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suppose after a long time my friend has come to my house. Can I welcome him saying 'Hey bro, what's up? I have been waiting for your visit for a long time. Nice to see you again.'? Should I use 'have been waiting' or 'was waiting' in the sentence?

user254288
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    Possible duplicate of ["Has been" vs "was"](https://ell.stackexchange.com/questions/102686/has-been-vs-was). Also [What is the difference between “I was there” and “I have been there”?](https://ell.stackexchange.com/questions/18124/), [Was vs Has been](https://ell.stackexchange.com/questions/102686/), [“was created” vs “has been created”](https://ell.stackexchange.com/questions/89604/), and doubtless many more. – FumbleFingers Sep 02 '17 at 17:05

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I have been waiting for your visit for a long time is correct in this case since the present perfect continuous tense is used when the focus is on an activity that is unfinished till to the present ( the moment when you see your friend). But the past continuous tense is used to talk about something which continued before and after another action in the past. For example: The children were doing their homework when I got home.