Our Timeline

January 10th, 1999 Bill sends the I-129F package to the INS service center in Vermont.
February 5th, 1999 The service fee for the petition clears from Bill's checking account.
February 6th, 1999 Bill gets the first I-797 Notice of Action that the petition has been received.
February 8th, 1999 Bill calls the INS infoline and learns that our petition has been approved.
February 10th, 1999 Bill gets the second I-797 Notice of Action that the petition has been approved.
February 12th, 1999 Bine gets her package in the mail from the Consulate in Frankfurt.
February 15th, 1999 Bine sends the OF-230 to the Consulate so they start processing the case.
February 26th, 1999 Bine travels to Frankfurt to get her Medical Examination for the visa done.
March 2nd, 1999 Bine sends the DSL-1067 to the Consulate to be scheduled for the interview.
March 12th, 1999 Bine gets a letter from the Consulate in Frankfurt with her interview date.
April 8th, 1999 The Interview - not as bad as expected, just a lot of waiting.
April 13th, 1999 Bine gets her passport with the visa and the "mysterious brown envelope"
April 17th, 1999 Finally, we are together again - Bine takes a plane to Frankfurt.
May 29th, 1999 We are getting married.
June 3rd, 1999 We file the Adjustment of Status paperwork at the INS office in Pittsburgh
October 29th, 1999 Our Green Card Interview at the INS office in Pittsburgh
March 29th, 2000 We ask our congressman for help again, as the Green Card still is not here.
April 28th, 2000 We get a Notice of Action from the INS - asking for new pictures!!!!!
May 2nd, 2000 We send in the new pictures - forwarded by our congressman...
May 22nd, 2000 We FINALLY get the Green Card - date of approval is FEBRUARY 2nd!!!



The Long Version


December 1998/January 1999

We got officially engaged on December 15th, 1999, almost a year after we both first admitted that it was more than friendship we felt for each other. At the same time, Bill ordered the paperwork for the I-129F package, once by phone order, once over the internet. It was very important for us to get started right ahead, as we wanted to get married at the end of May. Bine had already checked into finishing her education in the US, and knew there was a class in Medical Technology starting in June - so we had to get married and all the paperwork out of the way before that.

Once Bill had the package in hand, he sent the G-325A Biographic Information form to Germany immediately. Bine had already gotten her picture taken, but did not receive the form before Christmas Eve. Due to Christmas holidays in Germany, she could not send it back until the 28th of December. And because of the holidays, the mail also took ages, so Bill did not get the form and the picture before January 9th.

In the meantime, we realized that our time frame was very short. We did not want to risk getting the visa too late, so we decided to seek professional help. We did not have the money to go to a lawyer, but Bill contacted our congressman John Murtha instead. And we could not have made a better decision, he and his staff helped us immensely through the entire process.

Bill dropped all the paperwork off at Murtha's office on January 10th, 1999. His employee Jean, who is dealing with the INS all the time, submitted the package for us. According to a letter that we got from the congressman shortly after that, it was "forwarded to the Director of the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) in St. Albans, Vermont". He also promised to contact the American Consulate in Frankfurt once the petition was approved.

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February 1999 - On the American Side

On February 5th, Bill noticed that the service fee for the petition ($95 at that time) cleared from his checking account. This meant that the INS must have finally opened the envelope and started processing the case. The next day, he received the first I-797 Notice of Action stating:

"The above application or petition has been received. It usually takes 15 to
21 days from the date of this receipt for us to process this type of case."

While we were waiting for the actual approval notice, we visited homepages of other people in the same situation as us, to get an approximate idea of what time frame we were looking at, what was to come next, etc. With our petition, we had only sent papers and forms that the list from the INS asked for. Reading through those homepages, we realized that many had sent in photos of the two of them together, copies of phone bills etc.

We did not want to risk to get a letter 20 days later telling us that they needed more evidence, so Bill tried to call the INS on February 8th to get some information if we needed to send more. And did not get through all day. When he finally got a hold of them at 4:45 pm, no one was there any more, but he could listen to the tape that gave him information on how far they were into our application process already. Now imagine his surprise when it said:

"Visa approved, consulate in Frankfurt, Germany, contacted by fax on Feb. 8th"

And Bine's surprise was not any smaller when he told her at night after he got home from work. Two days later we got the official I-797 Notice of Action to confirm the approval of the petition. It also gave us Bine's A(lien) number.

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February 1999 - On the German Side

On February 12th, Bine received the letter from the American Consulate in Frankfurt, with more paperwork and instructions of how to get through the final stages of the fight for the visa. Three days later, she sent the OF-230 (Application for Immigrant Visa Part 1 biographical data) back to the Consulate so they could start processing the case. She also forwarded the I-134 Affidavit of Support to Bill, so he could fill it out, sign it and collect the necessary paperwork (copies of tax returns, letter from the employer, bank, etc.). The mail being so slow all the time (in spite of spending lots of money on sending everything by air mail) certainly is a major factor in delaying the visa process.

Bine had some major exams at the university in February, so she could not get started on doing her homework on the visa immediately. On February 23rd, she passed the last of her exams, which meant she was done with university in Germany. So she could finally get started on getting all the paperwork together, and also to organize her moving back in with her parents for the time being until she got the visa and could fly to the US. In addition to the paperwork for the visa, she also had to get university transcripts, so Bill could send them to a Evaluation Agency. That way, all her university credits and degrees could be transfered to the US, and she could start an internship in Medical Technology after she arrived in the US.

The consulate had sent a list of panel physicians in Germany where Bine could go and get her medical examination for the visa done. At first, she wanted to go to a doctor in Munich, but the waiting time for an appointment would have been several months, so the next choice was Frankfurt. You need to get no appointment there, it said on the letter to just show up there during their opening times. Bine was one of the first ones to be there in morning of the 26th of February, and was done without any problems in 2 1/2 hours. If you want to know more about how her medical went, you can find more details here.


March/April 1999

As usual, we had to wait for the mail, it took until March 2nd, till Bine got the Affidavit of Support papers that Bill had filled out. Once she had them, she could finally send the DSL-1067 to the Consulate to let them know she had all the necessary papers and evidence for the interview.

On March 12th, Bine got another letter from the consulate with her interview date. It was scheduled on April 12th. This was awfully close to April 17th, the date of Bine's flight to the US. So she called the consulate to ask for an earlier appointment. Well, the person on the other side of the phone was pretty rude, and gave Bine a speech of how she should accept the appointment she got, and why everybody was calling trying to change the appointment all the time. In the end, she nevertheless gave Bine a new date, April 8th. Still pretty close to the 17th, but better than the 12th.

On April 8th, Bine traveled to Frankfurt again, this time for the interview. She was one of the first ones to be there in the morning (at 7 am), the line outside the Consulate was not too long yet. After the usual security checks (she had to hand over her bottle of water, who knows, she might smack someone on the head with it), she went inside to stand in line again. For getting checked in, so they knew she was there, and paying the fees. And guess what, that unfriendly person on the phone obviously had forgotten to write Bine's new appointment down. Her name was not on the list!!! Fortunately, the person she was talking to was not as uncaring as the one on the phone, she listened to Bine's complaints of how long it took her to get to Frankfurt, etc., so she was added to the list.

After handing over all her papers, Bine was told to sit down and wait for her name to be called up for the interview. We will never know if it was because Bine was not on the list originally, or whatever the reason was, but she had to wait for 6 hours. A lot of people being called in before her had arrived long after her. There were some more people in the same situation there though, coming to the consulate very early, but having to wait for ages. Around noon, the vending machines in the consulate were completely empty, everybody was sitting there munching on a candy bar or so, to satisfy the worst hunger.

At 2 pm, it was finally Bine's turn to walk up to the window for the interview. It was short and painless, she handed over her paperwork, the lady behind the window asked some questions like where we met, if we already had plans for the wedding, what my plans were for employment and/or school in the US, etc. She was very pleased to hear that we had already set a date for the wedding and also sent out invitations, and that I had already made contact with that school for Medical Technology to start in June, etc. Everything was over in 15 minutes, they promised to send Bine's passport with the visa and the "mysterious brown envelope" within two workdays.

Certainly, it took longer than two workdays for Bine to get the mail, the visa and everything else arrived on April 13th. Needless to say that we had been getting a little bit antsy, as Bine's flight ticket was for the 17th. But well, everything worked out as we had planned it in the end, and on the 17th of April, Bine took a plane from Frankfurt, Germany to Pittsburgh, US. And though it was hard to leave family and friends behind, we were so happy to finally being together again. And started on the wedding preparations almost immediately.


March/April 1999

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