On a recent market trip 45 minutes from home, a rainstorm sent my wife and I looking for shelter, so we gave Srey-Yuu's SuperCub an oil change.
🧑🔧 A Useful Pit-Stop 🏍️
The nearest town here in the Cardamom Mountains with a proper market full of fruit and vegetable sellers is 45 minutes away. We usually go once a week in the tuk-tuk as a family or just my wife and I on our classic SuperCub 90. On this day though we took Srey-Yuu's modern SuperCub 50 because it has 4 gears, it's fuel-injected and covers long distances better despite it's tiny engine. A surprise rainstorm sent us looking for an awning, and we drove right into a moto shop, so I guess it was Srey-Yuu's lucky day to get an oil change.
🐈⬛ Meanwhile At Home....
Sometimes Chairwoman Meow devours geckos and mice inside our home, and although it's not a big deal for me to do some occasional cleanup, my daughters prefer to keep their door shut to prevent any cat messes. On this day they apparently left their room door open, and of course Meow helped herself to the forbidden. When we arrived home we entered the house and this is the scene I found my daughters' bedroom, a nesting cat carefully camouflaged inside a dresser.
Chairwoman Meow is my shadow during the day, but she's usually on the floor nearby or on my lap. For whatever reason though, lately she's shown extreme interest in ASEAN Hive curation wor, or perhaps just interest in preventing me from doing it. Either way she never sleeps on the table, so this move was out of character for her, but I guess a cat is always testing new locations and textures.
She is a pleasant distraction and super preggo at the moment. These pics are from April 29th, and as I rebound from my Hive hiatus I hope to bring you back into present day content. My little innocent kitty is already on her way to motherhood, but hopefully after this batch of kittens we can make a road trip and get Chairwoman Meow spayed. It's not easy to find good homes for kittens in rural Cambodia, and hard enough already to make sure they don't end up as food.
🛃 US Visa Interview Fail 🙅♂️
After 5 years of fighting our way through the US immigration process, I finally managed to get an interview date for my wife in Phnom Penh. Unfortunately she failed her interview and the US Embassy seems unwilling to communicate with me via email, phone, or in-person visits for the last 4 months.
For this reason we have reached another dead-end, and now they won't grant my daughters interview dates or reschedule my wife another date. I really hate my country for things like this because we only want to visit for a few weeks, but we have to live through so many years of stress and struggling just to get some ink on a piece paper that allows us to magically cross an imaginary line.
🔥 Pensive Campfire Cat 🐈⬛
After our failed US visa interview, we turned around and headed away from Phnom Penh back to the Cardamom Mountains. I needed to sit around a fire for a night to clear my mind and relieve some of the frustration I feel towards the US Embassy and the whole unrealistic immigration process. My cat loves a good fire too, and if there is roasted corn involved she can eat half of a cob by herself. It's now three and a half months since the failed interview and I've called and emailed consistently ever since that day, but not a single thing has changed. It would be exponentially easier for my family to visit me here in Cambodia, but 'Mericans don't really travel well.
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I also had my share of visa rejections: for Canada and South Korea. Japan was generous, the embassy gave me 3 single-entry visas until I got my 4th but a multiple-entry visa. Fortunately, the Japan ME visa gave me hope for an entry to the EU. Are your parents sponsoring the visas?
Visas are such a nightmare, and I've always avoiding traveling to and financially supporting countries who have a visa system that discriminates against poor people. This has caused me to find so many countries neglected by mainstream tourism like Albania, Ecuador, and Suriname.
My stepdad is the co-sponsor, but because my history in the USA is one of poverty and my wife was born in Thailand without Thai documents, this has caused us countless problems. We only want to visit the USA for a few weeks to see family, but we're forced to do the immigration process because the tourist visa is even more impossible for us due to the wealth requirements.
Ah yes, same problem by most Filipinos. At least I need to be employed, a taxpayer of my country, have a bank account, and other proof of ties in my country. It can be a little impressive if I am also a well-traveled individual. Most of my visa applications, I need to show 100,000 PHP in my bank account or about 1,700 USD. I never asked my husband to sponsor me a visa because it's more difficult with all the required docs. I tried my luck with the help of Japan visa though. If you have a registered business in your country under your wife's name, that would be helpful. That would be her proof of ties to her country. Do you own a few properties under her name or vehicles/car?
It's so pleasing when you discover a place that you want to visit and the place has a sensible visa policy and fees. Unfortunately we don't have a business license in either of our name's, no car, just a tuk-tuk, some cheap motorbikes and a tiny piece of land, not even close to the amount of wealth required for the American tourist visa.
It's really hard to start a business here in Cambodia. It now costs several thousand dollars a year in taxes, fees, and licenses, to do this, so most ordinary people in Cambodia operate an unlicensed business. We could get a tourist visa to Albania, just outside the EU, but I don't think my family would meet us there despite it being a very friendly and safe country.
Oh, that's sad. Yeah, it would have been easier if you could meet halfway.
It's so sad that the US Visa interview fails and the process surely frustrates you, but just keep going, and I know that one day, it will be granted to your wife and your children.
Thanks to Chairwoman meow, she's always there to cheer you up! 🥰
I used to have hope, but I must admit it's starting to fade after 5 years. I would like to pursue a tourist visa to Belize, the Bahamas, or Portugal's Azores Islands to give my parents one more chance to visit us without traveling far. Shame my oldest daughter is 15 and never got to share her childhood with my parents. Sometimes I think she'll have a family of her own before she ever meets her American grandparents.
I'm sorry that the interview didn't workout. I understand the "why can't they just put down that ink so we can cross that imaginary line", and the answer to that is always about the money. Sad but true.
Agree my friend.
Money, money, money, you're right. On paper we meet all the qualifications, but my legal history in the USA shows that I lived in poverty while barely being able to take care of myself working 60 hours a week. I can assume the government doesn't believe I have the income and job I have declared because I am unqualified and uneducated to make enough money to maintain a family of 4 in the USA. On paper everything is legit though, I just regret working cash-under-the-table jobs in the USA because I have very little tax and income history.
Or get an LLC to declare all your income and expenses under the company. Make sure total "profit" below certain tax bracket, that actually help you to become "poor" and still legit for 100k business loan
Haha, love it. I am such an idiot with stuff like that. I am just a countryside farmboy with little bureaucratic experience. I hadn't ever even filed taxes until I realized we were going to try and get a US visa. Tax documents are required for that, but my whole life in the USA I worked alongside illegal aliens, mostly Mexicans, for "cash-under-the-table," not knowing it would complicate my future adult life.
Oh wow! I wonder why they rejected her visa. I hope she can eventually get the visa and you guys could travel/move to the US
They hardly ever provide a clear reason for a visa denial, and even though she is technically allowed to know the reason and schedule another interview, they won't answer the phone or respond to our emails anymore. I have asked for a refund despite that not being possible per the agreement I signed when I started the visa process. We just want to visit for 2 weeks, but it doesn't seem right to go through 5 years of hell for it.
Yeah, there has to be a clear reason as to why she's denied her visa. I mean, she could reapply right? have thought about hiring immigration lawyer to deal with that?
Immigration lawyers are too expensive, and we could barely afford the visa fees. I decided to take the process on myself because the website made it appear easy and able to do by oneself. I had also talked to other Americans that did it by themselves, but they are taxpaying professionals with businesses, property, a pleasing tax an income history for the government, etc.
In the USA I never made enough income to take care of myself working 60 hours a week, so there's no chance I could make the required 125% of poverty for a family of 4 that would be required by the US government. The whole thing is stupid, Americans complain about illegal immigration while also maintaining one of the most difficult, slow, expensive, and inefficient immigration processes in the world.
I honestly think so too. They have massive illegal immigration problem but also creates difficult barriers to those who want to come legally.
Sorry for that my friend. There is a reason why but don't give up. God bless your family. Have a happy life now.
Thank you, I would like to visit the USA with my family, but the visa process has consumed thousands of hours of my time over the last 5 years. It would be so much easier for my parents to fly to Cambodia, but they would rather roll the dice on possibly never meeting my wife and kids due the US visa process. We already traveled to the western hemisphere once to make it easier for them, but we got stranded for three years during the pandemic, hahaha.
I hope everything will be alright and they will got chance to see US too. Yes, your parent can do it but your family coming to US is the best, if ever I wish they can study there. It is so disgusting that some people from other countries enjoy the benefits of better education while you US citizen's family will not enjoy it.
How many niece and nephew of my boss finished their study in US. Even some of my cousin from Philippines they studied in US while parents are Filipinos. I feel you my friend but don't lost your hope, it will be granted.🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻Amen!!!
It is a shame, we honestly just want to visit a few weeks. My area in the USA has very bad schools, high cancer rates due to pesticides and coal burning power plants. Also, it is in Tornado Alley, a place where property is cheap, but also each year is like the rolling the dice with your life during tornado season.
It was far cheaper and easier for me to escape poverty by coming to Cambodia with only $500 in my pocket and starting a new life than it would be to try and move to California. In my state I can only save $1,000 USD per year working 60 hours a week, so it would take many years to just to save up a few months rent and a deposit to move to a rich part of the USA. I know it seems crazy, most Cambodians don't believe me either, but my quality of life is so much higher in Cambodia.
I would much prefer my family to come to Cambodia and visit us. I think people here have more time for friendships and relationships, hanging out, but in the USA work and money is always a priority, so everyone is distracted, busy, stressed out, in debt, sick, etc. But if we ever get the visas, when our visit is over, I will let them decide if they want to pursue a life in the USA or not. If not, they'll have green cards, and we can use those to access many other new countries around the world.
Thank you my friend 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻 bless
Yes, agree with you and my relatives are living in New York so they have good quality education. I understand what is your desire and the desires of your family. What is the better plan from God will be given to you and you are well respected in Cambodia.
sorry to hear that, administration process will be tiring. Hope your daughter will have another chance
I hope so too, I am so ashamed to be American when I see how inhumane and disrespectful our visa process is. In Suriname we were given full family rights and visas within a few months of our arrival, so much more welcoming than the USA.
Hope all is well with you and your family for visa. Keep going friend. Have a great day.
Thank you my friend, 5 years and still very little progress, but it's just a reminder why I no longer live in the USA.