Our petition would be send to the National Visa Center in Portsmouth, NH, like I told in my last post. Michelle called to Portsmouth last week and they told her that the petition arrived there on June 12. I knew it wouldn’t take long or the petition would be send off to Amsterdam. Michelle called this week again and, indeed, the petition was made ready for shipment on the 16th and it was picked up by DHL a day later.

The funny part about the above is that I knew this all (or thought to know) before Michelle called the NVC for the second time, she actually called on my hint to verify this. It appears that you can easily search and track packages with DHL based on reference number and if you happen to know the reference number, you will be able to follow the shipments from the NVC to the consulates and embassies quite easily… fortunately I happen to know (as I read them on a visa community website) how the structure would be, and indeed, the structure as told was correct..

DHL said there was a package picked up and send to the consulate in Amsterdam with diplomatic papers (it was the only package send to Amsterdam from Portsmouth so it couldn’t be wrong) and today, at 11.12 am, the package was delivered at the consulate :D (btw, it went through the following route:: Portsmouth, NH > Portland, ME > Wilmington, OH > East Midlands, United Kingdom > Brussels, Belgium > Amsterdam, the Netherlands… this is probably the most logical for them although it seems to me a bit like they took a scenic route haha)

Personally I think the end of the whole process is near. Next monday I will get another pre medical exam and I’ll get the first Hepatitus B vaccine shot and I think it will take about 2 weeks max until I will receive the first package of documents from the consulate (which will probably mean a lot of writing and searching for me).

After the long wait for our approval in California (see my previous post) it all really seems to go a lot faster now

Last night, at around 3.30 am Dutch time, I woke up to a sound which I usually hear when I have to wake up to go to work. I opened up my eyes and the first thing I noticed was that it was still dark, I looked at my alarm clock and it turned out it was still the middle of the night. I then went to look on my laptop and found out it was my laptop which woke me up because I received an email from the US customs & immigration service for which I had set an alarm if I would receive an email from them.

I read the subject of the email which was ‘Case Status Information for Receipt Number: WACXXXXXXXXXX‘ and I was totally awake in an instance. “Could this be it?”, I thought to myself, while I knew as well that it might also be a notice that we received a request for more evidence. I opened the email and read the following:

‘On June 5, 2008, we mailed you a notice that we have approved this I129F PETITION FOR FIANCE(E). Please follow any instructions on the notice. If you move before you receive the notice, call customer service.’

 This actually meant we received the 2nd Notice of Action and that we got through the first round of the whole visa process without any problem!!

With that, I called Michelle instantly with a message like ’something has happened…’, on which she reacted ‘what happened?’ I guess I was driving her a bit crazy with that message so I told her what really happened and, of course, she was as happy as I was.

I can tell you, I got more and more nervous about the whole process lately.. the longer it took for us to get the approval, the more I became stressed about the wait. “Do they still have our petition?” was one of the thoughts which ran through my mind a lot.

I am really happy we got our approval for this part of the visa process. Next the application will be send to the NVC (National Visa Center) in Portsmouth, NH from which it will be send to the Amsterdam consulate, who then sends me a package of forms which I have to fill in. After that has been done, I will have to make an appointment for a medical exam and X-rays, and I will receive an invitation for the final interview at the Amsterdam consulate. In the meantime, Michelle will have to send me another package of forms, documents and such which I have to provide the consulate in Amsterdam with. 

I think this remainder of our visa process will take up to about 2 to 3 months in total after which we will receive the visa (or not, but I hope we will).

Luckily I wont have to be affraid for the medical exam as I recently have had a few medical tests (like a HIV test and such) and they were all good, so I have no worries there anymore There’s only the interview itself left to worry about :/

I have been smiling a lot today, even though I am quite tired because of the lack of sleep of last night but oh well, we will survive that for sure!

I will update again when there is more news (or when I feel like writing again hehe).