heeelllloooo! Sorry not been around much, sorting all my stuff out, packing and keep getting dragged out by various friends and family members to "do this one last time!" GEEEEZ you'd think I was going to the moon and never coming back. Yeah I'm really going to miss everyone here but it's almost as if people think I'm dissappearing never to grace scottish shores again.

Anyways, just thought I'd drop by and say hello...18 days until my big move!!!

Congrats again on the upcoming move Debz! Inhale a deep breath of Scottish air for me before you step on that plane please. Every time I see a post from you, I think "I really need to book a trip to Scotland." Maybe Nadya and I will make that our first overseas stop when she's got AP.

oh, debz, i understand how you feel!
the last weeks before i left it my friends kept me busier than i expected..... i loved it, but it was exhausting.
but one thing i regret now is that i didn't keep all these wonderful moments in pictures, as i always forgot my camera.....


oh, and good news:
i got my name changed and my drivers license without any hassle

and i got a HUGE tax refund (huge for my little money) and now i can buy a new bicycle. SO EXCITED!!!!!!


FREE HUGS FOR EVERYBODY!!!

Hi Guys, haven't posted in a while but thought I would pop in for a minute!!!!

I just wanted to report in that Matthew and I were MARRIED on Saturday Feb 16th heart.gif in a beautiful ceremony! His parents and best mate came over from London for the wedding which was wonderful. We had about 35 people in a lovely old mansion here in Seattle. It was so perfect!!!! We have just returned from our honeymoon in Las Vegas (where we met while waiting for a taxi cab one year ago!!!)

Good luck to everyone in their journeys. I look forward to keeping up with all my July friends! This week we are working on our AOS stuff......ahhhhhhhhhhh

Sara

Well, my Aussie finally had his interview on Friday and passed with flying colors! He said it went extremely smoothly! They said everything looked in order, and they didn't even snicker at my income (which is decidedly below the level they want, however apparently my assets made up for the shortfall, thank god! Go savings account, go!)

We've got a flight booked for March 20, but I'm hoping that will be moved up a couple of weeks. There's really no reason to wait that long, since I think his boss is pretty peaved off that my sweetie is leaving after only about a month or so on the job. He feels that my sweetie's training was "a waste of time". Uhhhh, my sweetie is hoping to stay within the same (international) corporation, or at least in that field of work, so it wasn't a waste! It's too bad the guy couldn't have feigned a LITTLE bit of congratulations, considering he is an immigrant to Australia himself and should have a little sympathy for the process!

Anyway, now (just like everyone else) we have a wedding to plan, things to move, a job transfer to make for him, and all the other joys of moving someone's life from one part of the world to another - not to mention all the new paperwork we'll have to do when he gets here! (Just when I thought it was ok to take a breath, as we all are discovering, that breath is only short-lived! LOL!)

Hahaha - yeah I figured that would happen to most if not all of us - we get so bogged down with K-1 that AOS doesn't even come into the picture!!! I am hoping to figure it all out before we have our legal thing in August so I am not too worried about it yet but I am sure that will change once I move!!




CBR I can't believe you still haven't heard anything *hugs* I feel so far out of the system myself right now that it isn't even funny - having this time away has been great but part of me actually misses the process... or maybe it's just you guys I feel once again like things are moving around me and I don't even know about it because I am not on here and it is very frustrating!!!

Am leaving Hawaii on Monday (Tuesday in the UK ) and am in Cali for a few days before leaving there on Thursday and getting back to the UK on Friday. Am hoping to have a big thread catch-up on VJ when we are back on the mainland then that might be it until I am home. It's going to be sad to leave but it has been an amazing experience and I know that I only have four months or so before we are together again and don't have to be apart

Anyway - am off to check e-mails quickly while the wireless connection isn't being too temperamental!!! Massive hugs to everyone and I will try and catch up more in a few days

Welcome back Aly, it's nice to see your lovely...er...beanbag around here again!

And congrats LoveMyAussie, great news!!

So hello again everybody I had some troubles with the laptop so couldn´t post for a while again. I noticed Weedebz got her visa in the meantime, so congratulations So I finally managed to put some wedding pics up on the web so there you go you can take a look http://profile.imageshack.us/user/Starbuck17/ Hope you like it
Btw it´s been a month. We are very happy. I settled and am busy all the time doing lotsa different stuff - not working for money yet ofcourse though I hope and believe everyone who is having some troubles right now will be fine it just takes some time.
Hugz everyone

And also I am now officially a July filer too since Aly got me this special certificate, so there I can hang out here without being shout at

the photos are gorgeous. That dress is stunning.

I'm still getting driven mad with all the sorting, packing and getting dragged all over the place by people who want to take me here, take me there, do this and do that "just one last time". I'm not going that far away and I will be coming back occasionally! Just being kept really busy. 2 weeks tomorrow I'll be on my way to Nick. I can't wait!!

Congratualtions Marta!!! You look lovely! Thanks for sharing your pics!

Dangit, I can't see the pics. Might be a "work" thing, I'll try when I get home. But congrats all the same!!

congrats marta! BEAUTIFUL pictures!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What a beautiful bride! You look wonderful, thanks for sharing

hello all

I've been missing for a while, but not for any big reasons... just been ill, and busy, and away, and feeling a bit stalled in this whole process since we're back to 'nothing's happening' once again *heavy sigh*


anyway, just thought I'd put this slightly random thought out there -
I was talking to a friend the other day about a book we'd both read - she recommended it to me - called The Five Love Languages... I was VERY sceptical of it when she first gave it to me; I don't tend to read self-help books or similar, and this sounded impossibly twee... but she said I should persist, and I'm glad I did
now, to save you having to read it yourself, I'm just going to summarise the main points, on the off-chance that it might be of some use to people here; we're all going into a different phase of our relationships right now, so maybe some reflection might be helpful

the basic premise is that everyone understands love, and displays love, in different ways, and that if you generally show your love one way, when your partner's (or someone else; it's not just about romantic love) 'love language' is something different, then you're likely to run into trouble

the author splits the love languages into the following five:

1. Acts of Service (doing little jobs around the house, etc)

2. Quality Time (stopping everything else to spend time listening, or going somewhere, etc)

3. Words of Affirmation (verbalising the things you like; about their appearance, the way they do something etc)

4. Gifts (obvious! but not restricted to the expensive stuff )

4. Physical Touch (also obvious, but NOT always sexual! sometimes just a hand on the arm etc can be enough )

the idea is to think about how you best understand love, and how you demonstrate love to other people (often the same, but not always), and then to think about your partner, and what his/her main love language is

it's been so interesting talking to people about this; it seems so simple - simplistic, even - and yet sometimes it's so easy to miss... someone might go out of their way to always do the dishes and take out the garbage and vacuum once a week, but if their partner's love language is Quality Time, there might still be issues

anyway, that's a VERY brief summary, but I hope it's of use to some people... just thought it was worth sharing

You have been greatly missed StP. Glad to see you again.

It's interesting to see "love" (or to be more exact, displaying love) broken down like that. Seems to me like everyone would have their own sleep number type score in each of the categories. Figuring out our own and our partner's might help to setup and maintain a healthy relationship.

Congratulations Marta - awesome wedding pictures. You're beautiful!

Weedebz - CONGRATULATIONS on your approval in case I didn't say it earlier.

I have been away for a while from VJ - so much to do. Phil already received packet 3 and we have sent that off to the embassy - in fact he dropped it off when he arrived back home last week. We are just waiting now for the interview date. He already had the physical and is glad to have that over with.

How long between sending packet 3 in and getting an interview scheduled? Do they let you know by letter or can you go on line and check? Stupid questions again I know...

Phil's trip last week was uneventful through immigration. The only question they asked - "what do you do for a living?" That was it. He is planning a trip on March 15th if we don't have the interview by then. He has also extended his work and will retire on March 31st instead of February 29th. The plan was changed because he is going to Bangkok for his school reunion in April and will go back to England afterwards to get his belongings and head home on the K-1. So, he is trying to get one more trip to see me before the Bangkok trip. I have decided not to go as 40 hours on a plane in a weekend will be a bit much for me. It took me almost a month to get over Figi - can't imagine Bangkok!

Hope everyone is doing well - I have to check on CBR to see where she is...

Thanks everyone I got the dress in Czech

Concerning the book of Five love languages...it´s interesting. Though you can view love from many other angles like that. Like when somebody is just the giver or just the taker (of whatever...feelings, thoughts, gifts, fun, etc). I think people should try to find the balance in things. There are so many different people out there and each of them looks for or appreciates different qualities. Therefore it´s not that easy to find your match. The Five love languages is something that could be applied on friendships too I think. Same with the giver/taker...sometimes some people just seem to suck out of you all the time which can make you upset or something, but then if you look at the person from a different point of view then you can find a giver in him/her too...so it´s kinda complicated ;-)

you're exactly right, Marta

of course, there are many, many angles and ways to view relationships... I would never suggest this is the be-all and end-all, but I found it worthwhile enough to want to share it
and you're right, too, that this can be useful in friendships, and family relationships, and so on... when I fist started to discuss it with my friend we found it so illuminating to talk about our families, and mutual friends, and try to work out their LL

I guessed you got the dress in Czech... it reminded me of some of the exquisite work I've seen there
you truly do look SO beautiful in those photos, and Scott looks so happy!

Audrey - you can call the US DOS to see if Phil's interview has bee scheduled. US State Department: (202) 663-1225 - press 1, then 0. You should hear something in a few weeks, and maybe even sooner! I'm glad things are finally moving along for you guys!!!

And you can count me amongst those who are tired of the snow! As is Griff! He keeps asking when to expect spring weather and I keep telling him May. I think the weather is the thing he has the most difficulty coping with. Although, he's already adopting the true Buffalo attitude toward weather, so if its 30 degrees and sunny, he's like, "Its a gorgeous day! Not too cold today!", or "Well, at least we didn't get more snow last night" So, I think he'll survive.

that's how we found out

still nothing via snail mail

congratulations for the interview!!!!!

big news here: i have a job interview on friday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
the job isn't my dreamjob and the pay is only mediocre, but it would be a start!

FREE HUGS FOR EVERYBODY!!!!!!!!!!!

Congrats on the interview! I really hope you get the job!

I finally got Packet 3. The embassy sent it to the wrong address so it was delayed for a week whilst being redirected. I phoned NVC TWICE to ensure they had my new address and they even read it back to me. Grrr!

Anyway, I overnighted it to London. So, hopefully no more setbacks or delays.

that's great news, babblesgirl! one more thing off your mind

I'm a bit behind, Tucson... did you get the employment stamp at JFK? or is this an interview to start after you do AOS?

i went through JFK and got the stamp and applied for AOS 12 days after arriving here, so i hope that my EAD arrives before the stupid stamp expires.

i'm crashing in front of the TV since over 2h, unable to move or motivate myself to do anything *sigh*

thank you so much for sharing your wedding pictures... You are such a nice couple-.--

as for us.... our interview and medical had been today ..............and.......................

WE ARE APPROVED yeah its over (at least for now)

Oh congratulations!!!! What a relief it must be. Enjoy the feeling!

Hi Guys!!! Just wanted to report in that after several days of mad running around, Matthew now has a Social Security Number, a State ID card (so he doesn't have to carry his passport everywhere which made me soooooo nervous given it has the visa in it - God forbid it get lost!) and we were able to open joint bank accounts, and I legally changed my name on everything. I know many of you are headed towards these steps, so if you have any q's, you can PM me, I am here with recent experience!!!! We are filing AOS this week, so will keep you posted! oh, and if anyone is interested our photographer's website is www.kwardphoto.com and we are the pic on the home page!!!!
happy journeys to all!

oh wow, what a lovely wedding picture

By the way, just wanted to let everyone know that Kevin (KGSodie), Natasha, and Vika were approved on Feb 26 for their K-1 visa. (his post in the RU forum here.) A very, very warm congratulations to them all! If memory serves, they're coming back to the states on the 5th. In the meantime I hope they're having a wonderful time seeing the sites in Moscow!

Congrats Kevin!!!!

that is a gorgeous pic. Congrats again. I will probably be picking your brains in around 3 months



INDEED< a big congrats to Kevin and Natasha


I have just sent the main bulk of my money to Nick via interchangefx. Great exchange rate, the money should be in his account by wednesday. My money going to be there a week before I am!!!!

What a beautiful picture. You look gorgeous.

I may take you up on the post-arrival advice. I'm a bit nervous about being able to understand all that needs to be done on that side of the pond. Having got so used to the British way of things, it's actually one of the things about this whole process I am most daunted about.

KGSodie - Congratulations!

Gratz, Tuscon! I hope you get the job.

Well, P has been here for 2 months and he's leaving on Tuesday. We just got a house, opened a joint bank account, and paid the deposit on our wedding venue (August 1!!!!). His packet 3 has been sent back to Frankfurt and as soon as he gets home he'll get his police certs and send in the checklist and await his interview. Now we just have to wait for him to finish his thesis and get the Diplom. I feel like that part is going to be worse than the visa process. Wish us luck

If everything works out, he'll get his visa, his Diplom, and his plane ticket and be here mid-July, a couple of weeks before the wedding. I'm nervous about our impending 5 month separation, but hell, we've done it for 2 years, so we'll be fine.

Now, I have to hope he'll get a decent job when he gets here!

thanks for all the well wishes and congrats!

Warning: this is long, but hopefull really helpful!

just wanted to add that I am super glad we went in the order we did for his ID, SSN, etc and would recommend it to anyone! I know all states do things a little differently and maybe Washington is a bit strict (or not, I don't know), but while we had no problems getting his stuff, I saw people (recent immigrants) denied from improper evidence at every office we visited.

So, here is our order and experience:

Matthew arrived Jan 29th - no problems at POE in Seattle. took all of 10 minutes!

We applied for a marriage license Feb 4th for our Feb 16th wedding (only needed ID for both - his passport/visa and my driver's license) but had to be done at least 3

We married Sat Feb 16th and I stressed to our minister that we needed our marriage certificate filed with the records office as soon as possible. It was mailed (can be hand delivered too) to the courthouse/records office on Mon Feb 18th and we left for our honeymoon (returned Fri Feb 22nd)

Monday Feb 25th (one week after mailing) we went to the courthouse and purchased 5 CERTIFIED copies of our Marriage Certificate

Tues Feb 26th:
1st went to the Social Security Office to get his SSN. We needed to show his Visa, passport, certified marriage certificate and official birth certificate (I cannot recommend enough making sure your fiance comes over with several official certified copies of their birth certificate) With these docs, they processed his SSN right there on the spot and gave us a receipt saying the card had been ordered and would be mailed in 2 weeks. The receipt was KEY because it was an official document had his name and new address in the US printed on it proving his residence in Washington state which we needed for his State ID card at the department of licensing. They also told us we could come back to the social security office the next day to get a new receipt that had his actual SSN on it, which we did. It takes them 24 hours to assign the number, but this way we get the number before the card in 2 weeks and can use it to open bank accounts, sign him up for health insurance etc. (I changed my name at the same time only needed the marriage cert, my drivers license, and old SS card)

2nd went to the Dept. of Licensing for his State ID card (he does not drive yet!). There we had to take a number and wait for over an hour! Here we needed two forms of ID and proof of his state residency. We gave them his passport and visa, birth certificate, marriage certificate, and the printed receipt from social security showing his name and washington address. They accepted that as adequate proof and gave him the state ID card! YAY!! I also changed the name on my driver's at the same time. I do feel that it went more smoothly because we approached every window together with all of our evidence organized. A man at the next window was turned down for not having enough evidence to prove his residency in the state and told him to come back with a utility bill (water, electricity, gas) to prove that he lived here. I knew that they might require this so as a precaution I had called all my utility services and had Matthew added onto my accounts - we won't get any new statements showing his name until the March bills start coming in - but we didn't end up needing them.

Wed Feb 27th we returned to the Social Security office and picked up the receipt showing his name, address and new SSN!!! and picked up mine showing my new name as well. We then went to the bank to open joint bank acconts. We needed both our State ID's, SSN, marriage certificate, his birth certificate, his passport and visa to open the accounts. It feels good and very married to have it done though!!!! to celebrate we adopted to 7 week old kittens that same night.....they are too adorable! (not a required step by the way!)


Thurs Feb 28th - I went to my human resources dept and added him to my health insurance, made him my beneficiary, etc. all of which I needed his SSN to do. also, I called my auto/home insurance office to report my name change and new driver's license number and I am glad I did! even though Matthew does not drive yet, he hopefully will soon and apparently not reporting him and his name, birth date, and SSN to my insurance as part of my household even before he was eligible to drive would have raised red flags when we do go to get him auto insurance. not sure about why this is, but hey, I'm glad I know now and am passing it on!

so there it all is! now we are enamored of our new kittens and working on all the AOS paperwork to mail off hopefully tomorrow! I hope this is useful. once again feel free to PM me if anyone has any Q's about all of this. I am no expert, but can offer my experience this week!

Sara

@ sara: glad everything went so smoothly for you guys!

i had zero problems as well, even though i went to the SSN-office and the DMV myself.
i didn't need my birth certificate either.

as for girls coming to the US: as far as i know, you should go to the SSN 2 weeks after you arrive (it takes them 2 weeks to process your information in the system), then you get your SSN in your maiden name. after doing that, you get married and go to the SSN with your marriage certificate and change your name there. after doing so, you go to the DMV and apply for a ID/License in your new name. after doing so, you can get your bank cards and everything you need in your new married name.

i already had a SSN, bank accounts and a license before, and i needed the certificate to change the name on my SSN, and the SSN to change the State ID and those two together to change the rest.

AOS is a pain, but after going trough the I-129 we all have lots of practise!
we sent ours off on the 20th, hoping to have a NOA in the mail any day.

free hugs for everybody!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Looks like everyone's transitions are going nice and smoothly. Very cool.

Just found out our case found its way to NVC today!

That's great news Kirk! Your case will soon be in Moscow. Havent checked the appointment dates on the Moscow US Embassy website in a long time, but I'd guess you could have an interview by mid to late April. Not bad at all, my friend.

Just as Nadya said it would be. There'll be no living with her if she turns out to be right. But I still will.

(They're scheduling up to April 3 right now. Possible, but it's gonna be close.)

I'm officially legitimate to join this thread finally. Got approved last night and I'm still in shock. It's sinking in and it's just an incredible feeling after all this time and the worry is over (for the most party anyway). I have lots of other stuff going on too (moving, kids graduating, my clinic merged with a big conglomerate and we're busy busy busy) so I want and need to join in here for your help if you guys don't mind. I have so many questions about the next steps and my first one is this...
How do you check on NVC to see when your petition gets there. It gets a new number right? From what I've been seeing it only takes a few days to a couple weeks to get there? How long is it at NVC and what do they do with it?

Mox, are you going there for the interview? Things are really happening fast for you now. I just noticed recently you are approved and April interview, that would be awesome! Are you all ready?
It's amazing how fast the approvals seem to be coming now. I hope that doesn't clog up the embassies for interview. That would be just my luck lol.

I adjusted to the weather here without a problem. It´s cuz I come from a country, where we have snow (or at least cold weather) for like 3 months in winter so I like to wear just a tshirt in winter here for a change

That´s awesome! Congratulations!

Congratulations to all the approved couples

CONGRATS ON ALL THE MOVEMENT


I had a wee suprise today. Although I don't actually finish work until Tuesday one of the big clients of the law firm I work for found out I was leaving and sent me a huge bunch of flowers today. When I say huge, I mean huge, these things were like 2ft across. It's all red, white and blue flowers with a big scottish thistle in the middle and the card said "hope your move goes well and you enjoy your new life in America, just never forget your roots and the people here that care about you!" How nice was that? I was in tears when they came in and that started the other receptionist off too! I'm going to be terrible on tuesday when I finish up.

Ok, she deserves this:

CONGRATULATIONS CBR ON YOUR NOA2!!!

About flipping time too!!!

My experience is a little bit different. First of all we have had a joint bank account for a long time already. It´s still in my maiden name but I´m planning on stopping by and changing it soon.
We got married and after 2 weeks of me being in USA we went to the SS office to apply for SSN but they said that now we have to wait 30 days after me getting here instead of 2 weeks before applying. So we came back in another 2 weeks and applied. They said they had to issue the card in my maiden name, cuz the only picture ID with my name is the passport and that still has the maiden name in it. They said they couldn´t accept marriage certificate for that purpose. So I´m doing the driving tests next week (cuz I couldn´t do it earlier cuz I needed the SSN for it and SS office told me to wait for till I get the SS card in the mail that they wouldn´t know my number earlier than that) and will get my driver´s licence issued in my new name and as soon as I get it I´m going back to SS office and have them change my name on the SS card. It´s pretty weird, but that´s how it went for us. Other than that, we haven´t applied for AOS yet, but hopefully we do so next week

Btw ...how did the job interview go?

Oh wow Lucky you You better bring lotsa tissues on Tuesday

The phone number for NVC is 603-334-0700. Best time to call is early morning or late at night. Give your case at least a week before you call. I gave it exactly a week and got lucky. They'll ask for your case number, just give them your USCIS receipt number and they'll let you know if it's there or not. If they do have it, make sure you get the NVC case number. More info at http://travel.state.gov/visa/immigrants/info/info_3177.html .


I'm not going to Moscow for the interview. I'd love to go, but Moscow is a really expensive city and we decided it's money better spent if I stay here. Am I all ready? Hell NO! LOL! I feel like I'm at the top of the first hill on a roller coaster, staring down at the rest of the track. Reality is starting to really hit, and I know once I have the interview date in hand I'm going to be under more stress than waiting for NOA2 ever caused. But it's also a great feeling to finally be out of the quagmire that is CSC, and really starting to move.

CBR.... just for you as you so deserve this!!!


CONGRATULATIONS