Well, you said it yourself. I have been back in the States a little over a year, and since my daughter was born two days after Christmas that meant I missed (by about 2 weeks) the first Christmas AND birthday of which she was actually sensible. SHE has dual citizenship, but my wifes visa is still pending and in its preliminary stage (in fact, I had just gone to the USCIS website to see what dates they are currently processing when I saw this response.) Hopefully she will be here soon, but you may have heard there is a new sheriff in town and he despises Foreigns (except the ones who illegally enter, illegally work and then marry him. ) Plus most of the State Dept. staff that has not quit in disgust has been fired instead, and we have to jump through all the Homeland Security hoops before her visa application will even REACH the State Dept. If/when we get that far though we will only be several thousand dollars, a medical exam and an embassy interview from reuniting my family. The good news is the Visa Waiver Program allowed her and my daughter to visit THIS Christmas, so I got to enjoy her third birthday; the bad news is the EO that banned visa for seven countries also announced a review of the Visa Waiver Program with the intent of ending it, so unless my wifes visa is approved by NEXT Christmas it will probably be ILLEGAL for her to even visit. And since the Visa Waiver Program is a reciprocal treaty, it will probably be illegal for me to visit THEM without a visa as well.

So kept happy and out of trouble... well, as you say; some days you get the bear, some days the bear gets you.