Visa in Hands

The post we have all been waiting for...Eduardo has his visa in hands!!!

Yesterday the embassy called him around noon telling him to go there immediately.  He was with his family out and about and dropped them off and rushed to the city.  He got there and they wouldn't let him in because he didn't have the proper identification.  Finally after some calls, they let him in.

He immediately saw the Consular Officer that interviewed him the other day.  She was on her way out to a meeting and he stopped her.  She said she had been calling him over and over.  (I knew he should've stayed at the house).  She said "well here you go" and handed him his passport with the visa stamped in it and said "you can leave the country in 5 minutes if you want!"  Yay!!!!

He called me in the afternoon and tricked me into thinking he had bad news for me.  Little bugger!  He told me the story and I started bawling my eyes out :)  Such a relief!!  And I'm so excited that officer called him and gave him the passport in person.  That's seriously a miracle because they ALWAYS send it in the mail.  We've even paid for it to be sent by courier twice!

Now we are waiting to wrap up a couple things down there and I will book a flight for him in the next couple days.  Hopefully he will be back by the beginning of next week!!!  

Victory!

Eduardo had his appointment yesterday at the embassy in San Salvador.  He came out of this appointment feeling quite victorious!  

It turns out that the reason for the appointment was because the Head Consular Officer is heading an investigation involving the doctors that have really screwed us around on our case.  There have been a lot of irregularities in the system and things we have known have not been quite right.

Eduardo got the chance to tell his whole story from the beginning of everything that has happened to him and the Consular Officer genuinely cared and took deep consideration in everything he shared.  

It turns out that the psychiatrist should never have sent Eduardo to that gastroentologist a few months back.  Not only is he not an embassy-approved physician, but she was appalled that we had to pay for extra testing!  It seems like it's been about money this whole time as we suspected it was.  To make it worse, the findings of the gastroentologist were never even included in the medical packet that was sent to the embassy!  Thank God Eduardo saved copies of EVERYTHING for the past few months.  He had every receipt and letter of each person he has seen and he had them with him at the interview :)  

We are so relieved that this is what the appointment was about and not the "ban" we were so scared he might receive!  I can't even tell you how relieving that is.  That was the scariest feeling to think we could be waiting another year.

The appointment ended with the very nice Consular Officer telling Eduardo that if he doesn't get a call from the embassy within the next two weeks, then he will be receiving his passport with visa stamped in it in mail in that time.  If he does hear from them, then he would probably need to go in for another interview because of whatever they find when they review all the papers again.  

But, the woman said she was 98% sure that he would just be receiving his passport in the next couple weeks. She told him to go home and relax :)  

I'm so glad the embassy is taking some responsibility here and stepping up to admit there are flaws in their systems and with these so-called embassy-appointed physicians.  She was deeply disturbed by the things that have happened to us and by the actions and attitudes of these doctors.  I still plan on filing official complaints against each of the doctors myself once Eduardo is back safe and sound, but for now we can rest assured knowing that justice is indeed being served!  

Tomorrow is the Day

Tomorrow is the big day!  We will find out if Eduardo is getting his visa.  I don't even want to think about what the other option is at all.  I am only thinking positively at this point.  I don't want to accidently send any negative energy ;)  I'm am sending only positive energy towards the Embassy in San Salvador and praying they have good news for our family.  

His appointment is at 8am, which is 9am my time.  He is taking the bus, which means he can't take his cell phone because he's not allowed in the Embassy with it.  He said he will find a way to call me because I mistakingly made a big deal about having to wait 2 hours for him to get home by bus.  

I am praying with every fiber of my being and hoping that our prayers will be answered this time!  And I am thankful for all the love and support I have been receiving today.  It calms my nerves to know that there are so many people out there on our side and praying right along side us.  

I will update you tomorrow (Wednesday) with the results...

New Embassy Appt Set

I am way too exhausted from the last couple of days to go into great detail here about all the things that have transpired with our immigration case, but I will give a brief synopsis :)  

Hubby received a call from the doctor's office on Tuesday saying they were ready for him to go and sign the medical papers.  Yay!!  That's what we have been waiting to happen for the last 2 months.  I have a feeling it has to do with the embassy calling the doctor's office and inquiring on our case so I'm glad we took action a couple of weeks ago and did everything possible to spark interest in our case with the embassy.

Yesterday hubby went in the morning to his appt.  He was there early and was made to wait the ENTIRE day and was the last person to be seen.  Then it wasn't just a paper signing, but he was subjected to a full medical examination once again.  This actually outraged me quite a bit because it was completely unecessary and inappropriate.  He wasn't even charged for the medical, which is good, but sketchy.  In the end, the doctor said he was forward the papers on to the embassy in the morning (today).  

Today hubby received a phone call from the embassy.  They told him they had received his medical records and are "reviewing his case."  The scheduled an appointment for him to go next Wednesday the 11th at 8am for "another interview."  

I have spent a long time this evening freaking out beyond belief because I didn't understand what this meant.  He was supposed to just receive his passport in the mail after the embassy received the medical.  That's what they originally told him.  

So I frantically got online and was simultaneously on my FB immigration forums, Immigrate2us forum and emailing my attorney desperate for answers.  I got a wide variety, but most felt this might not be good news.  I panicked.  My attorney must have felt my desperation and pleaded with me to stop searching the internet for answers because it would drive me insane!  Haha.  

Finally after hours of searching, I have given up.  I can speculate all I want.  I can beg for answers over and over, but I won't get them.  We won't know until next Wednesday what the future holds for us.  Again I am back to patience and trust and the endless waiting game.  

On another note, I picked up my car this morning from the mechanic.  It was just a belt...or so they thought!  I ended up overheating again.  This time luckily I was by myself (which is rare in and of itself) and this time, I broke down right in front of the auto shop.  They immediately pulled it in and had a look.  It's the radiator and it's going to cost $500 to fix!  Lovely.  Just lovely.  Nobody could pick me up so I waited for a couple hours until a dear friend came and got me.  She drove me home until I realized I forgot the groceries in the car and had to go back.  Seriously, what is with these last couple days?!  I wish I could go to bed now and not wake up until next Wednesday...

How Long Must We Wait??

It has been almost 6 weeks since my husband's last appointment at the U.S. embassy in San Salvador.  I have been trying not to talk about it because I don't want to sound negative and whiney, but something's got to give!  We have our whole life in the hands of this one doctor AGAIN.  I feel like a broken record...if it's not one doctor, it's another.  

All this doctor needs to do is sign ONE piece of paper and send it on.  What is the hold up??  Hubby has been calling consistently to only get responses like "call back later and we will have your file pulled" and "the doctor is reviewing your case".  And of course when he calls back, they typically don't answer.  I would without a doubt call them myself if I spoke any decent amount of Spanish!

He even went in person last week and they explained how there was some confusion because of all the different doctors he has seen in the past 20 months down there.  I can kind of see that, but does it seriously take 6 weeks to sort it all out?!  It's all right there in the file.  

I've tried calling the embassy with no luck.  The person I speak with is never in the right department and apparently it's impossible to speak with someone on the phone in the department I need.  

I've emailed my lawyer asking her to help, to send an inquiry to the embassy or something.  She hasn't responded to my email.  

On Wednesday there is an open time that you can inquire on cases in person at the embassy and we already have a plan for hubby to go and speak with them.  After going there, he will go to the doctor's office in person again.  It's a long ride by bus to get there so he will do it all in one day.

I hope this trip to San Salvador will help in some way for us.  But if it doesn't, I sent him a little money today to get himself a nice meal and see a movie or whatever he wants to do to treat himself and to try and relax.  He deserves it and since I didn't send him anything for Christmas, this will be my present!  

Still Waiting

I had so much invested in Eduardo's appointment at the embassy last Wednesday.  Unfortunately things didn't go according to plan.  Big surprise?  Not really.  It's taken me a few days to recover and move on to be able to even put this post together.

Apparently when hubby talked with the psychiatrist last week, the guy flat out lied to him.  He had said he had spoken with the medical doctor and that everything was fine and the papers had been sent on to the embassy.  Well, the embassy never received the reports, which means my husband's case still is not complete.  They did make a call to the doctor's office and found out the doctor had the papers, but they had not been signed.

The embassy did however have Eduardo do everything else he would need to in order to get his visa and all our documents were turned in and reviewed and we had all that in order.  Yay!  (I was nervous about that).  So according to the embassy, once they receive the medical reports, they will send off the passport to hubby in the mail.

Eduardo did still make a visit to the doctor's office to find out what the hell had possibly happened.  They claim that the psychiatrist did not even send the papers until Monday and they had just received them on Tuesday, which was not enough time to forward them on to the embassy by the Wednesday morning appt.  The doctor was busy and hadn't had time to look at them.  Also, once the doctor looks at them, Eduardo will have to go to the office and sign the papers as well.

He called on Friday to check on the progress, but the office was closed of course.  He is going to try again tomorrow, Monday.  Hopefully we can get those papers off to the embassy ASAP!

Everyone has been great and really positive, but it was a huge blow for me.  It may seem like a minor setback, but when your whole life is on hold and you are hanging on with everything you've got, the little things feel huge.  I think both Eduardo and I are almost getting numb to this process now and I don't think that's a good thing.

I don't feel positive and I don't feel negative about it now.  It hurts too much to get let down and it takes too much energy to be angry and mad about it.  So I'm just waiting.  I don't know how else to describe it.  For the first time in this process I don't even hardly feel like talking about it anymore.  And I sure do like to talk!  lol.

Hopefully one day soon I can get on here and share with you that my husband is home.  One day soon....

What's New

So it's been a while.  The last month proved to be a tough one and it seemed hard to find inspiration in anything, even just a little to write a blog post.  But I am back and with many life updates.

The past two weeks I focused on nothing except finding myself a vehicle and finding my family a place to live.  My mother has been kind enough to let us use her car these past five months, but she was ready to have it back and I was ready to give it back.  There are a lot of details involved with the car purchase, but I won't go into it and just leave it at the fact that I actually bought one!  It's not total winner, but it was only $1500 and it will get us through until we get back on our feet again.  And the best part is that it's mine, all mine :)  It's a 1998 Dodge Grand Caravan.  I wanted a van so I can use it for all my markets and work things as well as day to day.  Some of you may recall we drove our beautiful Honda Odyssey down to El Salvador a year and a half ago with the intention of leaving it there.  Some have been open with their disapproval of that decision, but we've never regretted it at all!  But it did leave me here without a vehicle so I am happy to say that problem has been solved!  

The house/apartment hunt is still on.  I was hoping to move this month, but apparently you have to have money to rent an apartment and I'm a little short in that department.  So unfortunately my big plans fell through, but it's only for now.  I really wanted to have our own place by the time Eduardo came back, but we will just have to suck it up and wait until the circumstances are right.  But I am getting a head of the game and finding the places I like so it will be easier when the time comes.

Eduardo had his appointment with the psychiatrist on October 25th.  It went as well as it could and the doctor even admitted to all of this being "a big misunderstanding".  Gee thanks!  There are again more details with that, but the main point is that he is actually signing the papers we needed him to and forwarding them on to the next people that need to sign them.  Hallelujah!  

His next appointment is with the embassy in less than a week, on November 9th.  It's coming so close!  This will be his final appointment where he submits all the insane amounts of papers they have requested again and then the case will close and they will send him his passport with the visa stamped in it through the mail :)  Once he receives the passport, I will book his flight here as soon as possible.  My plan is for him to be here by Thanksgiving and then Liliana's 3rd birthday the week after.  Please God, let this happen!!!  I have been constantly praying this last appointment goes smoothly for us with no complications.  We certainly deserve it!

On a less dramatic note, Liliana had a dentist appointment last week.  It was routine, but I was nervous because she had been complaining of pain in her teeth.  Luckily everything was great!  But turns out the pain and grumpiness and sleeplessness had been side affects of her top molars coming in.  It was actually a relief to hear because we had seriously had a rough couple of weeks and I was feeling like a terrible mother because of our crazy interactions.  But the past week she seems to be feeling better because she is eating more, much happier and sleeping better, which makes me happier and sleeping better :)

We didn't do Halloween.  I didn't want to trick or treat.  Liliana is intensely afraid of anything in a costume so I didn't think it would go over well.  And then the thought of a basket full of candy in the house sent shivers up my spine thinking of all the tantrums and arguments it would cause.  So we hung out with a friend who was also not doing Halloween and I was happy with our choice :)  

Yesterday at the license branch Liliana was decked out in a pretty snazzy outfit she had picked out herself and the lady commented "oh, I see someone is still in Halloween mode."  I said "no, this is just everyday mode!"  It was pretty cute.  

One Step Forward and Two Steps Back

...That is how this immigration process is feeling at the moment.  After 3 days of intense medical tests last week, the gastroentologist finally concluded that Eduardo's physical issues are not alchohol-related as we already knew.  The doctor was a very nice guy and even wrote Eduardo a long note to the psychiatrist explaining his condition and what the cause was.  His liver and kidney are no longer enlarged and he basically just needs to lose 20 lbs to get the extra fat away from his organs.  

We were so happy by that news and Eduardo went straight over the the psychiatrist's office with the note and medical records he had requested.  The doctor was not in and he explained everything to the secretary.  The secretary then called the psychiatrist and he said to have Eduardo call the next day and to get a note from the AA meetings he has been attending saying he has been going there every day.  

So he called the next day as instructed only to be told that his appointment is scheduled for October 25th and that's when he should go, despite the test results.  AND he has to continue to go to the AA meetings every single night.  Luckily my dear husband is actually finding some comfort in those meetings and it's helping to pass the days.  He tried to beg and plead with the psychiatrist, but he got transferred back to the secretary who then told him that it was a bad day to call because the doctor was in a really bad mood!  So this one guy's bad mood is basically screwing our lives?!  

Poor Eduardo was so devastated.  I have felt kind of numb to the news.  There have been times when I want to break down and cry, but I haven't allowed myself to quite yet.  There is so much anger and hurt and frustration that I can't even express any emotion about it.  Usually I am quite open and wanting to share our immigration experiences with anyone and everyone, but I just can't right now.  It's almost too much to bear to even think about.  

So we are now back to looking at November.  I had already called the embassy to reschedule his final appointment and being hopeful I scheduled it for September 28th.  Eduardo will still go and turn in all the documents that we have and explain what is going on with the medical so they don't start to question things.  Then in the end hopefully all we will need is the medical signed and he can get his visa.  I think my heart just might break in half if he is not here by Thanksgiving, so that is my prayer.  

Thank you to everyone who is supporting us through this time.  I'm doing what I can to keep Liliana feeling safe and secure without her papi.  I know she misses him dearly.  She even tells me all the time.  The thing she wants more than anything in the world is "to sit on papi's lap on the couch." :(

I know big things are awaiting us and each day new opportunities are opening up for me here.  I'm praying this is all for a bigger reason and that someday soon that reason will be revealed.  Until then, we welcome all prayers!!

Waiver Processing Times

I realized it is the end of July and I have only blogged once!  I think I've been trying to figure out what I want this blog to be, but I need to just keep being myself and let whatever comes out be how it is :)

Well I have GOOD NEWS!  Yay!  I was checking my immigration forum the day before yesterday and something signficant was posted.  The U.S. Embassy website for El Salvador updates their site for which month or months they are currently processing visa waivers.  The date posted on the website has been at April 2010 for a while now.  BUT it is now changed to OCTOBER 2010!!  This is huge for us because our waiver was submitted in October 2010.

Now this doesn't mean we are going to be getting approved in the next week or anything, but it's a big step.  Our case was submitted at the end of October so we probably have to wait a while.  I was told on visit to the Embassy in May that October was their biggest month for waiver submission so they will be working on October for a while.  Even if that is the case, at least they are working on October.

I now have to get all my additional evidence sent over to El Salvador ASAP.  I have decided to put it together and send it myself as to speed along the process rather than involving my attorney.  I will send her copies as well so she knows what I have done.  I am just waiting on one thing to come in the mail so I can use it as evidence.  I plan on faxing and emailing the documents and then I will call to confirm they received them and also can check on our case at that time.

This is all so exciting.  Eduardo could be home sooner than later.  I'm praying for that to be the case.  Please keep our family in your prayers for a speedy approval time :)

U.S. Citizen Mtg at the Embassy in ES

I went to a "Town Hall Meeting at the US Embassy in San Salvador on Wednesday afternoon.  I went with my good gringa friend Sarah who is living in El Salvador for the same reasons as us.  She had gotten an email about the meeting and let me know about it.  It was for any U.S. citizens residing in El Salvador.  We thought this might be a good opportunity and decided to check it out.  

There was a large room full of people, mostly elderly and other people there working for various organizations. We seemed to be the only ones in our situation present. The talk lasted about an hour and a half. They went through each head of the departments who got up and spoke about what they do, how they contribute to ES and so forth. 

The last person to speak was the representative for DHS, The Department for Homeland Security. She said she works alongside Paul Mitchell. She basically is "the woman" who decides the fates of all of our lives. She went on to tell the group how last year they processed 15,000 immigrant cases. Not approved, but processed. She also stated how the wait time is currently at 12 months, which to that I gave a "look" to Sarah because we all know that's not the truth. That's about all she said about it during her little introduction, but we got to meet face-to-face with her after the meeting!

Sarah and I had a one-on-one with the head of the immigration cases! We each spoke about our individuals cases and asked questions. There was so much to ask and so much going through my mind. I asked if our case would go more quickly since we already went through 6 months of AP, Administrative Processing,  for hubby's tattoo. She said "no", but the cases are put in order by the date you pay the waiver fee. This was big news. Not for us because they wouldn't let us pay until after the AP was over and we turned the waiver in, but that's a different story than what everyone on Immigrate2US hears. What I've heard there is that it's the date in which DHS receives the waiver and she said that's not the case. When they receive it back at the embassy they put it in order by the pay date. Interesting!  Again, for us that's only a difference of 1 week, but I guess even a week is better than nothing.

We also discussed the wait time since she was adament about it being only 12 months. She said the reason the date they are working on on the Embassy website is for October 2009 is because they had over 200 cases for that month alone. Out of those cases, they have processed all but 27 cases and those that they haven't processed from October yet are "more complicated". She said they cannot change the date on the website until they have completed the rest of those 27 left. That's why the website seems to stay the same all the time. She said they have moved on to other months and that she herself has been processing cases from June 2010! This news is really good to hear. At least they truly are moving ahead.  But she said it herself. It just depends how "complicated" the case it. So yes, they get processed in order, but if there's a "complication" it could set you back months I guess.

The next thing we both asked affects us a lot. We asked if living in El Salvador while we are waiting will have a negative effect on our cases and she answered a definite "yes". I guess I already knew this, but it was hard to hear. She said if you are living in El Salvador then what is your hardship? You're already proving you can do it. And danger in ES and issues like that, they don't even take into consideration! I told the gangs coming to our house and being afraid for our safety and her response was "that happens to all Salvdorans every day." I wanted to scream at that response. It got me feeling very depressed. 

I've already felt we don't have any real major hardships and now I feel we have even less. I guess the fact that we go weeks barely being able to eat and my daughter and I are sick all the time are "normal" things to experience and that doesn't mean we need to go back to the States! Uggh!!!  The definition of "extreme hardships" is such a fine line and a really shitty one!

She was a nice lady, but she definitely told it like it is. She didn't sugar coat anything. She did take down Sarah's information since it's been a year since they turned their waiver in and said she would look into it, but didn't take mine since it hasn't been a year yet. 

I'm really glad we went, but I've been feeling really down again.  I had some renewed hope for a while and it seems to have gotten thrown out the window again.  I'm constantly racking my brain trying to figure out what hardships I can prove and how.  I've even thought about having people write personal testimonies about their experience of me since we've been in El Salvador to show that I simply cannot live here forever.  I'm going to send an email off to our attorney and get her opinion and then go from there.  I have medical things that I could use, but we don't have the money to even go to see doctors to get the letters we need.  The system definitely knows how to put you between a rock and a hard place!