No Visa Yet!

Well, here's the latest update on Andre's K-1 fiance visa. His receipt from the courier service says he will receive it on April 8, which is today. So Andre called the Hotel Atarazana, the same hotel where we met in August 2006, and reminded his former co-worker and her boss that today's the day.

He went to the Colonial Zone where the hotel is located and did some errands, waiting and waiting for Lenni's call to say the courier made the delivery. Then he was going to call me. When I didn't hear anything, I decided to call him. Since tomorrow is a general strike in Santo Domingo, Andre decided to call the courier service. They said they hadn't even received the package from the consulate yet.

I called a toll number for the Santo Domingo consulate and spoke to a customer service rep is in Mexico City. He looked up Andre's case #, but it didn't say much, just that he'd had the interview on March 25. He sent a note to the U.S. Consulate in Santo Domingo to check up on the visa. He said if we don't get it in ANOTHER WEEK to call him back. I asked if he thought the fact that the Haitian embassy lost Andre's passport last year and replaced it without telling him could be the reason for the delay. He said no, he didn't think so. We're not the only ones in this situation, he said. There are thousands of visa applicants EVERY DAY in Santo Domingo.

I guess I should be thankful we're not still waiting for an interview date in December 2008, as I was originally told. I should be thankful that overall the interview with the consul went well and Andre was instructed to pay for the courier service. But what I don't like is being in limbo still. We don't know 100% that he will be given the visa, and we can only hope that it will arrive in the next week or two. Meanwhile, I have to keep changing Andre's flight reservations and waiting to make mine because we still want to meet in New York for a week.

So nothing can be set in concrete in my calendar. I'm teaching racquetball at UCSC on Thursday nights and have to keep changing the date that I need a sub. I wanted to play in a racquetball tournament in Las Vegas the first weekend of May so Andre could see the Emerald City and then go to San Diego to meet my folks. I wanted to host Passover at my house this year. I wanted to celebrate Andre's 31st birthday on April 23 here in Santa Cruz so my friends could meet him.

Well, I'll let you know how things go. Otherwise, I'm still playing the waiting game here in Limbo Land.