Introduction

Hello to everyone!

I have created this blog to write down my journey through immigration. Before I begin, I'd like to share a little background information of how I got to where I am now.


It all began on January 7th, 2010. I was on Facebook and going through the news feed when I saw an interesting post by one of my friends who re-posted from one of his friends (Ben). At the end of reading it, I made a comment about it. An hour or two later, I got a friend request from Ben. Usually I don't add anyone on Facebook I don't know, but I thought why not. So, I added him. And that's when our friendship began. That first day alone, we talked for two or three hours on Facebook chat, just getting to know one another. This continued on everyday.

One day, I was on the bus heading somewhere when I got a text message on my phone. When I view it, I see it's from Ben. He mentioned that he found my cell number listed on Facebook and decided to text me. And since then, we texted everytime one of us wasn't home or at work to talk online.

We eventually moved from Facebook chat to MSN as it was much easier.

We soon began to joke about me going to visit him in South Dakota (USA). Eventually, we went from joking to serious, and before I knew it, I was booking a flight from Montreal (Canada) to his little town in the US. Our first meeting was in mid-March and lasted for five days. Throughout the visit, I thought it would be so cool if he was my boyfriend. He was absolutely amazing and on the last day of the visit, I never wanted to leave.

Over the next week, Ben and I expressed how much we missed each other and soon began to reveal our feelings for one another. There was just one little problem...

At that time, I was actually with someone else (my first ever boyfriend), but had fallen out of love with him months before. We had our own apartment together for more than a year at that point. I had never broken up with anyone before, but I knew it must be done. He was in quite a shock when I told him. Within a week or two later, I was back to living with my dad's.

Ben and I thought another visit should be in order, so mid-April, I headed back to South Dakota, this time for only four days. It was technically even less since I arrived late Friday night and left early Monday. But, on April 16th, the first night I was there, Ben proposed to me. We had actually been discussing it since we knew we were right for each other and wanted to have a small courtroom wedding and then get me to the US as fast as possible.

After that April visit, I came back for another four days at the end of April/beginning of May. It had only been two weeks apart, but it felt like forever. I came in earlier on Friday, so we had almost three full days together this time. Again, we didn't want to say goodbye, but we both knew I would return in two weeks time and we'd have the whole summer together.

Two days after I finished my semester, I headed back to South Dakota, this time to spend almost three months there. On May 21, we got married in the courthouse in his town. His mother and grandmother were witnesses (his younger step-brother was there as well playing in the benches). We had decided to just have a small courthouse wedding to get all the legal stuff out of the way, and after some time, we'd have another bigger wedding with everyone invited, once we have the time and money to plan it.

My return ticket to Canada was a week into August. Neither of us wanted me to leave. And looking back, I never should have. But, it was for only 10 days and I needed to get some things done in Canada before I came back and began the process of becoming a legal permanent resident of the US. Leaving was mistake number 1.

Mistake number 2 occurred at customs at the airport when I was going to return back to South Dakota. I unfortunately mentioned that I was going back to apply for a green card. What I didn't know at that time is that you cannot cross the border to the US with the intention of immigrating. That is a violation of immigration laws. I was sent to the immigration area at the airport while I waited for an hour, not knowing what was going on. An immigration officer finally took me in, about 10 minutes before my flight was supposed to leave, and then told me the devastating news. I was not going to see my husband that night. He explained what I was doing wrong and told me that I had to either apply for an immigration visa or a K3 non-immigrant visa. And that I wouldn't be seeing my husband for 4 months. Never have I cried so much in my life....

~Lindsay