Yes; I'm just ignoring him now! I was just disappointed because I was in the right frame of mind to have a good natter with someone - oh well! Advice is welcome but only when it's sought. He'd be idiotic to think that they weren't issues I was concerned about and had already discussed with close friends and family - I'm not naive!

Well you could make him gay


Buttt... don't they say the guy usually is pregnant as well in a way like people are pregnant together? hmm


I wish I could do that as well already.. but... too scared they're gonna find a reason to fire me before I am even gone (that's what they did to others as well before :S)

Only my direct colleagues know about my plans but whenever management asks about it all, then it's a 'I dont know anything yet' lol

Are you sure you want to be here in August? Even Chicagoans don't want to be here in August.

How terrible!

Also - fine, I'll sulk in the corner while you're all getting pregnant. Actually I'll be eager for news and will follow your progress with interest! I'll be tinged green with envy, but I'll do my best not to show it.

I already went in August in Chicago? What's the problem? Too warm?
You don't know Paris in August... its an oven!

whats so bad about chicago in august? :S

It was hot last weekend - reached 30 degrees Centigrade - and I hated it and then realised that, d'oh, I am moving to California.

But then I also realised that California has dry, not humid, heat and also their buildings typically have air conditioning.

I think that's the best approach. Some people just don't get it - or even understand the impact of their words. It sounds like jealousy more than anything, Rachel, if there's one thing we all kinda have figured out is how important the person we love is to our lives. Circumstances and "things" become irrelevant quickly when compared to real emotional committment. Many people, and I would put this guy in that category, haven't figured that out yet. You are wise enough to know that.

lol, same kind of weather here since last week.. getting a bit cooler now tho... but, I usually should add 2-4 degrees to that amount for my home, making it 32-34 inside my place.. I don't have airco and the fans, well, they do work but lol, I have a flat roof with a HUGE window in the top of my roof (which is pretty cool tho but not so much in the summer lol). A couple of years I actually almost hit 40 degrees C in there

I agree, cant wait till I get some dryer heat. When I was in Hawaii it was also lots better than here, the humidity over here in Europe really bites

Well every place here has air conditioning, it's quite common. And you're right that California's heat tends to be dry. The ocean front is wonderful in my book because it's always cool, not cold, and the occasional morning fog is not problem. It's when you go inland from the coast that the weather gets brutal in the summer - still, there is little humidity so it's bearable. You're moving to a great place in the country to live.

95 degrees, 95% humidity. You take a cold shower to cool off and you're sweating again before you've even dried off. There are no fancy hairstyles in Chicago in August as they all melt. That kind of thing.

Bleeeghghgh!

Good morning everyone!

Good Morning to you.

Chantal, if there's any comfort to it, Cecile will have it much worse in St. Louis - it really gets hot & humid down there.

But, I don't care, I just want to be there! If it can be tomorrow I will jump in a plane!

yeah I know... Maybe I will live only the night: from when the temperatures drop a little bit to when they start to rise again. from midnight until 9am.
I hate air conditioning, I always end up with a cold.

You're no longer Cecile the Canary; soon you'll be Cecile the Vampire!

I'm just teasing. Yes it is hot and humid, but obviously I chose to live here so it can't be that bad. The fact is that Chicago has a magnificent lake front, and St. Louis has the Mississippi and many ponds/lakes to cool off in. There are so many things to do on the hot summer nights that make this a real special time. One thing to accept, however, is that people in this part of the world believe it a god given right to complain about the weather - in Chicago it's just a little more personal. Having lived in Florida, Illinois, Colorado, California, Texas and Indiana I realized that wherever you live and whatever the weather, you just get used to it.



That would kinda work in with the whole goth and hannible lechter thing...

I've lived in Kansas and Missouri my whole life and I'm still alive The humidity can get pretty crazy though!

at least this time, people who would call me "vampire" would have a good reason! I don't think anybody has called me like this since... well I'm not sure exactly when... probably for 3 or 4 years.

hi,guys!
today was the first time i didn't feel the need to check Igor's list, WE

You are approved too? Congratulations!!!!

Congratulations Bryant and Aliona!

thank you so much!




i'm SO agitated!

Fantastic, Fantastic, Fantastic

Congratulations, I've been waiting for you to get your approval and I was starting to get a little worried since I hadn't seen a post in a while. Way to go!

Thank you so much! Your positive energy helped so much!
and i wasn't posting 'cause i've started to get depressed and i was ashamed to recognize this, because it was early for that

Aw! I'm sure we could have all sympathised with you.

Hurrah; there are only 50 2007 filers remaining (not counting those outside of the processing time, unfortunately). Not many April or May filers so far...

Woo-hoo! Congratulations Bryant and Aliona!

I can't wait for the '07 filers to be finished up!

congratulations to cecile and bryan AND bryant and aliona! i am so pleased to hear that you're moving forward on your journeys

the talk of chicago weather in august completely cracked me up i'm glad that toronto and chicago share very similar weather so i won't have much to adapt to.

happy thursday to you all!

Ahhh lol.. that sounds a bit like my own country xD

Only about 5 more approvals until the last of the January filers reaches the 100 mark. And who was it a while back that said we shouldn't look for much to happen for January filers in May? Anyway we're at 30% approval of January filers at this point. My projection is 50% by the end of next week and 70% by the end of the month.

Positive energy ray is now focused on Raghu, the current number 1 on the January list since Aliona has joined the ranks of the approved.

You gotta love the midwest, the summers may be hot, but the autumns are glorious - especially up in Sunnybear country.

Happy Thursday everyone!

It is SO wonderful to see all these approvals every morning when I wake up! I do find it interesting that they haven't seemed to have broken through that Jan 15th mark. Do you think its intentional? Maybe they have made a conscious effort to wrap up all the '07 files before moving too deep into January?

I wanna see some LATE January NOA2'S!!!!! Like MINE and Blake and Steph&Gareth and Levi&Heather. I vote for Blake's projection that by the end of next week Jan's are at 70%. That sounds lovely!

Sounds great to me!!!!

Now that i know exactly how it feels, i wish and i pray that EVERYBODY get their approvals quick!
good luck, guys!

congrats to you folks that were approved! Hope it keeps up for the rest of you!

Ummmmm that was by two weeks from tomorrow.... I wouldn't want to be accused of hyper optimisim

The CSC will break through the 1-15 barrier soon, but they still have a lot of clean-up to do on 2007 and early January. One thing to remember about the 2007 hanger's on is that some of them (and I don't know the percentage) are not active in VJ after the initial update and may not use this resource anymore. As a result there may have been approvals in this group that have not been posted, and so, there may be a lot fewer 2007 folk to clean up than we think. The CSC is probably also due to update its processesing time this week which will cull those with dates before 11-15-2007. We will see......

Aliona - did you two get your approval in the mail or did the USCIS e-mail you?

They sent the change of status by e-mail

Application Type: I129F , PETITION FOR FIANCE(E)

Current Status: Approval notice sent.

On May 14, 2008, we mailed you a notice that we have approved this
I129F PETITION FOR FIANCE(E). Please follow any instructions on the notice.
If you move before you receive the notice, call customer service.

Cool, it's good to know that this system is working again.....one hopes consistently

Our status online still hasn't changed and we were approved on 5/8. I'm waiting for it to say approved, so I can print it and save it. lol

God, i feel so much joy!
When i went to the interview for a j1 visa last spring(whivh was 16 may,btw ) i remember sitting nervous and srtessed out at the waiting aisle and i couldn't understand why are people that was accepted are smiling to those who're waiting like they know them. But then i remember me walking out from the interview and i was about to start flying. I remember how i looked at the crowd, and i showed all of my teeth and i wished luck to everybody like i knew them my hole life.
So this is what i feel now. i wish everybody would get as happy as we are now.
God remembers about all of us.

nice story, your happiness is infectious.

Congratulations Bryant and Aliona!!!
I had the same feeling at the us embassy for a J1!! Being really nervous, and after, being so relieved, and smiling to all the others ones waiting!
Can't imagine how I will react when I will have my K1 visa!!
Just wanna say I feel also less guilty (like Rachel) to see filers who filed before me to finally get approved!!
Well, good luck to all the others waiting...

Oh, having the k1 will make me speechless for a while, and i'm pretty sure i'm going to break down in cry and i will also suffocate my future husband with the tightest hug and the hottest kiss(he's going to attend the interview with me).
And you're right, i really am sorry for people who're still waiting, but filed before us. All i can do is promiss i think and pray about them.

Yeah think it was cause of so many people in one spot etc...not to mention I work with special needs too soooo seeing all that in one location might also have been a bit much for a 6 year old to handle haha!

Ok at first I thought u were gonna say he had already moved overseas and just got married to his lover haha! Cause I have people seem to tell me that all the time! Grrr Ya know like "Oh well so and so just came here and married so and so, why don't u do that?" UGH so frustrating haha!

But yeah Rachel completely ignore this guy! He is prob just jealous! People just don't understand what it is like to be in such complete love with someone that we would do pretty much anything we had to in order to be with that person!

Gareth had one of his best friends tell him "oh man that is way too long of a time to put your life on hold" talking about waiting out the visa process!!! Talk about ticking me off haha!

Tee hee yuppers! LOVE the autumn! So happy Gareth will be here for it this year (well crap he BETTER be anyway haha!)

Yup, love found us indeed. I guess it's the best way of saying it

Congratulations to both of you! This is so neat to see January filers getting approved!

OK, it's the end of the day on Thursday and all in all it was a good day. I saw a September filer finally get approved as well as some people near and dear. Here's the January filer's list as it stands right now:


Remaining 70.9%......... Approved 29.1%

Name……………. Filing Date
Remaining
1 Raghu & Swathi* 01-01
2 Ayako & Nathan 01-01
3 Belen & Tim 01-02
4 Ten & DJ 01-03
5 Thanh & Cao 01-04
6 Yanny & Karmen 01-04
7 Lili & Matt 01-05
8 PT & J 01-07
9 Ajay & Komal 01-07
10 Hazel & Ben 01-07
11 Matt & Robin 01-08
12 Maria Ameliza & Eric 01-09
13 Judee Anne & Reynaldo 01-09
14 Irina & Zubzare 01-10
15 Sarah & Rudi 01-12
16 Bruno & Carol 01-12
17 Russell & Dakotah 01-14
18 jj & sh 01-15
19 Elena & Sergey 01-15
20 Liberty & Phillip 01-15
21 jen & jay 01-16
22 Hilda & Chris 01-16
23 Mitchell & Joy 01-16
24 Steph & Gareth 01-17
25 Oscar & Joselyn 01-17
26 Marina & Eugene 01-17
27 Agatha & Robert 01-17
28 VRP & SK 01-18
29 Levi & Heather 01-19
30 gabbie & erv 01-22
31 Busch & Eric 01-22
32 Chris & Therese 01-23
33 nr123 & nm123 01-23
34 Laura & Scott 01-23
35 Joanna & Dale 01-23
36 Lean & Emil 01-23
37 Nick & Sarah 01-23
38 yan & isa 01-24
39 a & o 01-24
40 Greivin & Courtney 01-24
41 Jeroen & Michelle 01-24
42 Lucie & Damon 01-24
43 Olga & Blake 01-25
44 Lea & Ron 01-25
45 jennie & matthew 01-25
46 Paul & Joanna 01-25
47 Rymma & Vadim 01-25
48 WE & CE 01-25
49 Supida & Supida 01-25
50 Lena & Val 01-29
51 Susan & Chris 01-30
52 Ersila & Ilir 01-30
53 Mary & Carl 01-30
54 Benny & Cassi 01-31
55 Ge & Haibo 01-31
56 Richel & Michael 01-31
* mailed in Dec.
Approved
1 Gerald & Vinera….….01-04….04-22
2 Bing & John…………01-12….05-02
3 Shirley & Steven…….01-07….05-02
4 J & Paulie……………01-04….05-02
5 Rosi & Chuck……..…01-04….05-02
6 Hesham & Tanya……..01-14….05-02
7 Pamela & Joshua………01-11….05-05
8 Eliciana & Benjamin….01-11….05-05
9 Robe & Victoria………01-09….05-06
10 Wayne & Nueng*..…....01-01….05-06
11 Yuliya & Brian………..01-03….05-10
12 Rachel & Alex………...01-11….05-07
13 Relyn & Patrick*..……..01-01....05-06
14 Plami & Krasi……….…01-01....05-07
15 WW & MM……………01-12….05-07
16 Paola & Chris………….01-04….05-06
17 Zrinka & Eric………….01-05….05-07
18 Badr & Aimee*………..01-01….05-08
19 Stacy & Jonathan*…….01-01….05-09
20 Erica & Scott………….01-12….05-12
21 Cecile & Bryan………..01-02….05-13
22 Portia & Tony*………..01-01….05-14
23 Bryant & Aliona*……..01-01….05-14