The Department of Homeland Security Knows Our Names

OK, so if you've read this post (and if you haven't... WHY NOT???), you know that Tina and I are engaged to be married. Being that she is a citizen of the United Kingdom, she can't just up and come here to live.

There are several ways to marry a foreign national. We discussed the pros and cons of the various methods, and settled upon the K-1 Visa. The first step in obtaining this visa is filing Form I-129F, Petition for Alien Fiance(e).

(Well, technically speaking, I guess the real first step would be MEETING THE PERSON. Duh. I'm only referring to the administrative stuff.)

Anyway, I gathered together the massive pile of stuff that needs to be sent with the I-129F (not the least of which is a check for $455.00) and sent it all in to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, which is part of the Department of Homeland Security.

They sent me a form with a receipt number. If you look up the receipt number on their web site, you see the following message:

On March 24, 2009, we received this I-129F PETITION FOR FIANCE(E), and mailed you a notice describing how we will process your case. Please follow any instructions on this notice. We will notify you by mail when we make a decision or if we need something from you. If you move while this case is pending, call customer service. We process cases in the order we receive them. You can use our processing dates to estimate when yours will be done. This case is at our CALIFORNIA SERVICE CENTER location. Follow the link below to check processing dates. You can also receive automatic e-mail updates as we process your case. Just follow the link below to register.

So, there we are... we are no longer "under the radar".

According to another section of their web site, current processing time for this petition is 5 months. So, based on that, I expect Tina to have her interview at the U.S. Embassy in London either in late August or (more likely) sometime in September.