The Immigration Process

We have been trying to get Miguel's FOIA for a little over 2 years now. For some reason, CBP never responds. The most I have seen is "under agency review." We are going to file FBI fingerprints soon, and go ahead and get started on the I-130. I didn't want to get started until we were sure that his CBP record had no expedited deportations, but 2 years is too long.

I plan to file the I-130 in August, and hope things go fast. I have seen online that it is moving faster than before.

Now we are stuck in another dilemma, whether to stay here, put the kids in school in Texas, or us go back to GA and put the kids in school in GA so they won't have to change schools again when he gets his visa. 

The kids prefer GA, but I don't really like the idea of being a 1000 miles away from Miguel for 9 months at a time. We will be renting my grandmother's basement, and she has said that she will get the kids to school and take care of them so I can come visit Miguel, but I am not so sure about this. I need to figure it out. I really need to think about the pros and cons of being there. Everything was fine before, but Miguel and I fought a lot. It was usually me who was fighting too, so I need to work on that. I have a great support system in GA with my grandmother, her husband, and my sister. My sister and I don't see eye to eye most times, but she really likes Miguel and loves the kids, so she tends to help out a lot when I am there and need help. I just need to get an online job again, and all will be good. 

If we stay here, we will be with Miguel daily, of course. The kids will go to school in Texas, but I will have to rent an apartment or something in Texas too. Plus, we would stay in Matamoros with Miguel most nights so that would mean getting the kids up at 4am so they would be ready to leave by 5:30 to avoid waiting in line for 2-3 hours at the border. I can't find a job here, I have been here almost 3 months and nothing. Miguel is working out-of-town so we never see each other anyway. I love our home here, but I don't know what to do.

Update: I started writing this post 3 days ago. We have more or less decided to stay here, and apply. I will be renting a house in Brownsville in August. We will be staying in Brownsville Monday night through Friday morning, and in Matamoros Friday afternoon until Monday morning. Miguel will continue to work out of town, so we will be in Matamoros at the same time. I will just have to cross some during the week to take care of our pitbull who will stay at our Matamoros house. The good thing is she won't be lonely, Miguel's cousin lives right down the street from us, so he will visit and care for her the days we aren't here.