I've felt that way a lot lately. I find that my latest coping strategy has been to just take a few deep breaths and close my eyes for a minute. It doesn't necessarily help the situation the way I wish it would, but I figure it's better for me than not breathing.

Let go --

For what it's worth, I've found (when dealing with UK and Australian departments) that the citizen gets a much better response in these matters than does the applicant. "What's up with my application?" gets the "we're dealing with it response" but "I'm trying to plan x, can you tell me how my spouse's application is going?" gets a much more helpful response.

You've probably tried that though, and my experiences with both systems were quite some time ago. Good luck.

Oh yeah, when things are out of my hands I tend to try everything I can to get them back in my hands, and to talk to every single person I encounter about the problem. So I'm keen to see what (healthier) suggestions you get too.

Thanks, bunnies!

GeckoDundee -- I'm the USC, so I'm the one calling the State Department. It's funny -- every operator gives me a slightly different response, but it pretty much boils down to "it is being processed." Although it really should have been finished by now. Gah!

I'll just keep calling. The DoS did say not to worry about the application expiring, though.

MissLynster, I will keep breathing to try to keep centered. miko, I will let go until it's time for me to panic, lol.