Our last Financial Hurdle per Visa
I met Hannah through a partnered ministry through facebook in 2008. After about a year we both started conversing back and forth. She was in college working on her degree in physics. Since I worked nights and she was 13 hours ahead this made it easy for us to chat online. Over the course of the next 8 months our chats got longer, our friendship became stronger, and soon we realized we were falling in love. I started courting Hannah August 11, 2010. I have flown to the Philippines to meet her and be with her in person twice since we started dating. I proposed to her April 11, 2012.
Read more of our story from Hannah's blog here!
Hannah is a government scholar in the Philippines through out her undergraduate and graduate studies. She graduate cum laude in her B.S. physics program in 2009. Through many trials, hardships, and many tears she graduated with a masters degree in 2014. Scholars are meant to return service after they graduate equal to the amount of years they enjoyed the scholarship before they can leave the country. In 2012 the Philippine President lifted the ban on scholars allowing them to travel outside the country.
We were under the impression this meant when she graduated that we could move her here. With this in mind we moved forward starting the K1(fiance) Visa process in September of 2014. Our case was expidited rather quickly. This has already been a very expensive process. Everything had been going smoothly with no issues until she had her interview with the U.S. Embassy. The interview went exceptionally well. However, this is where we found that the government program will not allow her to leave the country.
The terms are simple either she works it off or pays it off. She did one year of work service in 2011 that still leaves her 5 more years to do return service or pay it off. The total amount is now lowered to roughly $18,000. T̶h̶e̶ ̶e̶m̶b̶a̶s̶s̶y̶ w̶o̶n̶'̶t̶ ̶c̶l̶o̶s̶e̶ ̶o̶u̶r̶ ̶c̶a̶s̶e̶ t̶i̶l̶l̶ ̶J̶a̶n̶u̶a̶r̶y̶ 2̶0̶1̶6̶.̶ ̶T̶h̶i̶s̶ ̶g̶i̶v̶e̶s̶ ̶u̶s̶ ̶j̶u̶s̶t̶ ̶u̶n̶d̶e̶r̶ ̶1̶ ̶y̶e̶a̶r̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶r̶a̶i̶s̶e̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶f̶u̶n̶d̶s̶ ̶a̶n̶d̶ b̶e̶g̶i̶n̶ ̶o̶u̶r̶ ̶m̶a̶r̶r̶i̶a̶g̶e̶ ̶j̶o̶u̶r̶n̶e̶y̶.̶
UPDATE: The Embassy has said that so long as we keep them informed with each and every update and status they will not close our case. This way if we can not reach the $18,000 then Hannah can work for the next 2 years while we raise the $5,000 for her Undergraduate years.
We look foreward to the generosity of those who are willing to help me bring Hannah here. Will you you please consider supporting us? We give thanks to God. We give thanks to you for ANY amount that you can give. We will truly appreciate it. My heart is longing for the day that she is here and we can say "I do".
Thank you and God Bless!
P.S. If you can't afford anything at least. Would you please be willing to share this so that someone else might?
