My application has seen more of this country than I have in the past year. I am happy since I know that the California office works much faster than the Vermont office. I am annoyed however, that my application went to the Vermont office of USCIS twice, where absolutely nothing happened to it. I am glad that they finally mailed it to an office that knows what the hell they are doing, but I found out that in early August, people that sent their petitions in November and December of 2007 to the Vermont office had already been transferred to the California office, so I am further behind than they are, even though I submitted earlier. I also found out through the website visajourney.com, that the California office had already processed people's applications that were submitted in March, April and May of this year. There is a line on the USCIS's website that goes: To be fair to all our customers, we process cases that are the same type based on the order of when they were filed. I certainly have found that not to be the case, but the sentiment is nice.

Living on the wrong coast and submitting my paperwork in October were two fatal errors on my part. I guess now that they have sent all of last year's applications to California, the Vermont office will have more room at their desks for rolling papers and tubs of Ben and Jerry's ice cream. So my advice to anyone that marries someone from another country would be to move west of the Mississippi River. The USCIS office in Vermont just can't be bothered to process you.