Tag: family

Passports Disaster

I am on my way to Helsinki, but not the way it was planned – I am flying on my own. As I mentioned, the last two weeks were one emotional roller coaster. Here is a complete story of our passport disaster.

John’s and Nadia’s passports were good to travel in June, but Anna’s passport had expired, and Kira didn’t have one yet. Anna applied for both passports in February, not even thinking that she might need expedited processing, starting the whole thing sixteen weeks before the trip.

However, that was when everybody started to apply for passports and the current backlog had started. When the passports didn’t return in May, Anna started jokingly saying that she and Kira might need to travel to Chicago for an emergency appointment. When the passports were still not there two weeks before the departure date, she tried to apply for an emergency appointment only to realize that no appointments were available before the departure day!

That’s when we all started panicking. Anna called her Congresswoman, and her office promised help. Meanwhile, Anna called every day to see whether there would be any cancellations, but even when she would catch one, while she was on hold for another representative. 

On Wednesday, she came to Chicago to try to get in without an appointment, but they won’t let her in. Her Congresswoman’s office told her that they were supposed to get a callback on Monday, but they didn’t, and they don’t know why. Anna decided to try to get an appointment for a later date (she found another time during summer when everybody could go), and was able to get one for the two-week later date.

We decided it was better to go later in summer than not at all, and Anna spent another two hours on the phone exchanging the tickets. I decided to still go now (I just made the trip shorter) and booked another ticket for later. Just after we were done with all of these exchanges, Anna’s Congresswoman’s office called to inform her that they got an appointment for her on Friday!

We had yet another several very emptional hours. It turned out that while I could easily restore my original trip, Anna’s original tickets doubled in price. Even though I suggested a crazy idea of making this wish come true, there was a risk – what if the passports would still be delayed? What if something went wrong?

Anna and John decided to keep the new dates but still used this Friday’s appointment. Then, Anna had a last-minute realization that Nadia’s passport won’t be good for travel in August, so she needed to make the new one for her as well. 

I am on my way to Helsinki, but not the way it was planned – I am flying on my own. As I mentioned, the last two weeks were one emotional roller coaster. Here is a complete story of our passport disaster.

John’s and Nadia’s passports were good to travel in June, but Anna’s passport had expired, and Kira didn’t have one yet. Anna applied for both passports in February, not even thinking that she might need expedited processing, starting the whole thing sixteen weeks before the trip.

However, that was when everybody started to apply for passports and the current backlog had started. When the passports didn’t return in May, Anna started jokingly saying that she and Kira might need to travel to Chicago for an emergency appointment. When the passports were still not there two weeks before the departure date, she tried to apply for an emergency appointment only to realize that no appointments were available before the departure day!

That’s when we all started panicking. Anna called her Congresswoman, and her office promised help. Meanwhile, Anna called every day to see whether there would be any cancellations, but even when she would catch one, while she was on hold for another representative. 

On Wednesday, she came to Chicago to try to get in without an appointment, but they won’t let her in. Her Congresswoman’s office told her that they were supposed to get a callback on Monday, but they didn’t, and they don’t know why. Anna decided to try to get an appointment for a later date (she found another time during summer when everybody could go), and was able to get one for the two-week later date.

We decided it was better to go later in summer than not at all, and Anna spent another two hours on the phone exchanging the tickets. I decided to still go now (I just made the trip shorter) and booked another ticket for later. Just after we were done with all of these exchanges, Anna’s Congresswoman’s office called to inform her that they got an appointment for her on Friday!

We had yet another several very emptional hours. It turned out that while I could easily restore my original trip, Anna’s original tickets doubled in price. Even though I suggested a crazy idea of making this wish come true, there was a risk – what if the passports would still be delayed? What if something went wrong?

Anna and John decided to keep the new dates but still used this Friday’s appointment. Then, Anna had a last-minute realization that Nadia’s passport won’t be good for travel in August, so she needed to make the new one for her as well. 

They all came to Chicago on Friday a half-hour before their appointment time (which was 10 AM), and it turned out that the time didn’t matter at all, and they had to wait in line. They got in at about 12:30, and Anna was sent to retake her photo, but the person was at lunch, so they waited more. All our plans for the birthday lunch for the girls were not going to happen, and I decided to walk in their direction at least to see them and hand out my mom’s birthday cards for the girls and Vanille cookies and macaroons, which I ordered a day before. Fifteen minutes into our conversation, Anna received a call that the girls’ pictures had to be retaken as well.

After that, John drove home with the girls, and Anna waited for the passports, which were ready closer to 6 PM instead of 3-15 PM.

The good part is that now everyone has a passport so that we can plan our early August trip, but the horrible part is that… well, that is was a mission impossible!

Request For Evidence Disaster

When my mom passed the citizenship test, and the officer told us that now we just need to collect the evidence that mom didn’t commit any crimes during these past five years, I thought that it would be easy and was internally celebrating.

It turned out that it was anything but easy. Although the paper from USCIS was more than a page long, it didn’t provide any specifics on where and how we should collect that evidence. The office told us that we should go to the “local police department,” and they will know what paper we need.

I called the Palatine police department Department of Records, and their supervisor told me that indeed, she knew what kind of paper I need, and I do not need an appointment, just come during business hours.

Assuming that it would be the same in Rogers Park, I asked Igor to take my mom there, and that turned into a total disaster. They told Igor that they are not doing background checks, and have a document to prove it, and that Igor and my mom should go to the headquarters. They didn’t want to listen or look at the paper Igor tried to show them.

After Igor called me, I called the Police station three times, trying to explain what we needed. Three people hung up on me. I decided to try to reach the headquarters. There was no information on their website, but I found a direct number to call central 311 and pleaded with the office on the other end not to hang up on me!

The office gave me the Department of Records phone number, which turned out to be the right place. Our local police station could not provide the document we needed, but for a different reason than they cited… and why in the world could they not give us the same phone number in the first place?!

Igor took mom to the headquarters because the phone number is nowhere on the internet, only to find out that they were open until 1 PM, and it was too late by that time.

The next day, mom and I went to Palatine, and it was again the same story (they didn’t know whether they could give this paper, and mom was not in their system (and that’s precisely what we needed). They suggested they “call me later,” and I said that we came from Chicago and I was not going anywhere.

Forty minutes later, we finally got the paper and went home.
Then, on Friday, Igor took my mom to the Police headquarters again, and this time, they issued the paper we needed.

I uploaded both documents for consideration, and I hope this will be enough evidence. (BTW, I tried to call the USCIS helpline when the police hung up on me, but they only have an automated service, no humans.

If this is indeed the end of it, I will be very happy, but I still plan to file a complaint!

Maybe Done With Beaurocracy

I could not imagine that obtaining “additional evidence” for mom’s citizenship case would be so dramatic! I didn’t blog about the recent development because it was a little bit more than I could handle, but today I could finally submit all of her documentation, and I sincerely hope that it will be enough! I guess we will be able to tell for sure next week.

I will blog about all the colorful details later, but for now – just this picture of the Lakefront chestnut blossoms for to celebrate!

More Family Stuff

Back to last week. Mom’s citizenship test was on Tuesday. I worked in the office for the remaining half-day and then took a train to meet Boris at ORD. On Wednesday, I worked from home, took mom to her physical therapy, taught a class online, and tried to cook as much as possible for the upcoming weekend.

I worked in the office on Thursday and then went with Boris and my neighbor to the CSO concert and to the Classic Encounter with Terri Hemmert before that. The program was amazing, although, to be 100% honest, I almost felt that it was too much with everything else I was doing. I planned this outing at least three months ago, and I thought that on Thursday, there would be no wedding-related activities. But then it turned out that Vlad planned something for close friends, and Anna wanted to go. I was trying to figure out how this could work, then Anna said that John would come and stay with the girls, and then at the end, it was that both John and Anna had work crises, and they decided to drive Friday morning (which was not a good idea having that it was a Memorial Day weekend).

Finally, they arrived, and John took me to the nursery to get the remaining plants for my balcony, and then Nadia, Anna, and I went to do nails, and in the evening, I babysat the girls.

Then, there was a family lunch at Acanto on Saturday, and then Boris and I took Nadia to the Field Museum and then brought her to the “Meet the Grooms,” where Vlad asked me why I do not socialize and do not mingle 🤷🏻‍♀️

On Sunday, we went for a long bike ride, and then I planted everything I had to plant, so the morning was rather quiet. And then there was a wedding which was very loud :). I think, however, that the major reason for me being so tired after these days is not that the music was loud or that I had a full house, but rather the fact that I had to meet a lot of Dylon’s relatives and they are very different family than us.

Oh, and also, somewhere in the middle of that, we completed a couple of house projects!

Two of Vlad’s High School friends spoke at the wedding, and I was happy that at least this speech was not glossy:)
And I found this picture from fifteen years ago!

***

I will post more pictures from the wedding. I am very-very-very tired, both emotionally and physically. And I am very happy for Vlad and Dylon.

The wedding was all about them, which is how it should be, but I was standing there in the crowd and recalling many past moments, starting from the image of this tiny thin baby body with match-like limbs. I with two five-year-olds, exiting the Immigration Office at ORD on October 23, 1996. Our endless conversations, and our conversation “about that.” And Vlad crying on my shoulder on the corner of State and Washington in broad daylight.

And when we returned home, I asked Boris (rhetorically, of course): how could it happen that we did everything wrong, and it turned out so perfect?! It’s scary even to think about how horrible things could turn if I won’t go to the US, fearless out of shire ignorance, having no idea what I am doing. All my decisions I was most criticized for, but especially these two: that I decided to have babies in the most inconvenient moment of my life, the life of my country and history in general, and that I decided to go to America and take my kids with me.

Not calculated, not thought-through, and completely irresponsible…

More Pictures

How many times can it happen to me?! I was sure I posted the pictures yesterday… only to realize that I didn’t!

I just saw it today when I came to add more pictures shared by Igor.

Oh, well… Sorry, friends – I presumed you already saw them, and they were not published:)

Dylon & Vlad – Wedding Day!

There will be more words and more pictures tomorrow, but today was the day!

Dylon&Vlad – Day 1

Status Update

This is an insanely crazy week, with Vlad’s wedding, Boris and Anna’s family in town, tons of activities, and all I said before about mom, and tons of work.

There will be pictures 🙂

Mom Passed The Citizenship Test!

Today was the day! I took my mom to 101 W Ida Wells Drive, ad we passed through security which is more strict than in the airports. And I forgot about that and had to throw my scissors into the garbage (same as when I came for my citizenship test fifteen years ago!)

The security guard on the second floor was so helpful and reassuring – I can’t even describe it! Still, we waited for about twenty minutes past my mom’s interview time until we were finally called in.

Mom was very nervous and could not understand many of the questions when they were spoken (even though I was allowed to repeat them to her), but the officer was exceptionally patient and waited. At some point, when my mom said she would better understand it in writing, she printed the questions, and my mom could read them and reply.

It looks like most senior people apply for a medical exemption. I thought my mom would be upset if I asked her doctor for a note that she was unfit to take the test, but apparently, it’s not a big deal for most people.

Mom had to take a real test with randomly selected questions, and she had to answer correctly six questions out of ten, and she did nine, so I am very proud of her! It turned out she studied all the questions, not only the ones I’ve circled. I didn’t know the questions would be selected by a computer, not by a human!

Then she did reading and writing tests, which was easy for her, and then the officer asked her whether she was willing to take an oath of allegiance, and she forgot what the word oath meant. So the officer showed her a tablet with the oath, and she started to read it very slowly, and then for the second time. I was freaking out because that’s what I was freaking out about even earlier – it’s a pretty strong language, but she nodded approvingly to each of the statements since they all would end with “if required by the law.”

So, after all, she passed the test and signed everything, but the story is not over yet! Even though we tried twice, her fingerprints didn’t turn out legible, so now we need to obtain police clearance from all the places she lived (fortunately, only two!) But it looks like it has to be a real paper, and we need to go in person to get it, so I do not expect her to take the oath before August.

Still- it’s amazing!