Waiting for forever...

It has been seven months since I visited Anna in Russia and almost five months since we submitted our I-129F petition for alien fiance with the USCIS. When we filed the petition, they stated on their website that it was an average 5 months for approval.
Today I checked and the average has risen to 5 1/2 months. It seems that the longer we wait, the longer they prolong it. How long can this go on? If the service was free, I might understand this, but this service did not come free and I had to pay $340.00 to submit this request. Anna tells me it will take 120 years for the process to end, but I have remained optimistic but now I think she may be right so it seems.
Both Anna and I are getting extremely frustrated while we still wait for any response on our petition.
Unlike most couples who can talk on the phone at their leisure, Anna and I are limited to the moments we can speak on Skype. During weekends we can speak for nearly 2 hours as we communicate over Skype.
Weekdays are limited to an hour, now cut short to 45 minutes due to some complications that have arisen.
Every day seems to be an eternity as we wait for our brief moment we can talk to each other. The sad part of this arrangement is the fact that Anna is tired and ready for bed when I can talk to her during the week.
In fact, Anna was so tired the past 3 days, I could not even talk to her because she was so exhausted from work and the constant demands of the children. Now it seems our conversation is limited only to 4 hours during a weekend. I can't say this is the best situation, but even though we are frustrated, it will not stop us. We hope that within the next month we will have our petition approved and that will enable her to apply for the visa to come here to America and finally be with me.
Obviously she cannot immediately come here after our petition is approved but at least I can say she will be able to apply for the Visa. We will have to wait for another 2 months before she can even get her interview. If all goes well during her interview at the U.S. Consulate in Russia, she will be allowed the Visa to come here as my Fiance.
The time seems to crawl as we wait and now each day feels like a year while we wait to see each other for a brief 45 minutes.  I hope soon our suffering will be over, because I must admit, this situation is nothing short of torture for us and it feels like we are waiting for forever...

A happy Valentines Day?

While most couples celebrate Valentine's day together, Anna and I celebrate our 17 month Anniversary on separate sides of the world. It was seventeen months ago, on the 14th day of September 2011 that I sent Anna the first message, "Privet Anna".
Unfortunately today also marks the second time we have to celebrate Valentine's Day separately.
I can't say that it was the best Valentine's Day for us, but at least we are one day closer to the day our petition is approved and hopefully we won't have to spend another Valentine's Day apart.
I will look forward to the day that I can bring home Anna's favorite flowers (Chrysanthemums) and a delicious box of chocolates on Valentine's Day. Perhaps, I can even convince her to go out for dinner to a nice restaurant.
Regardless of our unfortunate situation today, we both want to wish all of the lovers out there a Happy Valentines Day (С Днем Святого Валентина).

Stay Tuned and Don't Log Off!

Today after I spoke with Anna, I was immediately contacted by Alan Dein with BBC Radio for another interview for his latest episode of "Don't Log Off" in London. It has been nearly 9 months since I spoke with him. He interviewed me in May of last year just prior to the time I visited Anna in Russia.
He has been following our story and will continue to follow our story as it unfolds.
Today he called me on Skype at 4:00 P.M. Mountain time. Unfortunately we had some difficulties hearing each other in the beginning, but in the end we were able to talk.
For those of you who have not heard the episode you can find an archived copy on his website http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/dlo. Our story is told on the "Hopes and Dreams" episode that is archived in the Podcasts on his website.
Hopefully our interview will be broadcast in London within the next 2 months. So, stay tuned and "Don't log off.". You will be able to hear my interview on his website soon after it aires to thousands of listeners in London.
I hope the next interview will be when Anna is on her way here.

A conversation of a million words.

Because every word we have spoken to one another (minus the words we spoke when I was in Russia) has been translated through Google Translator and pasted into Skype, all of our words have been stored in Skype.
I backup our conversation every week by copying our conversation from Skype and pasting it into Microsoft Word for safekeeping.

Today, after a year and 4 months of correspondence, I noticed our correspondence is almost 2,600 pages in MS Word and contains over a million words shared between us. One million words that will one day be edited and added to our book.
I hope soon that Anna will finally be here and we can finish our book. I can't say it will be easy but I think we have a story that is unique and will generate a high demand for our future book. In fact I have spoken to numerous people who think this could become a good topic for a movie. And to be honest I have had two different people that don't even know each other confront me to tell me Brad Pitt should play my part in the movie.
While it is nice to dream of a future that comes with a best selling love story and a movie, it is of little importance to me. My only desire is to finally bring Anna and her children to be here to be with me. That is my goal and that is the only thing I desire and that is all Anna wants as well. Everything beyond that would be icing on the cake as they say.
I only hope that our correspondence will not reach two million words or 5,000 pages before she can come. But unfortunately we are still in the process of waiting. We are halfway from the average time it takes to get our petition approved. We have waited 2 1/2 months of the 5 month average waiting period. I hope it happens sooner but it is completely beyond our control.
I can promise one thing, once Anna and I find out the good news, you all will be the first to know.

Current Status, "Initial Review"

It has been more than 2 months since the USCIS received our petitition and we are still waiting on a decision. I would be pleased to even get a request for evidence from them. But we are on hold.
It is unfortunate that every time I log in to our account to check on the status of our petition. It still shows the status "Initial Review". According to the website, it indicates "During this step, USCIS initiates the background checks of the applicant/petitioner and identifies issues that may need to be addressed either during an interview or by asking the applicant/petitioner to submit additional information or documentation. USCIS reviews the applicant's/petitioner's criminal history, determines if there are national security concerns that need to be addressed, and reviews the application/petition for fraud indicators."
It seems that I have a background that requires more than 2 months to check.
So I decided to check on the statistics that exist on the approval of our I129f petition. It seems the average processing time is 5 months in the nation. Fortunately our petition is being processed by the California office. It averages 5 months while the other offices average 6 or 7 months to process.
After further review, I discovered that the California office received over 27,000 requests for an alien fiance in October. But they made a decision on 4,000 of them in the same month. So it seems they have many people that are requesting the same thing as Anna and I.
Now, as in the past 2 months we still wait. In the mean time, Anna is trying to sell any property she owns in Russia as well as any other assets that she cannot bring with her.
But I must admit, every day is an eternity as we wait for this process to end.

Happy New Year and Merry Christmas!

Today, the new year began in Russia and the celebration begins for the holiday season.
In Russia, they celebrate Christmas and New Years day beginning January 1.
Anna, the children and the entire country of Russia will celebrate during the next 9 days. Tomorrow the children will open gifts from Santa Claus beneath a fur tree just as we do here. Tonight the whole country welcomed in the new year. This time occurred at 1:00 P.M. Mountain time. Anna had to close her windows in fear that a rogue firework would enter her home. It is common that they light off fireworks to celebrate the new year.
We hope that this will be the last New Years Celebration that we will experience apart. In fact we hope we will all be together in a few months. The average time it takes to get and approval on our petition is 5 months and we have already waited over 2 months so we think we are halfway there.
Anna and I have discussed how we will celebrate the future holidays and we have agreed that we will begin the celebration on New Years day as they are accustomed to in Russia. We may celebrate Christmas on the American Holiday but we will also celebrate the Russian Holiday as well.
So today, Anna and I wish everyone a Happy New Year and Merry Christmas.
We will see you next year!

Hurry up and Wait!

I have hesitated to make a new blog entry over the past month because there is nothing new to report. We are still waiting for the USCIS (United States Citizenship and Immigration Services) to approve our petition for the alien fiance (Form I-129F).
They sent me a notice informing me they received the request on the 22nd of October.
Unfortunately we must continue to wait until we receive an approval letter from the USCIS. I must admit though that every day seems like an eternity as we wait for the approval of our petition. Unfortunately the approval process takes an average 5 months. There is not much we can do until the time it is approved so we can only sit and wait.
Anna has been busy trying to sell some property she owns in southern Russia as well as trying to get the necessary papers that will allow her to take her daughter out of Russia. It seems her lawyer has found a document that indicates that her ex-husband is dead. So we hope when our petition is finally approved, she will have no difficulty taking her daughter here.
She is also trying to find the time to learn English as I am also finding some time to learn Russian.
We have now exceeded 2400 pages of written correspondence. Interestingly enough, every word we ever spoke (not including the words we spoke while I was in Russia) is in a 2400+ page document with almost 1,000,000 words. We find it interesting to refer back to our correspondence from over a year ago and read the words we spoke to each other and discover how much our relationship has developed over the past year.
We are also working on writing our individual stories to include in our future book. We hope to focus on writing the book over the next year. In fact I interviewed an author who is very interested in helping us write the book. But as in any story, it will need an ending before we can finish it. We hope that the end will be "and they lived happily ever after." but none of us can predict the uncertain future. Especially since it is assumed that the end of the world will occur in 4 days (12-21-2012). It seems even in Russia they consider this a possibility.
But if the world doesn't end on that day and we have to wait for the 3 more months, we can expect we will have over 3000 pages to edit and publish in our future book.

Bad news from Russia

Anna received some bad news from her employer today. It seems her days are numbered there. She has been an employee at this particular educational institution for over 7 years.

Today, during a meeting, the director of the institution announced that they will be closing their doors. While this came as no surprise to Anna, approximately 70% of the other employed personnel were shocked at the news.
This is all part of a major plan to shut down many universities throughout Russia with the thought of improving the quality of education vs. quantity of education. It was a plan that was started with former Prime Minister (and now president)  Vladimir Putin and supported by the current Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev.
This will not only take away jobs from many people in Russia, but it possibly will limit the abilities for many potential students to find further education in Russia.
While I will not get into any political debate regarding this issue, my biggest concern is for Anna. I am glad that we have already begun the process to bring Anna and her children here. My only hope is that our petition is approved before her employment is terminated there.
It has been one month since the Department of Homeland Security received our petition and the average length of time is 5 months for an approval. Now we are in a race against time. We only hope that our I-129f Petition will be approved before the scheduled closure. The last thing she needs to worry about is to look for a new job there.
If you are new to our blog and you haven't read our story yet Click Here to read our story.

A mother's work is never done

As we continue to wait for our papers to be approved by the Department of Homeland Security, Anna must file papers with the courts in Russia to allow her daughter to leave Russia.
The father of her daughter disappeared 9 years ago and now Anna has to get a judgement in court to allow her to leave the Russian Federation.
This will be required for her to come here. So Anna had to retain the services of a lawyer to file papers with the court system in Russia to either declare her first husband dead or missing.
Unfortunately we are at the mercy of not only the USCIS, but now we are at the mercy of the Russian Court System.
But we are confident that the court system will rule in her favor and when the USCIS finally approves our petition, she will have no difficulty getting a visa for her daughter to come here.
If you are new to our blog and you haven't read our story yet Click Here to read our story.

The official start of the process.

Finally we have a confirmation letter from the USCIS (The Department of Homeland Security) indicating they have started processing our petition.
I received an email early this morning from them indicating the receipt of our application. This is a copy of the actual E-mail.

USCIS Acceptance Confirmation

Your case has been accepted and routed to the USCIS California Service Center for processing. Within 7-10 days by standard mail you will receive your official Receipt Notice (Form I-797) with your Receipt Number #############. With the official Receipt Notice (Form I-797) you may visit www.uscis.gov where you can check the status of your case using My Case Status. We suggest you wait until you have received your Form I-797 before checking My Case Status.

This confirmation provides notification of the date USCIS received your case.  This notice does NOT grant any immigration status or benefit. You MAY NOT present this notice as evidence that you have been granted any immigration status or benefit. Further, this notice does NOT constitute evidence that your case remains pending with USCIS. The current status of your case must be verified with USCIS.

PLEASE DO NOT REPLY TO THIS MESSAGE

Fortunately, now we have an official timeline we can follow. We still have many forms to file among other things and there will still be at least 5 months before Anna's Visa can be approved but at least we have started the process.
If you are new to our blog and you haven't read our story yet Click Here to read our story.