... in response to Our ladies experiences with "Our&qu..., posted by Hoda on Apr 20, 2001Howard,
My wife went through immigration in Miami.Since I had come home to send her more paperwork for the visa I flew back to Miami to meet her,not to Cali.I am in the airport,her plane lands and I am waiting for her.I wait about 11/2 -2 hrs. and I am getting worried.I ask some people and they say it can take that long.Finally she comes out with her son.She is sort of dazed,doesn't even seem to happy to meet me.I give her a tour of Miami Beach before we head off to Orlando and she goes to sleep in the car.Later I got the story out of her.She mostly just waited at INS,a woman did a pat down search of her,then she talk to a man who started her INS paperwork.He questioned her about me and made a point to tell her that the marriage had to last 2 years or she had to return to Colombia.She got her green card in the mail 6 weeks later.
I thought maybe they had given her a bad time but she said no,she was just tired because she stayed up late and got up early,plus she always seems to crash out when we travel.This was alot easier than dealing with the Embassy in Bogota.
As far as adjusting to life here,she missed her family a was depressed for about 2 months.She also was used to working and having her own money and now she was dependent on me for everything.She got involved with Silvia's Latin wives and novias discussion group and that helped.She then made a couple of latina friends here and that helped alot.One of her friends,a dentist from Bogota now lives next door.It took her about 8 months to pass her written and behind the wheel drivers licence tests.Californis is tough,over 50% fail the behind the wheel test.It took my wife three times.Now that she can drive she realy feels independent.She went to an adult education English class for 8 months or so but thought she wasn't learning much.We now have her in a private english school and she is learning more quickly.I think she is pretty well adjusted now after 14 months.I asked her the other day where she would rather live,here or Cali,and she said here.She said it was safer and cleaner than Cali and then she ratled off a list of all of her favorite places here,most of which were clothing stores.She does call her mother every day and misses them much less than she did at first.
I think it is very important for a latina wife to have people to talk to,and she did find that.We were at a party at the neighbors 2 days ago and I was the only one who didn't speak spanish.I think it is also important that she be busy doing something,which in our case was english classes.Adjusting to the weather was an issue with her and we live in California.Since you are in New York if Stivalis comes in the summer that will give her time to adjust before winter hits.Sometimes my wife says its so cold(like 55 degrees).I tell her she doesn't know what cold is,but then to me nothing is colder than a cold shower and I had alot of those on our last trip to Colombia.
As far as beauracratic problems most of those occured in Colombia for us.
So when are you going to tells us what your plans are?
Good luck with everthing,I think it will be easier for you since you have taken alot of time to get to know each other.
Pete
