And the visa process continues

Today, on a cold and snowy morning, Mac and I headed downtown to have "an interview" at the US Consulate office.

The trip started slowly -- for some reason the Queen Car wasn't working. (It ran during the last big snow storm here, which brought more snow than we've had thus far today!) So instead of taking the street car straight across the city (where we were going was just off queen so it made the most sense), we ran down the street, grabbed the bus that was waiting at the stop (Thank you Lord for the timing there!) and took that north to the subway, the subway across the city, then another subway south and walked as quickly as non-shoveled sidewalks would allow.

Anyways, we got there. They took all our original documents and photocopied them AGAIN (they could have just signed off on the copies we sent to say they were legit, but instead felt the need to add more paper to our file). We were asked how we met, why we want to go to the states and one other question that i don't remember at the moment. It was interesting -- we were just in a room with these kiosks. The Consulate staff sat on one side of bullet proof (i presume) glass and spoke to the couple they were addressing on the other through an intercom. So everyone in the room hears what you say -- not that they asked super personal questions.

So here's the "next steps" in about 6 weeks, after the Department of Homeland Securities does a background check on us/me and the US Consulate office in Montreal goes over the file I will get a package in the mail. I will have to fill out the paperwork included within, and provide whatever other documentation they need. I'm going to be checking with a girlfriend who went through this not long ago to find out what sort of stuff they need (i.e. photos of us, reference letters etc) so that I can have most of that together when the package comes. So we'll get that off as quickly as we can.

Then we wait. At some point I will probably be summoned to Montreal for an interview. Mac's part in this is done, he's been accepted as the sponsor. Now I have to prove that i'm worth sponsoring. So we don't know how long it will take to get to the interview in Montreal. But we were told officially that its another 6-9 months until we're done.


I expressed some disappointment to Mac about there still being 6-9 months and he said that its good that we're not in control of this. God will set things in motion, and make things work and at some point, maybe in November (hopefully a whole lot sooner) we'll be in the states. I don't know that i want to say it "good" we're not in control, but i will say its acceptable. So until then, we pray for patience on our/my part and God's speed on the governments and hope we meet quickly in the middle. (Did I mention my need for patience?)