B’Day, Voice Chat, and Visa Info
Another special day!! 
We celebrated last night, along with Mother’s Day, with our friends at one of their home. It was quite nice.
Today, we were waiting for my nani (maternal grandmother) and my two mamas (mother’s brothers) to call from Mumbai. Ran into my little cousin on Yahoo Messenger, and we ended up just voice chatting with everyone. It was great fun, and it was really nice to see my Mumma enjoying so wonderfully! I was pretty impressed how clear their voices were — couldn’t even believe that we were across the world! Anyway, hopefully tomorrow we will be able to voice and photo chat — they are going to try to find their webcam. 
Today Neeraj had gone to the US Consulate’s office in Mumbai once more. He had to drop off STEP 1 in Packet 3, which was a form (DS-230, I think 
) and some photos of his passport. 
So now what is next? Well, he has a checklist that we are going through which is basically below. He needs to confident that he has all of these things and then send the checklist back to the US Consulate. Then they will send him Packet 4 which will have his interview appointment letter.
Here are things that he needs to make sure that he has:
PASSPORT: - each applicant must have a valid passport. BIRTH CERTIFICATE: - each applicant must submit an original and clear photocopy of his/her birth certificate and any required seconday evidence POLICE CERTIFICATE: - each applicant aged 16 years and older must submit a police certificate that includes information regarding the applicant including all arrests, the reason for the arrest(s), and the disposition of such cases. Indian citizens residing in India for six months or more since turning 16 yrs of age must present Indian police clearance certificates from both their district police station and the local area passport office DEPORTATION, PRISON RECORDS, MILITARY RECORDS, TERMINATION OF PREVIOUS MARRIAGE - these all are needed but doesn’t apply to us. EVIDENCE OF RELATIONSHIP TO THE PETITIONER: - We strongly suggest that all applicants bring extensive documentary of the relationship between the petitioner and the primary beneficiary. AFFADAVIT OF SUPPORT: - Following forms the petitioner needs to provide for the beneficiary: I-134 (Affadavit of Support), Documentary evidence that the petitioner is a US citizen, Federal tax returns with all supporting schedules for the most recent taxable year, W-2 form for the most recent taxable year, job letter or pay stubs, and bank letter.
There is a lot that we have to do. 
After a while its exhausting. We are running into so many problems its just unbelievable. Which problems??? Where to start.
Well, Neeraj doesn’t have a birth certificate. 
His family has no record of his birth. So that means we have to do other stuff in order to fulfill that requirement. We have to ask the village authorities/mantri people in his hometown to write a statement saying that they, the village authorities, do not have any record of Neeraj Verma’s birth. Then we have to ask Neeraj’s elder brother to notarize a statement saying that he was present at Neeraj’s birth, and that he is the son of (Neeraj’s parents’ names), he was born on this date at this place, and his relationship with him is that Neeraj is his younger brother. Geez!!! Anyway, so Neeraj is sending all of these information to his brother by SpeedPost tomorrow. So that should be done as soon as his brother receives the info.
Then police certificates. We are still looking for the phone number/email IDs of the District Police Office in Kanpur. Neeraj finally hit a bright idea 
today that he will look on BSNL’s website, and well enough, he found some numbers! So he will call them tomorrow to see if they can tell him how long its going to take, what’s the procedures, etc… Tomorrow he will also call Mumbai’s Police Office to find out what is the status on his Mumbai Police Certificates…
Then we have to get Passport Clearance Certificates. 
We are still confused on where to get these so we are still enquiring whether he is able to get it in Mumbai (where the queue line is out of the door — Neeraj went today and saw ) or if he has to get them at the office that issued his passport — Lucknow. So hopefully that will be resolved tomorrow.
I am still waiting on my company’s letter that I am an employee of their company so that I can send the rest of the papers to Neeraj. I have to get one of the forms (I-134) notarized but that should be a snap.
Phew. Really, I don’t expect anyone to read this huge, long, fat post (other than Neeraj of course 
), but its really for our own benefit that we can look back at all of this crap if we need to.
Gone for now…back to more email sending to the consulate and passport people.
Alvida. Jai Mata Di.
…
May 9th, 2005 at 8:10 pm
hey…
My wishes to ur Mum.
And yes… I’m like u, a new fan of voicechat n webcam. I gotta get a mic though, but yeah my webcam has been lying around for ages n I never used it!
And I can totally sympathise with your consulate ordeal… I am sorta starting with the same thing here in Oz. So…. *sigh* it will be a while. BTW - why cant u guys just get a new Birth certificate made from sumwhere! I’m sure they can do stuff like that in India. :D
May 9th, 2005 at 11:58 pm
Happy B’day to your Mum!! :)
And, yeah gear up for one more chat on this saturday!! Let’s send a mail to everybody.. maybe they will respond faster.. and finalize the timings!! 9pm IST looks ok to me!!
May 10th, 2005 at 1:57 am
Hullo… I read the whole post besides you and Neeraj
Sach main..kitna lafda hai visa kaa toh. But I guess we have to work hard for what we need. Aur ab yeh birth certificate ka chakkar..the things they make you do to get together with your loved one. Main toh soch rahi hoon kisi aur coountry main bhaag jau hahaha..Mera toh KITNE saal ke baad hoga pata nahi :(
Good luck with all this.
And Birthdya wishes again to your mumma. Yes yes I am a fan of voice chat too..AUr yeh Manpreet kya keh raha hai? Another bloggers meet? kidhar?
May 10th, 2005 at 3:08 am
hey.. Kaush.. sorry eh.. couldn’t join you guys for the meet.. was in bombay… completly forgot abt it :(
I’m not able to visit ur site.. its not opening here.. dunno why.. just a blank page pops up!!
Regarding bloggers meet check out
May 10th, 2005 at 3:09 am
again my comment went into moderation…
May 10th, 2005 at 7:29 am
Hello
Seems there are lot of formalities to be completed… and they sound a little complicated too. good luck
So which software you use for Voice Chatting:?:
Lastly, please email us the cake
May 10th, 2005 at 8:20 am
Poonam, once again hearty wishes to ur mom :)
seems too many problems with the formalities… anyway, do it carefully…
Neeraj might be all geared up for this… :)
May 10th, 2005 at 10:24 am
Thanks Manpreet!
Yup I am all set for it. 9 PM IST on Saturday. Good idea about the mail.
I will put it up on the blog as well. 
Ha. Thanks Kaush for reading the whole post.
Yes there is sooo many loopholes…its just crazy. I just talked to Neeraj on the phone and even the police certificate in Kanpur is going to take atleast five days and charging us 2500 rupees!! 
Its just nuts! Its paperwork yaar, and they are charging so much! 
Anyway, we really don’t have a choice. We are now trying to figure out how to work out his Kanpur trip. Soooo much to do my god its crazy!!
Thanks Manpreet for giving the link.
Kaush, Manpreet has it setup for Saturday at 9 pm IST which is 11.30 am EST (on Saturday). Hope you can make it! 
Manpreete, stick to one email ID. Don’t keep changing back and forth…you will confuse my blog.
Anyway, it didn’t go into moderation because I had no comments there to approve. 
It is complicated Ankur. At times I think that we need a lawyer.
**hint hint** **nudge nudge** 
I use Yahoo Messenger’s voice chatting capabilities these days.
I sometimes use AOL/MSN as well..but Yahoo is quite good. 
Emailing you the piece of cake.
Thanks Prasad once more!:smile: Very sweet of you to say.
We are both geared up for this and putting 110% effort into getting all of the visa crap right.
We will be finally able to breathe once everything is over. 
May 10th, 2005 at 10:52 am
hey birthday wishes to ur mom, and yaad hai na Poonam u r supposed to give her my greetings personally.
mere liye plz cake courier kara dena, my college is in a jungle and we dont get such things here. ab exams mein toh city mein jaane ka bhhi time nahin hai.
May 10th, 2005 at 11:09 am
Anyway, by the time you will receive the cake, it will not even be cake anymore.
It is better that you buy the pastry from there and eat it on our behalf. 
Or come to the US, and then we will treat u.
May 10th, 2005 at 11:25 am
ek baari engineer ban jane do mujhe, aaonga zarror dekhne ke liye ki yeh amreeka kis chidiya ka naam hai!!!!!
May 10th, 2005 at 1:01 pm
hey couple :)
how are you :D
dun u forget to include my name in wedding guest’s list :D
good luck :)
pranshu
May 10th, 2005 at 1:54 pm
Arre tere ko kaise bhul sakte hain Pranshu ji??
Good to see you back @ our site. 
Aate rehna. 
May 11th, 2005 at 12:01 am
Poooooooooooooonam ! hmmm… just spoke to ur better half rt now… i wish i had read this post earlier coz i had gone to the passport ofc just yest and i had seen these boards ab pcc… neways spoke to him ab it… hopefully it will b done soon… only prob is since he is outta town they take 8 days !
o pls invite me for the OBM this sat… i shall b there… kunals75@yahoo.com bholna mat ! neways i shall remind u…
btw how did he get a passport without the birth certi ?
getting visas for an indian is a hell of a task :(
neways all the best…
May 11th, 2005 at 1:31 am
May 11th, 2005 at 9:46 am
See the new post for all of the details for the OBM!
It will be great to talk to you after a long time on Saturday!