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Rude Awakening - September 23, 1998My first dealings with INS were not encouraging to say the least. Tracie and I decided to go to the Phoenix INS office after lunch. When we got there it was no where near as busy as I had read that INS offices near the Mexican border can be. But of course we discovered there was a reason for that. The Phoenix INS office is only open to 1:00 pm each day, and takes only appointments in the afternoon. We would have to come back the next day to find out what forms and things we would need. I took this as a sign that this would indeed be a long hard slog ahead. We made an early start to it the next morning. Or at least we thought that 8:30 a.m. would be early enough. WRONG! When we arrived the line to get into the building switched back and forth like a line to get on a good ride at Six Flags. We were in that line for over 2 1/2 hours before we got into the building. After passing through security, we got into another line that snaked around the walls of a waiting room that was packed with people sitting down waiting for their number to be called. In the back of my mind I was wondering if maybe Tracie coming to Canada would be the better idea! We finally got up to the window and told the lady that we were getting married and needed to know which forms and things we would require. (We really were that naive!). At first she seemed reticent to help us which confused me at first. But when she heard that I was going back to Canada on Saturday she seemed relieved and was more eager to help. After she gave us a handful of forms, and she explained what would be required we left a little confused and overwhelmed. This was quickly going to become a full time job! We then went to get our ADIT photographs taken for the applications and filled in forms I-129F and each one of us filled a G-325 in QUADRUPLICATE! We mailed them to the California office on September 25, 1998. Back to Canada - September 26, 1998Easily the hardest day of our lives. We were going to be separated and neither one of us knew when we would see each other again. In fact while Tracie was driving us to the airport, Aerosmith's "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing" came on. Both of us reached for the off button. We both still hate that song. We weren't sure how long INS would take to process our application. After about three weeks Tracie received in the mail a notice that they required more proof that we had actually met. I quickly Fed-Exed her everything I could think of, including pictures, long distance bills, and a copy of my plane ticket to Arizona. She sent that off to INS and we waited again, hoping that we did not get put back to the bottom of some pile. Surprisingly we did not have to wait long. A few days after Tracie's Birthday at the beginning of November, she received our Notice of Action that our petition had been approved and was being forwarded to the Montreal Consulate. I had assumed that because there was a US consulate in Halifax that I could do everything from there, but I learned that K-1 petitions in Canada are handled out of Vancouver and Toronto and Montreal only. About a month later I received a packet from the Montreal Consulate with a huge pile of forms, instructions for the various documents I would need, and where I could get the medical done. The information is fairly well explained, and there is a nice little checklist to help you keep track of what you need, but I still had a little learning curve to overcome. Getting My Stuff Together - December 1998When you get the packet the first thing you need to do is return Form 230 Part 1 Biographic data for Visa Purposes. Then you need to gather the following documents:
By January 6 1999, I had all the documents together, so I signed and sent the checklist to the consulate and waited for them to schedule the interview. I wasn't sure how long I would need to wait -- weeks or months. On January 18, I received a letter telling my interview would be the following week! The letter said the interview was scheduled at 10:30 am and to show up at the door with the letter all the documents I had gathered, the medical exam and $45.00 US for the Visa processing fee. It also asked that I bring a letter from Tracie that she was still "free and willing to marry" upon my entry to the US. I quickly called Tracie to see if she really was "free and willing" :-), and started to make plans for the trip. Montreal here I come! Interview in Montreal - January 26, 1999Having only driven through Montreal, I was a little nervous about finding my way around. Leif though had come to my rescue again, his younger sister Hanne lived there, so I was able to stay with her and she would be my tour guide. I decided to take the bus from Halifax. Ugh!! It's about an 18 hour ride and I arrived in Montreal at about 5:30 am the day of the interview. After I had crashed at Hanne's, she took me downtown where the consulate was. It was only 8:30 so I had some time to kill. Hanne went off to work, so I grabbed a coffee until my appointment time. I actually could have gone right away. As I would learn the 10:30 appointment time is a little misleading. NOTE: I'm sure security procedures have changed since 9-11-2001, this reflects what happened in 1999. When I arrived at the security checkpoint I showed them my letter, and they searched my portfolio and backpack. They kept my backpack as it had a Walkman in it and no electronic devices were allowed upstairs. They took my letter, gave me a number and showed me the elevator to where I thought I was to have my "interview", instead upstairs I walked into a huge crowded bustling waiting room, with names and numbers being called, people talking in 15 different languages, and seemingly no sense of order at all. Not knowing really what to do I took a seat to survey the situation. To the left were about a half dozen or so windows similar to what you would see at a bank, except the clerks in them had very thick glass in front of them. In the middle was corridor which led to various doors, this is where I thought I would have my interview. To the right was a line to a cashier who was taking money for something I could yet determine. After watching the scene in front of me for a few minutes, I was still very confused. Names and numbers were being called to the windows, and my appointment time had come and gone. Finally my number was called and I went to the assigned window. The clerk went through the documents I had and then sent me over to the cashier to pay the Visa fee. $45.00 later I was back, and she told me to have a seat and wait for my name to be called. This must be when I was to go to a dark office in the back, be seated in an uncomfortable chair, have a light shined in my face, and be interrogated to the breaking point. Right? Wrong. Instead I was called back to a window, sworn in, asked three simple questions, signed a paper or two, and told to come back at 3:00 to pickup my passport. In fact at first I didn't even realize that I had gotten my visa! I came back at 3:00 went upstairs to a now deserted waiting room, and went the only window that was open. I was given my passport with the visa in it, explained it was good for only one entry and once it was used I could not leave the US without permission. I was also given a large brown envelope that I was NOT to open and was to give to the border agent when I entered. All in all it was a little anti-climatic. I didn't realize then that all the real drama was yet to come.
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My email is: _cpetrie@petrieweb.net_
(No Solicitations)
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Last Updated: August 18, 2005 |
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