We had our 5 minutes of panic, actually more like 45 days, when we were informed that the application we filed for Anne’s H1 visa (her J1 had expired) was not accepted. Although the Immigration Agency cashed all our checks and everything looked fine, for reasons we are still investigating, they rejected the application. Everyone was in a panic and we refiled immediately.
The situation was serious because these visas are first screened by a random lottery on exactly April 1st (in 2008, 120,000 applications were received and the lottery cut them to 65,000). When we found out there was a problem, we were well into the mid of April, when, in normal years, the opportunity is lost because all the visas have been allotted. We thought: this is it! Anne will have to go back to Germany, we lose our manager, very good friend and the third woman at Gustiamo. How do we do without her? This is the sign that it’s time to close this enterprise. We were all sad, because, on the other hand, things are really turning around for Gustiamo. Things are happening. We feel it!
If you are holding your breath, there is a happy ending; we just received the document above and Anne’s second application has been accepted. Perhaps this is the only good thing the recession did to us;there were fewer applications than the allottment. We don’t know and we don’t care. We are celebrating; we can go back to work now. God Bless America!!!
this is a typical example of Bureaucratic incompetance. I apologize to all of you for having to go through this rediculous exercise when 12 million lawbreakers flood into the country unchallanged.
Don’t give in and don’t give up, WTU