They say the third time is a charm - and I am on my third application - pending for about 3 years. The previous two times (first in 2001, the company went bankr

They say the third time is a charm - and I am on my third application - pending for about 3 years. The previous two times (first in 2001, the company went bankrupt. The second time in about 2003, but I left the company after a couple of years). Sometimes, it is just a matter of luck. There was one in 1998 (when suddenly everyone got "current" and could move on with life). Then, there was a period in 2000-to-mid-2001 when the whole process took less than a year (for even high-demand countries like Mexico, India and China). There was a recent event (in July/August of 2007) - but that was only a partially-lucky event since many bad things happened after that.