So, just a quick recap for everyone before I make it obvious where I'm going with this...
- Buffalo misplaced my UAE police certificate and neglected to tell us. We never got an Initial Assessment. They never replied to our queries, when we asked if any additional documents were needed.
- April 28: We got my CAIPS notes, which revealed the certificate was missing. We (both myself and our consultant) sent them ample proof of having sent it already, plus copies of the original, by email.
- June 27: After 2 months of numerous unanswered emails and queries, I emailed them (yet again) about the missing certificate issue.
- June 30: They replied -- twice. Reply 1 was them telling me to only contact them through my consultant, that they would never reply to me directly ("office policy"). Reply 2 was them claiming they "had no records" of any of our emails from April 28 onwards, and requesting I submit a copy of the certificate (again). I emailed both their addresses with the copy again.
- July 4: I faxed a copy to them, with a cover letter.
- July 5: I sent another 2 copies to them, perfect color copies, by FedEx.
- July 7: FedEx delivered it to them before 10 AM that day.
Today, July 8, I received an email from Buffalo: They've decided they want my passport for visa issuance
. They've given me a deadline of August 8. My medicals were supposed to expire August 1, so I'm guessing they just extended their validity. Who knows which of the 3 copies of my certificate they actually used to finalize my application. (Perhaps my second batch of CAIPS notes will tell us in a week or two).
After nearly 5 years of my husband and I trying to get to this point, after all the health, financial, and emotional struggles, and all the BS Buffalo put our file through... it really hasn't sunk in that we don't have to feel like we're fighting them anymore. I wish we could afford the plane ticket for me to go to Buffalo in person, but we really can't. So, I'll be mailing my passport off Monday morning.
For those of you still waiting and, especially, for people like chess101 and Kess who've been waiting for so long: I hope the fact that my messy case of fail has come to an end will give you hope. This great news leaves a bit of a bittersweet feeling for me, both because of the others who have waited longer than me, as well as because the one close friend of mine I would have shared this news with first -- and who would have been there for me when I land -- passed away suddenly a few months ago. Had Buffalo not screwed things up so royally, perhaps she would have lived long enough to hear the news and celebrate with us, but who knows now.
I cannot express how sorry I am to hear about this. I cannot imagine the mix of emotions and inner turmoil you must be going through right now. Hang in there.
