted us a last week and wanted to take a look. They have a newborn child and want it to grow up with pets. They used to have a cat until recently, it died due to a heart condition. They seemed like very nice people and loving the kitties.

Pluis and Stinky are two very easygoing cats and not afraid of (new) people, social and playful. I’m sure they will do well there. The couple mentioned having a big garden so I know they’ll have fun in there. I’ll miss them though.

They say absence makes the heart go fonder. But if this takes any longer I fear my heart my just explode. I need to be home with my wife and kid, where I belong. Still no word from the embassy. We want a date, an approximate one at the very least. It’s been so long already and it is taking its toll on us. On both our physical and mental health.

I had my arm poked two days ago. The doctor that was in contact with us regarding my brother’s unfortunate passing, let us a know the results of his obduction few weeks ago. It wasn’t too far than what we were already told in the preliminary report.

He recommended that everyone in the immediate family should do a blood test for cholesterol because the possibly exists it is a genetic flaw. In which case we’ll have to pay more attention than usual on it. I should get the results very soon.

Cholesterol is a sneaky thing. Most people will think lightly about it and pay little mind on what they eat and do and how that affects their cholesterol. The fact that there’s barely, if any, noticeable symptoms go alongside with a too high cholesterol value. Until it’s too late that is.

There is a lot of misconception around it, such as the simplistic view that LDL=bad and HDL=good. Even a lot of tests only give you estimates and not an exact particle size measurement. For reference: a level of 5.2mmol/L or higher puts you in the borderline risk statistic, whereas a level of 6.2mmol/L or higher will make you an easy target for a stroke or heart attack.

A few days ago I stopped drinking sodas. It has been almost a week now. It’s not that I plan on giving it up altogether, but lately I was drinking a bit too many cans of Coke so I decided to stop for a while. Ever since I had my first sip of Mt. Dew it doesn’t really do anything for me anyway, I just want ‘The Dew’ which is hard to find here.

Just few more tidbits regarding the previous post about my VISA approval. As you can see in text I quoted from the email we received, it actually reads “fiance(e)” and not spouse. Spouse is listed on the I-129F, which we also filed. While this sounds a little disconcerning, it is not. Confusing, yes.

You see, my lawyer told me this was the normal procedure. From what I understand, the I-129F allows you to com into the country and wait for approval of the I-130. Generally, if you apply for both at the same time, both are approved as soon as one of them is. The paperwork will then be sent to the Visa Service Center and from there it will be forwarded to the US embassy here. They in turn are supposed to contact me when they get it to schedule an appointment.

I don’t have to wait for a VISA to become available because as the spouse of an American citizen I am already issued one. It’s just the paperwork that needs to be done to actually pick it up.

The I-129F only lets you stay for a maximum of 2 years, unless you get your green card before that. The I-130 comes with that green card which means I should get immediate resident status.

Mind you, as I haven’t actually got the mail yet, and haven’t had any contact with the embassy, I cannot yet guarantee that I will be given that green card, or the standard K3-VISA. Either way, I get to go home.

So now I’m still waiting for the mail to arrive, trying hard to be patient, but it’s not easy. I want to go home, like today if possible.

We got this in our inbox today:

The last processing action taken on your case

Receipt Number: XXX000000000

Application Type: I130 , IMMIGRANT PETITION FOR RELATIVE, FIANCE(E), OR ORPHAN

Current Status: Document OTHER THAN CARD manufactured and mailed.

On April 10, 2007, we mailed the document we manufactured based on our earlier approval of this case, and mailed it to the address on we have on file. You should receive the new document within 30 days.

That’s right, they approved my VISA application! Now I just gotta try ‘n be patient while this comes in the snail-mail and then I gotta go to the embassy here for what I’m told will be a brief interview after which I should be getting my actual VISA card. Then I can finally board the stupid plane and go home. Off to sunny California!

As of yesterday we (well my wife and daughter anyway) have said goodbye to Reno, Nevada to move on west to live in Redding, California. This was a move out of sheer necessity. We are flat broke and our apartment is Reno was just too damn expensive, especially considering it’s small size and the crappy almost non-existent managers. By the time we left there was mold in the bathroom, a leak in the bathtub, a dysfunctional swamp cooler, broken electrical wiring in the kitchen, and no one around willing to fix it.

We are going to be staying with my sister-in-law for the time being, who we only just recently got back into contact with. Right now it’s in a way too small apartment to house all of us, but as soon as we get some proper income again we are going to start looking for a three bedroom apartment.

Because we wanted to leave before the next month’s rent was due we only had two weeks to prepare and get moving. Most of this time was spent packing and making phone calls. My wife rented a 14′ truck from U-Haul and loaded it up. It’s a gas guzzler, but there really weren’t a lot of options here. The only really sad thing is that we couldn’t bring our cats with us, so they have been dropped off at the Nevada Humane Society. I pray that they will have a new home soon.

Other than that we are pretty glad that we moved away. While Reno can certainly be pretty and there is lots to do, I don’t call it “Sin City II” for fun. It’s not really a place to live, nor a place to raise your kids. Which was especially true in our neighborhood.

From what I have heard and seen so far Redding is pretty and the place where we are right now has a nice view of the city. I can’t wait to see it for myself. Hopefully that will be very soon.

Too many things have happened in the past few months, too many things… I am going to make a short rundown the some of the events that have happened, but I will be writing actual seperate and more detailed  posts about most of them as well. This is just an attempt to get back on track, and start writing on a daily basis again.

After my ‘deportation’ from the US I was devastated. It took my wife and I a while to recover from that blow. It was supposed to be a joyeous event, finally home again, finally reunited with my family, and then to get kicked in the face liek that hurt like hell. We did start to remedy that however, we have started the application process to obtain a K3 VISA so I can come home *and* stay there. It is valid for 2 years but I can apply for extensions while I’m there, so that is what we’ll do.

Paying lawyers, filing for bankrupcy, between bills and more bills there was little time to actually just enjoy life. My wife got very ill and eventually even had to undergo an MRI scan because the cause of her symptons wasn’t clear. Everythign turned out to be ok but it was still a frightening episode.

Then the unthinkable happened.. My brother, at age 36, passed away without warning or sign. His hart simply stopped on January 17th and it caused a terrible sadness to envelop our family. It was, and is, extremely hard to deal with that.

We managed to fly my wife and daughter over here, but it wasn’t an easy feat. They weren’t able to attend the service (which was beautiful by the way), but I am very glad they were able to be here to help me, and finally meet the rest of the family. I just wished it had been under better circumstances.

Now, while we are trying to pick up the pieces from that dreadful experience, I am still away from my babies, still very very lonely, sad, and mourning.

More actual ’on-topic’ posts will follow soon. I just wanted to give a heads-up of what’s going on and why I haven’t been posting.

So I go to the airport, arrive there 3 hours in advance ’cause of the new regulations, and I’m completely dead-tired when I finally get to board the plane ’cause I only slept like 30 minutes that night. I do the little interview they give you before you board which was a lot shorter than last time as I told them I was gonna see my wife and kid.

Then I have to put my luggage on that conveyor belt xray thingee and as it goes through the guy asks me “Is this yours?” while I clearly see on the display behind him a pretty picture of my motherboard and other electronics I packed. I tell him it is mine and that I dismantled my PC and brought all the parts with me. He asks the woman next to him to “take a took at this” as I have a “lot of electronic boards in there”. She was already checking my shoulder bag, explaining to the guy that the “big black square” was a stack of hard drives. She takes a quick look into my suitcase, said everything was fine and let me board. Thank God. I was so worried about that.

So I get aboard the plane and take my seat in the back that I picked myself online when I bought the tickets, and for the better part of the trip I sleep, only waking up on occasion to eat (quatro formaggio pizza, chicken filet, etc.) or watch some TV.

My Super Ex-Girlfriend was one of the things they were showing. I had already seen a few trailers of that movie a while ago and wasn’t really impressed so I didn’t expect a whole lot, but damn.. that movie SUCKED! It was like watching a rough first draft written by an amateur wannabee screenwriter for class. The cast was horrid, the acting completely non-convincing, and it missed a lot of good opportunities to actually make the movie somewhat interesting to watch. It was bad!

Anyway, after some mild turbulence I finally arrive in Atlanta airport. I depart and head toward the customs area. The lady I got there (who was wearing blue latex gloves for some reason) asked me a few simple questions and I had to do the photo and fingerprint thing again. She stamps my I-94 Visa Waiver with approved and puts it along with my passport in an orange folder and tells me to go to the office. Uhm, ok.. office? Well she approved it, so it can’t be that bad, right? Right..? …WRONG!

I head to the DHS (Department of Homeland Security) office , knock on the door per request, and get buzzed in. I am then asked to put the folder into a metal rack thingee and wait to be called. It was fairly empty at the time so I was called almost immediately. I get two guys at first, and they proceed to question me.. Well, more like interrogate me about what I plan on doing, where I’m staying, my address, place of birth, some stuff I thought was completely irrelevant but I answered all their questions honestly while they rummage through my shoulder bag, taking all the papers out. (I already had to hand them my wallet) They tell me to take a seat and wait to be called a few times, only to ask even more questions each time.

Like 45 minutes in, one of ‘m tells me I was ‘this’ close to getting kicked out of the country. Reason being that according to them I was living there. Which isn’t completely untrue of course ’cause even tho I am still a registered Dutch citizen, I only spent 30 days there in-between being at home with Sha. ‘Cause that *IS* my home, am married to her, and told them about our plans for my nationalization thing.

However, they sat me back down again, and they talked it all over with some other colleagues I guess, ’cause when they came back I was informed they were going to send me back. Needless to say I was pissed, but I tried to contain my anger lest I make matters even worse. They told me what I as doing was illegal and that I cannot change my status from non-immigrant on a Visa Waiver. Which incidentally is also written on the back of that form.

I explained to them that we were told, at a previous appointment we made at the local DHS department in Reno, that according to them if we were to be married I could simply apply while over there, not be forced to stay out of the country for the duration, and my 90 day stay limit would be lifted as soon as the application was in.

This guy tell me that there are a lot of morons working there and that there was no way I could stay at my wife on a Visa Waiver as it is meant only for tourism or business, and staying with your wife is living there, for which you require an actual approved Visa. In other words, you can visit any relative (aunt, sister, grandmother) you want, but if it’s your wife it is automatically “living”.

They purchased a return ticket for me, took an official statement of which they gave me a copy and then I finally got to call Sha and let her know what the hell was going on. I only had like 5 minutes to talk to her and give her the very short version ’cause the plane was leaving withing minutes and I was informed that if I did not board that plane I’d be put in jail overnight. I asked her to inform my mom, so she could pick me up from the airport, told her I loved her and I had to go. Thankfully the plane was late by 10 minutes or I would’ve missed it.

So now I’m being escorted to the gate, all the way to the plane, and the guy tells me it could’ve been a lot worse. ‘Cause if I would’ve made it through customs and stayed in the US they might ‘catch’ me years from now when it would really suck ’cause I’d be deported immediately, no questions asked, and risk a possible permanent refusal into the country. He also told me that even tho I was refused this time I should have to no trouble obtaining the proper Visa and staying in the USA next time. He said (paraphrased) “You are married to a US citizen, you will get your Visa.” He told me to go to the US embassy and explain what happened and get to work on my Visa.

We make it to the plane, just in time, the guy still holding my passport (with “refused” written in the back) which he then handed to one of the flight attendants to keep until I was airborne. I felt like a damn criminal.

I am on the plane as I write this, way down in seat 42C, about halfway across the Atlantic, roughly a thousand dollars wasted, and still far away from my family. This also means I will most likely miss out on the first snow, Sha’s birthday, Ellen’s birthday, X-mas, new year’s eve, blah..

Even tho I am heavily frustrated, pissed, lonely, and depressed, I hold no grudge toward the people at customs as they were just doing their jobs and treated me well, all things considering… But it still SUCKS!!

So I guess I need like 24 hours or so to just me miserable and then do everything I can to obtain that Visa and go home at last.

I am so sorry baby.. I love you! I pray that we’ll be together forever real soon.

I’m a nervous wreck. In a few hours I should be on my way home again; Flying all the way from Europe to the United States of America to be with my queen and princess.

Two days ago they implemented new rules/restrictions regarding carry-on baggage. Now even tho I am not bringing any liquids, gels, or even edibles.. I will be carrying a large bag over the shoulder and a wheeled suitcase literally filled with electronics: Circuit boards, wires & cables, the works.

It is enough to build 2 PC’s bar the tower, PSU and a keyboard+mouse. Some of it ‘hidden’ between pieces of clothing. I hope to God I don’t get an excessive search going on. It’ll take me hours to get it all back in as I placed it all for maximum storage capabilities.

I’m praying they’ll let me board the plane in the first place.

They seem to be very fond of fountains over here, there are lots of them all around town, and at the casinos. most of them lit up with lights at night. It is very pretty. Besides fountains, there are also a billion and one automatic sprinklers set in the grass everywhere. They turn on at night to wet the grass and everything around it, making it sometimes a very wet walk. ^_^ There’s one every few feet wherever there is grass or bushes.

People who know me, know that I am not very fond of water, or even getting wet. But there’s water everywhere here. All along the riverside is.. well.. the river (duh), which they say is all glacier water. So it’s cold even when it’s 100 degrees outside. Ellen likes to jump in it, clothes ‘n all. ‘course it’s so hot here that it doesn’t really matter since you dry up pretty quick. Every day there are dozens and dozens of people in the river. Either tubing, rafting, fishing, or just plain having fun, there are always people there.

So a while ago Sha and Ellen took me to the ‘pretty place’, it’s a park with lots of water and a big fountain located in the middle of it. I brought my camera that day so we got lots of video and pictures of it. Ellen went in the water almost immediately and beckoned for me to join her. I did, and got very, very wet. ^_^ Then I had to walk home barefoot, another thing I had never done before.

[Date: Wednesday, July 12th, 2006]

The flight from AMS (Amsterdam Airport Schiphol) to ATL (Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport) was amazing. The flight itself wasn’t as exciting as most people made it out to be, but that was probably due to the fact that it lasted for nearly 10 hours.

However, the Delta personnel went out of their way to make us comfortable. I lost count of how many times I got free drinks, sometimes still holding my previous one. I only drank water though, I didn’t wanna be all dehydrated when I would finally arrive in Reno. Besides drinks we also got cookies, a warm lunch (I just ate the bun with lettuce ‘n stuff though), H�agen-Dazs ice-cream and OMG near the end of the flight they actually served us Pizza! Vegetable pizza, but pizza nonetheless! The personnel was all friendly ‘n stuff and if this was all an indication of how it goes in all their flights I’ll be sure to pick them again when able to.

The last leg of the trip was mostly turbulence, though it took me like 10 minutes after the warning to figure that out. It was more like your average bumpy train ride. It just seemed so normal that I didn’t really notice it. There was a point near the end when it got a bit heavier though, and just my luck, I had to pee! It didn’t seem as bad when I was sitting down, but as soon as I stood up… weeeeee! ^_^

Which reminds me, the seats were good, not perfect but good. I could easily put my feet on the floor and let my luggage under the chair in front of me. The person next to me, who had the window seat, was apparently doing some viral research as he had all these books about them on him. He was even marking certain sections of the books as he went through them. Even though I didn’t have the window seat I didn’t really miss all that much. Apart from the landing and the take off all you could see was white. I guess when you’re way up in the sky at 34,000 feet you are simply above the clouds. It was so bright, it was almost blinding!

Preparing for the landing was the best part. It was very much like a roller-coaster ride. Especially when it made those big sharp turns while making the descent. And when it did that I got awesome views of the USA for the very first time. It was amazing and very impressive. Getting closer each time, it seemed sorta unreal at first, like you’re just looking around with Google Earth. But once we got close enough I started to see movement… Cars! Wow! ^_^

I was a little worried about getting confused in the massive Atlanta airport but OMG it is sooo fast and easy to get around in there and not anywhere did it feel crowded at all. They got several concourses, each with their own array of gates. And if you want to go to another concourse you have to take sort of a mini train. The ride lasts only 30 seconds from stop to stop but it is so fast it felt like an amusement park attraction ride. The airport is very neatly layed out unlike our Schiphol which is a dreadfully crowded and confusing mess.

While I was sitting at gate B23, waiting for my flight to Reno, I still had like 5 hours to kill, so that’s when I started writing this entry in my little aluminum pocket notebook. The gate was still subject to change as I arrived so early, so I walked around a little and tried to rest up a bit as I didn’t get any at all on the previous flight.

Oh, I almost forgot to add that I was sorta interrogated at AMS for like 15 minutes (!). The guy in front of the gate just kept asking me all sorts of questions and even got a second guy to join in later on. I answered every question honestly but I was really afraid they wouldn’t let me board the plane. Needless to say they did finally let me go.

Quite the opposite experience I had at the US customs, apart from the fact I had to take off my shoes, which seemed a little odd but I guess is routine, I had no problems whatsoever. Neither was getting my passport stamped a big ordeal. He just asked me some simple questions and I was done. Where at AMS they actually wanted to know and see the contents of my bag and every other little detail right down to the phone number of the place I would be staying at, over at ATL it was all a breeze to go through. They took some digital scan of my index fingers and I had to look into a webcam for a picture of my eye(s).. I think.. They told me to take off my glasses.

The next flight to Reno, which was thankfully a bit shorter, was an adventure in itself. While the plane was much smaller, the atmosphere was good and the Delta personal was just as kind as in the previous flight.

I had a middle seat on the left side of the plane with an older man on my right, who was actually supposed to sit somewhere else I found out as his daughter (?) kept coming over every once in a while asking how he was, stating there was room next to her up front. He preferred to stay where he was though, nice guy. And to my left sat a young kid, like 16 years old, mostly listening to music or playing games with the VERY cool personal LCD monitor display fixed in the back of the seat in front of us. If you gave a dollar to one of the flight attendants you could watch movies such as Ice Age 2: The Meltdown or play games, which was what the kid was doing. He mostly played Bejeweled, and since it’s a touch screen as well he did quite well at it. Me, I mostly flicked through the channels looking for stuff to watch, mostly cartoons and “Which Line Is It Anyway?” because yes… they actually had cable TV on the plane. OMG awesome! That was all highly entertaining.

As time went by I started to get very tired though, so I slept some on the plane hoping I wouldn’t literally fall over like some narcoleptic when I would first see my beloved Sha in the flesh. I woke up again just before the plane started to make its descent to Reno Airport. Which again was an amazing sight to behold. This being already at the late evening you could see all the neon signs and everything, very cool.

It’s by this time I started to get pretty nervous about all of this… I got off the plane, took a whiz (I needed that) and proceeded to head towards to exit. I was very tired, ‘blind’, and my body hurt so I wasn’t really paying attention and walked straight past Sha, Ellen and the friends she brought. She called my name but I didn’t hear her and walked on, she called again and that’s when I turned and finally saw her. Talk about unreal. I had to sit down for a minute as I desperately tried to gather my thoughts again. She looked so beautiful, Ellen hiding right behind her (who later dropped to the ground outside the airport). We all talked for a brief period after which Ellen was going to go with Sha’s friends for a few days so that Sha and I could have some time for ourselves to really get to know each other. She rented a car for this occasion so we could just drive home and maybe do something the next day. (which we did, but more on that later)