Immigration Situation

Pray for Sarah on Friday! We received word on Wednesday night that she had been invited for a visa interview in Montreal this Friday. She was planning on going back to Canada next week, so it's not a huge deal that this letter came this week, in fact it's pretty good timing. Except they only gave us 2 days notice!!! Can you believe it? We have had an unbelievable adventure with the immigration process over the last 18 months (regardless of the outcome on Friday, the adventure is far from over), but this is the most unbelievable thing so far. The letter was actually dated and mailed on Friday the 12th, arriving in Gatineau on Tue the 16th. We got word of the appointment around 6pm, went to a previously scheduled dinner at a friend's house in which I studied with a couple friends for Wednesday morning's exam.

By 8pm we had switched Sarah's flight information so she would be leaving the next day and cancelled our hotel reservation in Wilmington for Thu night (we were going to spend Friday at the beach). A friend came over around 9:45 and we gave Sarah a blessing that her body and mind would be at ease and that she'd make it through this stressful experience well, having learned a lot and ending up grateful for it.

I started going through all our application information, going through the pre-interview instructions, scanning dozens of pages of stuff into my computer for our records, double checking everything. Of course I found a couple mistakes, and had to update a couple forms. I needed to start from scratch on another form relating to my financial situation, and since I wasn't going to be there in person I had to have it notarized. Since Sarah was leaving before any notary opened, and it was too late to get to one, I would have to UPS it to her Wednesday morning to arrive on Thursday for her interview on Friday. In other words, if the mail had been one day slower, we wouldn't have been able to get this document done correctly!

Sarah did a couple loads of laundry, I ran out to the bank (the interview fee is $100 in US cash) and drove around to make sure I could find the UPS store and the notary in the morning, as well as filling up the car with gas. By the time we finished all that and went to bed it was 3:30am. Sarah woke up around 6:15, I woke up at 6:45. We left for the airport at 7:25, and I said my goodbye as she went through security around 8am. It's hard to explain why I felt so emotional, I feel confident everything will go well, but I cried while driving back to Chapel Hill.

I drove straight to the UPS store where they notarized the document and sent it on its way. I got home, changed shirts (no time for a shower), barely caught the bus and made it to school on time for my exam. It went ok, though I'm glad it's only worth 10% of that grade and that I'm generally doing well in that class. I had two other classes that day which were very relaxed because it's the start of my 4 day weekend fall break.

Sarah had a pretty insane day of flying. Most flights would have cost almost $700, though she found a way to go for $350 by making two stops. It meant that she would fly south to Orlando, Florida, then up to Newark, NJ before arriving in Montreal at 6:37pm. Well, our motto is that if something can happen, it will, so of course there was a lot of fog in Newark and they closed the airport for a bit. She was able to find a way through Cleveland, which worked out fine, except she didn't end up landing until 9:15pm, 13 hours after I had said goodbye to her. Have I mentioned that she's pregnant and has been throwing up at least once a day? Thankfully, she didn't throw up once all day! Unfortunatley however, she has already thrown up today's (thursday's) breakfast. Hopefully she'll feel well during the actual interview tomorrow. The other good news is that the UPS I sent her arrived this morning despite mechanical problems with the plane in Kentucky, and that the parcel Yohann sent (the original interview appointment letter) arrived in Montreal safely as well.

As far as we can tell we've done everything we are supposed to do and she should be approved to receive this visa. Of course, this is just a K3 visa, meaning she can work or study yet, but she can live in the States legally while she wait for her greencard application to be approved. She's nervous but will surely do well. Like I said, please pray for her.