(Somewhat) Encouraging News

I spoke to our agency today, and I'm feeling a little more hopeful now! I e-mailed them this morning to ask if they could give even a vague estimate as to when we might expect to travel. They actually called right back to discuss it with me. They said that, of course, it depends on many, many things, but:

*The letter that we are now waiting for from the NVC, or National Visa Center (concerning Caitlin's Visa) should arrive about a week from when we got our I-800. That means it should come this Friday.

*Our agency has people in China who actually deliver the paperwork in person, but they are only allowed to come on Mondays and Thursdays.

*Once our letter from the NVC arrives, I will scan it and e-mail it to our agency. They have already sent the rest of our paperwork to China (I sent it to them weeks ago, since these last 2 pieces do not need original copies so they can be e-mailed or faxed), so once our agency forwards our copy of the letter from NVC, our agency's people in China can take it all and hand-deliver it.

*However, our agency has to have the e-mail before they close on Friday in order to forward it to China in time to have them deliver it on Monday. Our agency is in Kentucky; we're in California (3 hours behind), and our mail usually doesn't come until after 2 PM our time (5 PM Kentucky time). This means our paperwork will most likely not be delivered to the proper authorities in China until Thursday.

*Once the proper authorities have our paperwork, it is about a 7-week wait to TA, or Travel Approval. TA means that all of our paperwork is set and in order, and our agency can request a consulate appointment for us.

*Once we have our consulate appointment, it is about 2 weeks to travel.

So our agency did the math and said that, as of right now, we would be traveling on October 7th. HOWEVER, October is a tricky month! The entire country shuts down for the first week of October, until the 7th, then there is one week free, but then the last 2 weeks of October is the Trade Fair in Guangzhou, which is where the American consulate is. Our agency said that this really only affects us in one way, but it's pretty major: the hotels fill up and it's very hard to get a room. And even if you can find a room, you're going to pay dearly for it! So it is actually possible to travel in October, but not very easy.

So all this is just to say that there is a small chance that we could travel in early October, an even smaller chance that we can still get in in September, but probably most likely that we will have to wait until the first week of November. Of course, this is all still a huge guessing game at this point, but it's nice to at least have an idea- and to know that we are at least back on track!