VisaJourney - The Troop :)

From the beginning of our process for my K-1 visa I have been using a great site (Carla told me about it, Jake (her husband) used it for when they went through their K-3 visa). It has been such a help, helping us with how to start the petition and what we have to send in etc. Also if you have a question regarding the petition you start a new post and it’s answered SO quickly and the answers SO helpful! It’s really great! I was invited on Facebook by one of the ladies and then she added me to the Facebook group where I have met a bunch of lovely ladies! They are really wonderful when you are feeling down about something or have a question about the petition – all the ladies are further in the process than Dust and I are so it does help a lot :) We are all forming great “online” friendships, and hope to stay in contact with each other for a long time to come. I think it will be so awesome to see how each others lives have turned out with our loved ones and hopefully we can have a reunion once in a while to have girl time catch up :) These ladies are from all over the world, some are moving from their home countries to America and some already live in America. They are all really lovely, and I wish them all the best with their processes, and hope that NVC and CSC move their butts and give us our NOA2’s ASAP!! :)

Lisa and Matt.

Lisa is from the UK and Matt is from New York.

They filed their I-129F (K-1) on the 17th July, 2010.

They are waiting for their NOA2.

Lisa and Matt met while they were both on holiday in Cancun, Mexico in 2008.
They received their NOA2 on the 30th December, 2010 - FINALLY!
LIS ARRIVED IN NEW YORK, TO BE WITH MATT PERMANENTLY ON THE 24TH MARCH, 2011!! :D

Kayla and Andy.

Kayla is from Ontario, Canada and Andy is from North Carolina.

They filed their I-129F (K-1) on the 17th September, 2010.

They are waiting for their NOA2.

Kayla and Andy met online in February / March 2009 and then in person on the 30th October 2009.

Elena and Octav.

Elena and Octav are both from Romania. Octav lives in Philadelphia, PA though.

They filed their I-129F (K-1) on the 7th September, 2010.

They received their NOA2 on the 6th Mar, 2011. (On a Sunday!!!!) :)

Elena and Octav met through Elena's cousin. They started speaking online in August 2006 and met in person in September 2007 in Bucharest, Romania.

Nikki and Tomislav.

Nikki is from Philadelphia, PA and Tomislav is from Zagreb, Croatia.

They filed their I-129F (K-1) on the 21st September, 2010.

They are waiting for their NOA2.

They met in Philly in June 2008, when Tomislav went to the USA on a work/travel program and got a job at the same restuarant Nikki worked at. They met and fell in love at first site :)


Chaz and Dexter.

Chaz and Dexter are both from the Philippines, but Chaz lives in South San Fransisco, CA.

They filed their I-129F (K-1) on the 28th May, 2010.

They received their NOA2 on the 29th October, 2010. YAY!! :D Chaz scheduled an interview for Dex on the 17th November :D Now we wait for the VISA!! :).

Chaz and Dexter have known eachother since they were kids and Dexter proposed last year when she visited Philippines :)
DEX ARRIVED IN SOUTH SAN FRANSISCO, TO BE WITH CHAZ PERMANENTLY ON THE 22ND DECEMBER 2010!! :D
Chaz and Dex got married on the 22nd February, 2011. Congratulations!! :)

Genevieve and Matthew.

Genevieve is from the Philippines and Matthew is from Kittery, Maine.

They filed their K-3 on the 30th August, 2010.
They received their NOA2 on the 8th February, 2011. YAY!!
Genevieve and Matthew met on Skype in January,2009. Matthew visited Genevieve in October 2009, proposed in December 2009, Genevieve said yes in January, 2010, Matthew went back to visit in May 2010 and they got married on the 21st June, 2010 :)

Susanna and Chip (Geoffrey).

Susanna is from Germany and Chip is from Little Rock, Arkansas.

They filed their I-129F (K-1) in August, 2010.

They received their NOA2 on the 28th January, 2011! :)

Susanna and Chip met on a Christian website in 2009. They met in person in California in March 2010 and on the last day of their trip Chip proposed :)


Spela and Jarred.
Spela is from Slovenia and Jarred is from California.
They filed their I-129F (K-1) in mid June.
They just received their NOA2 on the 3rd November, 2010. YAY!! :D.
Spela and Jarred met online in September 2009 and then met in person in March 2010 in California.
SEPLA ARRIVED SAFELY IN CALIFORNIA WITH HER LOVE ON THE 24TH DECEMBER, 2010 - WHAT AN AMAZING CHRISTMAS PRESENT!! :)
Spela and Jarred got married on the 18th February, 2011. Congratulations!! :)

Jeannie and Kenny.
Jeannie is from Nova Scotia, Canada and Kenny is from Ashland, Virginia.
They filed their I-129F (K-1) on the 3rd July, 2010.
They received their NOA2 on the 22nd November, 2010.
Jeannie and Kenny met onine in pogo. They were friends for a long time before they decided to take the net step. They met for the first time in person in VA in August 2009. They both knew when they had that first hug at the airport they had something special. They had a few other trips back and forth. In May 2010 was her last trip to VA and thats when he proposed with a beautiful diamond and she of course said YES!! :) Awwwww...
WAITING FOR JEANNIE'S INTERVIEW DATE!!

Kirsty and Dustin.

Kirsty is from Pietermaritzburg, South Africa and Dustin is from Michigan, USA.

We filed our I-129F (K-1) on the 1st October, 2010.

We are waiting for our NOA2.

We met while I was Au Pairing in America in 2007. Dustin came to visit me in August / September 2010 and just before he left he proposed :)

Fiancée Visa (K1) Process...

I just thought this would be nice to have, so that whoever would like to see how our application for my Fiancée Visa (K-1) is going they can refer back here. We are told that it takes 5 months to get the visa, so we are hoping and praying really hard that I get the visa in February 2011. There could be times where there isn't an update for a few weeks or months. But I will update with as much information as possible...






Visa Timeline...
01.10.2010     -     I-129F application mailed off by Dustin
06.10.2010     -     Package delivered at 10:51am (USA time) 16:51pm
                           (SA time)
25.10.2010     -     Date of NOA1
26.10.2010     -     NOA1 Notification Received (email & text notification)
27.10.2010     -     Last updated - "Touched"
29.10.2010     -     NOA1 Hard copy received in the mail

And we wait....


We are eagerly awaiting our second notification now - the NOA2 (Notice of Application 2), which will let us know that they have accepted the application and will be sending the application and documents to the NVC (National Visa Center) then onto the JHB consulate, and then I will be receiving a package from JHB consulate called "Packet 3", which will hopefully take about 1 weeks from the date the application arrives in JHB, I will then have to fill out paperwork to send back to the consulate and collect any other evidence they require. After that is hopefully just a 1 week wait for another package from JHB called "Packet 4" which will contain my interview date :D (I can't wait) The wait for the NOA2 is about 3 - 4 - 5 months (I am holding thumbs it is earlier though!)

Our Special Engagement Surprise Gift from the Brown x2 and Sparg families...

Today Dustin and I received a very unexpected gift in the work mail that came in this morning! It was a lovely goldish envelope and addressed from James and Candace Sparg (my cousin). I excitedly opened it not sure what it was, when I took what was inside out there was a beautiful gold ribbon tied across a photo of a really cute little girl, and on the back it said "Congratulations on your engagement" and it is a voucher for an engagement shoot with a photographer that did Cands and James's wedding - BEAUTIFUL pictures and really wanted to have her as my photographer for our wedding! So we are pretty excited to have been given the opportunity to have photos taken by her for our engagement - more awesome memories to look back on one day :)

It was quite weird though, because I was talking to a lady at work last week and yesterday about wanting to organize an engagement photo shoot with one of her friends, that just recently took photos of her and her two daughters for her husbands 40th birthday, and I brought the whole photo shoot idea up in conversation with Dustin and he thought it a great idea! So I guess great minds think alike (with whose ever idea it was, LOL). So ya I am just so excited now for January to get here, so that Dustin is here and we can get some amazing pics from Kate. Obviously when we have had the shoot I will put some of the pics up!

Here is the gift we received, I photocopied the back and front and stuck them together :