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Fucking Appalling

So. We have visa news. I haven't blogged about it, because it's not fantastic news and I've sort of been annoyed by it. But it is news, just the same.

Our petition has been accepted. Yay! This means that we now have to submit another tranche of paperwork - like an affidavit of support and information about James's parents and stuff like that. I need to prove I can keep James at 125% of the poverty line. This is sort of amusing because James earns lots more than I do, but I'm his sponsor and responsible for him in the States. Still, it's not a problem.

We submit this paperwork. Then, according to our attorney, we wait for about two months. In about two months, we get an interview date, which, we're advised, will be about three weeks later. Then, the interview, at which James gives them his passport. He'll get his passport (with green card) back two days later, at which point, it's sayonara London.

We're frustrated. We're tired. We don't want to be in limbo anymore. I don't really want to leave London, but now I know that that's what's going to happen, I'm ready to do it.

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We understand that this stuff takes time. There is no fast track, though we muse that there should be. After all, the longer James is working in the United States, the more tax he pays. The more money we get to pump into the economy. If we could give them a couple of grand to expedite our application, Lord knows it would save us money. But it doesn't work that way. It's painfully fair. We don't get treated any differently than anyone else petitioning to bring their family into the United States.

We understand that. We're cool with it.

What we're not cool with, is our attorney, whose sense of hustle seems to have been surgically removed at some point. We told her we wanted our paperwork submitted before we went to Australia. She said she understood, but in the end, she forgot to give us a form and we had to have it faxed to us at a hotel in Sydney, and in the end it was all submitted three weeks later than we had hoped. Because of that mysterious month where nothing happened at the Embassy, we would've gotten in before that break and I imagine we'd be about a month ahead of where we are right now (AT LEAST - maybe two) in the process.

We asked her to send us the paperwork we needed to sign at the beginning of last week. Monday morning and it wasn't there yet. James had to call her and ask her wtf before she agreed to courier it over. And now that it's here, I've been looking through it and the mistakes in it are INEXCUSABLE!

She spells our surname wrong multiple times. Our surname (spelled by us) is ALL OVER the other documentation. She spelled it right on the fucking envelope she sent the stuff over in. It's unbelievable. It's careless. Maybe we're not her most important clients, but shit. There is no excuse for stuff like this. She also put James's name in a box where the sponsor's (me) name should've been.

It's careless. It's unprofessional. It's deeply discouraging and disappointing. I can't help but think if we were doing this on our own - without the help of a lawyer - we'd be way further along than we are now.

Edit: It should be noted that our attorney is specifically an immigration attorney. It is her job to get immigration paperwork together and push it through. It's a trade. No, no two immigration situations are precisely the same, but there isn't THAT much variation. If this is what you do, you should know how to do it. You shouldn't put the wrong person's name on a form.

We asked her at one point what we needed to do to prove our intent to move to the United States. Her answer was completely vague and useless. We had to have a conference call to another guy - in the US - to give us more information. I'm sorry, but if your job is to do US immigration day in and day out, you should know the answer to such a SIMPLE question. We are NOT the first people to ever go through this process. If she can't do her job, she needs to find someone who fucking can.

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