*sigh*

Yes, I'm quite aware that it has been six months without an update. That means what it looks like it means: six months without anything to update with. Well, that's not completely true, as David was called for an interview in March. The visa office waived the usual 60 days notice of the interview date; they called him on the phone ten days before the scheduled interview, saying that they were afraid he wouldn't get a letter on time. We were so excited for that, hoping it would mean they were really wanting to get our application through finally, but all hopes of a speedy approval have been dashed since then.

The interview did not go well; the immigration officer was very intimidating and rough with David, hardly giving him a chance to answer her questions or defend himself against several unfounded accusations. She was actually yelling so loud that people outside in the yard heard. Needless to say, David was somewhat traumatized by that experience. He was told, just before he was dismissed, that someone would be contacting him once they'd done some more "investigating." (We're finding that this word seems to be quite popular with the immigration officers in Accra.) However, for the last two months since the interview, neither of us has heard anything.

Last week, I was able to get news through the Member of Parliament here. Unfortunately, it was pretty much what we already knew; the application is with an immigration officer for review in regard to the applicant's background and "it's difficult to say" how long until approval, "but we hope the investigation will be done soon." Oh, that word "soon!" So laden with meaning. In the meantime, I've requested the notes on our file and are expecting those in the next two weeks or so. Hopefully that will give us some kind of idea of what is being investigated, or if they are waiting on any documents that they've forgotten to ask for.

Other than that, we're both going insane with all of this sitting around and waiting indefinitely. Next week will mark 14 months since David and I have seen each other. That's an awfully long time. Fortunately, despite everything we've both been through in the last year and more, it's gone fast enough that I have a hard time believing it's really been that long. I'm not very good at passively waiting, so have been spending my time for the last several weeks writing letters to every politician and office that I can think of who might be able to help in any way. I just hope that our file is being picked up often enough to send updates to various people that somebody is going to get tired of seeing it and will just approve it to get rid of it. That's my aim anyway!

So here's hoping that something happens soon so we can get on with our lives already. The next step *should* be for David to go and get his visa... if we can get Immigration to cooperate for once!