Technology and Staying in Touch

[Butterfly123 5]

Hi everyone.

This site has always been so helpful to me, since the beginning of my 'visa journey'. Please forgive me for asking this question, but I am tired of wracking my brains and figured you would be the people to ask.

My fiance and I are not so far from the end of our K-1 process (it has moved to the embassy stage, but delayed in gathering documents). I am moving into a new apartment this month, and so far I don't have internet in my new place. I also have a "dumb phone". He and I have mostly kept in touch by Skype and email rather than phone.

I have been wracking my brains trying to figure out the cell phone and data plan options, etc, to help me stay in touch with him. I am working long hours right now, so rarely am at home. Can anyone share with me what they found to be economical for international calling/texting/skype from a cell phone? What companies have best plans for that kind of thing? I have never had a smart phone. Please forgive me if the question sounds dumb, but I always did everything from my laptop. Now, I'd like to have a mobile way to stay in touch, since I am not home in my apartment much these days.

I've looked at so many companies but I honestly can't figure it out. Do I need a hotspot? Is there anyway to phone Algeria from my cell phone without it costing an arm and leg? Can I make face-to-face calls on a phone to Algeria, and if so, what kind of a plan do I need to get? What does he need to have?

I am sorry for asking these dumb questions, but no one I know does much internationally. All the information I get confuses me more. If anyone can make good recommendations, I would appreciate it.

[shahara2013 16]

Keku.com

Or get verizon and skype from your phone

[steftlin 10]

I used Vonage which includes free mobile calling through the extension app. But It looks like Algeria isn't one of the "free" countries....

http://www.vonage.com/personal/phone-plans/country/Algeria

We also use the free calling from Line app which has voice and video capabilities. Other options include google voice and doing google+ hangouts

[Pitaya 2,576]

~Moved from K1 Process to General Immigration-Related Discussion Forum~

~Applicable to numerous immigration processes~

[trublubu2 62]

Hi everyone.

Is there anyway to phone Algeria from my cell phone without it costing an arm and leg? Can I make face-to-face calls on a phone to Algeria, and if so, what kind of a plan do I need to get? What does he need to have?

If anyone can make good recommendations, I would appreciate it.

hi there,

this is what i use to make my long distance calls: http://www.nobelcom.com/

you can add as much money as you want and they tend to have %-off for new customers and for sales. also, i find it better for me to call from cell to cell as the rates are cheaper. check and see what the situation is for africa as i'm calling the caribbean.

best of luck to you!

[Megan & Luke 93]

Even though the UK is much easier to get in touch with by all sorts of ways, this is what I ended up with:

1. Fiance and I have iPhones so it's quite easy to do text messaging for free that way with iMessage.

2. I have unlimited Sprint data.

Both of those may not be available to you... so there's also this:

3. Skype international phone number - I pay for a phone number in the UK which is attached to my Skype account. My fiance can call this number and since it is local for him, no charges. I pay $18.00 every three months for that and you can choose your own phone number. (http://www.skype.com/en/features/online-number/) - not sure if Algeria is available here.. if not, maybe another service can offer it that is similar

4. Skype minutes - I also pay for a plan monthly $7.99 which offers me 120 minutes of calling to the UK. This will probably vary based on country, but there's also that option. Personally with both if we didn't have the iPhone we could practically talk each day for free. (http://www.skype.com/en/rates/#scom) - Algeria is definitely available for this, just search by country

Since you are the one with the international number for accepting calls but not making them, it's more ideal for your fiance to call YOU since it would be a local number to him. You can use the Skype minutes to call him instead. This overall is much cheaper than an international phone plan most likely, but check those out through your carrier. Some offer unlimited. If you are on your mobile at the time, this may use data - not sure how much but it's a lot less than using the Skype app to webcam it up with your fiance.

A good thing my fiance and I realized about my Skype international number is that we can keep it once he moves so his family can easily get in touch with him for free. It will ring to either your desktop Skype app or your phone - you can set up call forwarding to send it to your mobile phone after a certain amount of time at no extra charge.

You can also try WhatsApp which lets you record voice or video, send pictures and text messages and I believe call as well.

Hopefully the rest of your journey goes really fast so you don't have to worry about this much longer!

Edited December 4, 2014 by Megan & Luke

[Wooderz 314]

Back in the day (2008-2009) before fiance and I both had iPhones, I used old school calling cards to call for like cents on the dollar. I bought them from a website called ComFi. They had tons of options and worked pretty well for us for a good couple years. We eventually both upgraded to blackberrys when they were cool and used BBM and now iMessage on our data plans.

Look into calling cards that would allow you to voice call your fiancé.

To do video chats you'll need a wifi connection, a data plan, or a public place with free wifi and a pair of headphones (unless you want everyone to hear both sides of your conversations lol). Fiance and I spent another year or 2 using Starbucks wifi during my lunch breaks at work to Skype.

Those 2 things made our relationship work for several years. Now we just iMessage all day and facetime probably only once a week. We wouldn't have made it without the calling card and Skype though.

[whiteyadam 4]

Facebook messenger!