VISA Progress:

We were determined after I moved to the UK that we would move over to America one day, and finish raising our kids there, and get our lives going in earnest.  It resulted in a big mistake on our part as we never really settled into our house properly.  The garden (yard) was never done properly and the grass never cut and cared for as it should be.  We never decorated any of the rooms fully, but rather splashed paint on as absolutely required.  We never really made our house a home at all.  It is a rental that we never intended to stay in, so there was no incentive to do any of this. 

The years ticked by, and all along we intended to move away, and we talked about moving away, and when we would do it.  Finally, we filed the first bit of paperwork to get my wife and two step-sons VISAs to live in the USA back in March, 2009.  That was meant to be the express lane, and we would have moved that summer if we could.  But how naive we were to think we might.  As it turns out, it takes a really long time to work through all of it, and there is the money as well, which sometimes resulted in a bit of sticker shock.  Paying out $355 per person on the VISA filing fee was one thing.  Then finding out the Interviews themselves were going to be another $400 each was a horse of a different colour! 

We need to also have air fares, and money to cover the cost of shipping personal belongings over..!!  And as you may well be aware, the airlines are charging for everything they can now, including the use of a pillow or fee for a carry-on bag.  They are going full hog on fees to recoup the losses over the last year, as if we were to blame for it! 

The whole unsettled feeling of the last several years, plus the added magnitude of it since filing those fist papers in 2009, and the worry over getting it all right, and fulfilling everything we need to, and the fact I cannot buy a single kitchen utensil without thinking of how it will be disposed of in the long run (ever shortening run).  I cannot set up my business in earnest either!  It all amounts to a lot of undue stress that I would rather not have to deal with at any time again in my life.  We do well financially at the moment, but we are not rich people.  The costs surrounding this move are a burden, to be sure, even if only a temporary one. 

Well, as of tonight, we have filled out the papers at last letting the Embassy know we are ready for our interviews.  They should be set for about one month out.  Then, and only after the interviews, will we know if we have dotted the i’s and crossed the t’s adequately to cause them to issues three VISAs so we can all move over to America at last, and settle at last, and buy a butter dish that I think might look nice in my kitchen, at LAST..!! 

I mail in those forms tomorrow, and then I am off to town without a care in my mind, but to wonder how long it will take to hear back from the Embassy on the appointment.  I am sure I will freak out then too, and post a blog about it!  After all, once that date is past, and we hear back, we will know…  KNOW if and about WHEN we are finally able to start our lives together in earnest after only seven and a half years (plus) of marriage!  Finally, we will be able to start making things right so we can buy a Bed and Breakfast and with any luck, retire there in many years to come.