Aww congrats again Cecile! Loved your dress just perfect for the occasion and looks like you had a nice reception after as well!

Congratulations everyone! Nice to finally see people together after all of this time. Nice to hear that there is an END to all of this process. When you are in the middle of it it all seems like its going ot take forever, especially not knowing when things are going to happen. Have fun making up for lost time!

Hello everyody!!

I haven't be here for a while, but I am quite busy right now with wedding plans or other!!

I was checking the forum, and I wanted to say congratulations to Thomas and also Levi!!!
Sunny, I hope you will get your P3 soon, so you guys can be back together!
And also BIG big congratulations to Cécile and Bryan!!!!!
I didn't realise you would be already married, so I am a little late, but still I am really happy for you two!!!
By the way I do love your dress, great choice!

For me, the wedding is coming really really soon!!!!! 10 days!!!!
I cannot wait to be my baby's wife, and hope everything will be fine (weather, food....), but anyways, I know it will be the best day of my life!!!
Well, I better get back to my planning things!!
I will keep you posted after the wedding!
Good luck to everybody for their visa or wedding plans.

LMFAO

Ok here is Gareth's interpretation of his medical appt.....

To me:
Well, how does it make you feel that some stranger has seen my weener
more times this year than you?? hahaha

Twas funny, She got me to my grundies and I led down, and she was all
'Oooofff all those scary tattoos...... I dont think I could sleep with
you with all those!' haha I was thinking 'Ummmm I didnt ask you to!'
haha I just turned around and said thats exactly what you said.

Then she checked out chest and tummy area, and told me to cough, for
some reason. And then said, 'And let me just check down here' in a
fashion that came accross as 'I shouldnt be doing this, but he dont
know I shouldnt, so im gonna peek' hahah I was gonna laugh out loud
but didnt!! haha

I've got all this to go through tomorrow!! Sunny, did Gareth tell you whether or not she was hot!!?? I bet I get a Hattie Jaques lookalike!!

LMFAO he said nothing on her looks haha...he is in bed now otherwise I would have asked him for ya Good luck he said all was quick and painless except the mark they left on his arm trying to get blood out.

Heather - Congratulations to you and Levi on his approval at his interview.

Michelle - Congratulations to you and Thomas on his interview approval, as well!

Cecile - Many, many congratulations on the wedding! I agree with everyone that your dress is absolutely gorgeous, and the location of the pictures is quite pretty, too.

Rachel - Regarding California weather.. oh, god, it was almost 90 [32 C] degrees in San Francisco today, with it being over 100 [38 C] in the area I live in. Sometimes, the sunny weather here is just miserable, lol.

Pam - I really hope you'll post pictures of your wedding. I'm excited for you. <3

Sunny - Haha. I'm glad that the medical went well, and he was able to get through such an uncomfortable sounding situation with some humor.

TamTu [my fiance] finally talked to my parents about getting their permission for him to marry me, so while we've been "Engaged" for about two years now, we're one hundred percent official now. On my birthday, when he was visiting, he even popped down on one knee and asked me to marry him. I.. cried a little [tears of joy, of course]. Before he left on Saturday, I gave him some of the paperwork to take home with him to send back to me, and, come October 1st.. I'll be sending this stuff off to USCIS. I'm excited.

No word on my January filer friend's interview, though. Oh, well. She'll rush to tell me the moment she knows something, I'm sure.

@Cecile: Cool looking pics you had there, looks like you had fun

@Steph: lol, he had to strip naked? They only checked my chest, blood pressure, length and weight and that was basically it lol I could even keep my shoes and jeans on lol (then again, it was a guy and I am not into those lol haha)

@Damian: Good luck on your medical tomorrow.. I hope she's hot haha

@Lazulineiris: (Iris is your real name?) Good luck with the upcoming petition filing and such! I hope your wait will be over quickly, it can be devastating sometimes

Actually, my real name is Nikki. Irises are just my favorite flower, and "lazuline" is another way of saying "Blue," which is my favorite color. I've often thought of changing my display name to "Nikki and TamTu" just to make things a little clearer, but I guess I'm a little lazy with it. And thank you!

Honestly, this might sound weird.. but I'm actually looking forward to the wait. I've known for several months that we were going to file in October, so I've had a lot of stuff prepared and have been wanting so much to just send everything in. I know I'll probably kick myself a few months from now for saying that, though.

Just curious, why do you have to wait until October? if it's too personal and you don't want to answer, that's ok, it's just that I am very curious!

No worries. The reason we are waiting until October is because his job has a pretty intense contract for him to work there right now, which expires in October. When we decided we were going to file, we decided to wait because we didn't want to have to chance him having to pick up and leave, or take a lot of time off work [when he's short on vacation-days this year as it is], before the contract expires [even though I now know that the CSC takes forever. ]. When his contract does expire in October, he will be able to re-negotiate something that will allow him to leave with enough notice, as well as to help his bosses find an appropriate replacement. A lot of people think it's silly for me to wait, but I always think it's better to err on the side of caution, especially with incredibly important things like this.

I agree with them hehe

Thing is, the visa is valid for 6 months, I got my visa approved on September 18th and I have until February 14 (lol) to enter the states and then there is still 3 months after entrance into the US to get married and apply for AOS. So basically, if you guys filed a while ago, you would be near the end of the wait (or even already have the visa in hand) and still be able to wait for his contract to end. As for the days off, basically he only needs a day off for his medical and a day off for his interview, it isn't all that bad

Also, since he comes from the same country as mine, isn't it so that his contract can be stopped every month, as long as a minimum of 1 month notice is given? That is the normal way of business with contracts in the Netherlands (unless someone works at the same company for more than 5 years, then he/she will have to give notice of 2, or sometimes 3, months).

Of course, to each its own, but yah, it does feel a bit silly

I understand, and appreciate, your line of thinking. I mean, I'm sitting here wishing everyday that I could just file it.

Anyway, I showed him your post and he said that while he understands [and agrees] that the notion of waiting is silly, he has a one year contract that he's bound to until it expires, or he pulls something to get fired. He added that wants us to have as much stability as possible when he's here, so he's not really willing to "quit" before the contract expires.

..I also feel terrible for hijacking the thread, lol. :X

I understand why you want to wait, you have very valid reasons.
You could also file now instead of waiting for October, since we are almost in September. The I-129F will not be approved before the end of his contract anyway, so it would not hurt. You would send everything to USCIS soon (assuming that his job gives him enough free time to file the paperwork and send it to you, which does not take very long) and while waiting for the approval, his contract would end and then he can negotiate as you planned. You would gain one month.

and don't worry for hijacking the thread it's not the first time and won't be the last

Don't worry.. like Cecile said, it happens more than once and it's all good

Besides, most of us are already at the end or near the end of the wait so there is not much news to tell lately.. Before, when we were still all at CSC, we all had something to 'complain' about but yah, that time is (thankfully) over.

Yup now it is just me on the thread whining over when our packet 3 will arrive and when our interview will be scheduled and how I had a panic attack over my dress so now I am going to find a new one on Monday LMAO!
So yeah Iris no probs hijacking haha I also think you guys should file now as well look at my situation...we filed in January and he is still not able to come here as of yet....and like others said once he did go through whole thing he still has 6 months to use the visa!

So Sunnybear, why do you hate your dress now?

btw, yesterday I asked Bryan if he wanted me to show him my dress, and he said "No, I want to wait until the ceremony". I wanted to show it to him because I can't wait until next spring/summer! And I also wanted him to take a picture of it, but I guess that is not going to happen anytime soon.

Well, as luck would have it, she WAS a hottie!!! A svelte, petite, olive skinned South African, about 30 - very nice. When she told me to drop my pants, I remember thinking, "#### - I hope I don't have a boner!!!" Btw, do you know why they do that, tell you to drop your pants? It's simply to check your gender!! Like it's not obvious - I've never been to Thailand!

I'm £180 lighter now, but oh well...........

180 quid?? that must be including the vaccines? Here in NL I only paid 150 for the medical, 45 for the shot.. in Euro btw, so thats even less in pounds.

Weird they want you to drop your pants tho.. i guess they believe us on our words here lol

Nope, £180 EXCLUDING the vaccines. All you get is the checkup for that.

Yup that is the one Gareth had too...no fair... I told him I need to go find me a hot doctor to do an exam on me since it has been over a year now LOL!

I guess they charge extra to see your wiener

Well I tried it on again to see what alterations would need done and it just overall is not as flattering on me as I thought...I still think it was made super well for the price so I should be able to make money back no prob. I just decided I want a different style and most likely not using red as a main color anymore. We are going for more a woodland look with browns and greens then minimal orange and reds tossed in....so yup I go Monday to try on and hopefully get a new one I LOVE ordered. Gareth won't see mine either until the ceremony

Ooh, I've seen autumnal themed weddings (oranges/dark reds/greens/browns) and they've always looked fabulous!

I had a svelte, petite, olive-skinned Asian doctor - she's not the South African, is she? I thought there were only two doctors, one male and one female! She gave me a rather thorough breast exam.

I've had both a brilliant weekend and a bad weekend.

On Saturday I was feeling very lonely. I came in to work to do some overtime - completely voluntarily! - because I was bored and missing Alex so much. Where was Alex this weekend? At a convention in Seattle. More specifically, at the Penny Arcade Expo.

Penny Arcade is the site we met on, and whose forums we are both active members of. We are friends with many of the other forumers.

So while I was all alone, Alex was meeting with over 80 members of the forums, at least 30-40 of whom I have been wanting to meet for several years now! Not to mention a few other forumers I have met before and had a fantastic time with. I was getting periodic text updates from Alex and it was making me all the more envious! By late Saturday I was really feeling quite low indeed.

However, yesterday was a brilliant day - one of the best days I've had in a very long while. My friends gave me my belated birthday presents, and as they know that I didn't want anything material (I already have far too much to ship over to the US) my present from one friend was 3 hours in a spa, my present from another was having my nails done, and my present from a third was having my lunch paid for! So four of us spent all morning undergoing the spa experience here and then we ate lunch and, in the evening, played around with tubes of henna, giving each other temporary tattoos. So much fun!

[quote name='Cecile and Bryan' date='Aug 28 2008, 05:59 PM' post='2162019']
However I have one concern. They never asked me if I wanted to take his name (which I want to do) or keep mine. Bryan says that since they didn't ask they'll just do it like they do with 99% of people and will give me his name. I hope he is right!


Hi everybody!

I haven't been here for a while! I was quite busy with wedding plans! ; )
Damon and I got married last friday! It was really easy! we went at the court house in the morning, there was no line!it went so quickly that i still don't realize i'm married!haha!we had a party with our friends at night! It was lots of fun! : )
Congratulation to Cécile and Bryan!
about your concern about the name: they didn't change my name either! you need to ask to change it. When I went after we got married at the office of social security number to ask for info, the girl in front of me got married and was asking to change her name. But since we don't have social security number, I don't know when we will be able to change our name...
anyway, now we are trying to fill everything for uscis.but we are a little confused...

1) Is there anything besides the AOS and EAD packet we need to fill out?

2) When we fill out the EAD to go along with the AOS, should we send them all to the same place in one packet, or in another packet?

3) When we went to the SSN office, the woman said we needed an EAD, but other sources say we just need the K1, I94, and some ID. Who is right?

Thanks!

Congratulations



Don't you have to do that or tell people that when you get a marriage license or when you file the marriage certificate?



You might want to fill out the forms for the AP (advance parole) too since you pay for it anyways



I think (I am not sure) it has to go to the same address and has to be in the same package (I believe there is an option somewhere that has to be checked on the AOS request thingie) since you have to pay it all at once as well.



A K1 holder is work authorized, of course it is not allowed to work without the EAD but it does grant you to get the SSN (your SSN will get something like 'valid only for work with INS authorisation' written on it). At question #3 on the form 'Citizenship', you have to check 'Legal Alien Allowed To Work'.

Also, read (and print it out to take it with you to the SSN office) this PDF file: http://www.kamya.com/ssn/em00154.pdf its a notice that you are allowed to get your SSN even though you did not file for your EAD yet. Be sure to hand it over at the SSN office as they might not be aware that your K1 is good to get a SSN.

Everything is also explained here: https://s044a90.ssa.gov/apps10/poms.nsf/lnx...33;opendocument , you might want to print this one out too and bring it to the SSN office also (in specific: "C. Policy - Employment Authorization by Class of Admission".

You are allowed to get the SSN even if you do not have the EAD yet


Also, be sure to read all the guides and example forms on this site as these things are all explained in it

Congratulations to you too!
Maybe when we go to get the social security number, we can change it directly? this is all so weird!

And yes, as Jeroen says, we can get the SSN with only the K1. Just print everything he sent you.


They never asked! so the whole time I thought they would ask us after the 'ceremony' but they didn't :S

Firstly well done to everybody who has got all the great news lately and good luck to everybody else who is still waiting!

Just to give people an update on my situation - and hopefully this will put anybody else in the same situation at ease - our case finally arrived at the NVC having been approved way back on the 30th May and having virtually 'gone missing' since then as literally nobody at the CSC/NVC could inform us where it was.

6 weeks ago just when the whole thing was really starting to frustrate us, I sent a speculative e-mail to the NVC which they replied saying that they did not have our case on file - I replied back (3 weeks ago) asking them to double check because it didn't seem right that nobody knows what was going on with out approved visa and last week, much to my surprise, they replied stating that they have processed the case and quoted me an LND number.

I've re-read the e-mail about 20 times and the buzz is still the same each time! Total relief after all that stress!

I presume it will be relatively straightforward from here on in - the NVC send it on to London and then London send it on to me etc but if somebody can give me more of a definitive guide as to what happens next and how long it usually takes I would be very grateful - i'm talking approximate dates on how long things take and what the checklist comprises of, will the interview date arrive with the checklist or will that arrive after I have returned the checklist to the consulate in London etc

Obviously there's info for this kinda thing all over the web but seeing as a lot of you guys have gone through the same procedure I think i'd rather get some jargon-free advice!


As i've suggested before, if your case is taking an age or you think there's something just not quite right in the delay then keep calling the CSC/NVC (or e-mail), take names and extension numbers of anybody you speak to for future reference and eventually, through persistence, you will get answers!

thank you very much Jeroen and Cecile!
everything is clear now!

Congratulations lucie on your marriage!

Alex - wow, that sucks that it was delayed so long, but what a relief that it's finally been processed! Hope things speed up a little for you now!

ARGHHH sorry I am a bit MIA but I am in panic mode over London not getting our case yet that was sent from NVC on the 19th grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr...what is even more irritating is others who supposedly cases left NVC a couple days after ours have gotten their P3's already!!! Do they not know I need this next step so that I can get on with wedding planning?! Haha..

Good news is found dress of my dreams and bought it yesterday...I LOVE it!!!!

Where are wedding pics at people I want to see!!!

Alex can you please share your timeline or at least let me know when they said your case was supposedly sent from NVC to London? I am going nuts waiting for them to say ours has officially reached London as they keep telling me it was sent from NVC on August 19th.....

Ooh, what does your dress look like, Sunny?

Wellll since Gareth doesn't come on this site I will post the pic my sis took of me in it.....The green sash is called fern for the color and it will hang down lower in back of the dress (they didn't have one in stock in longer length so I was just holding a flower girl one around me for picture sake haha) I loved this dress and feel like a lovely cupcake in it heehee I am so excited to wear it!!! Now to hunt down some sort of little coverup sweater,shawl something for the pics for the grandparents and such haha!

Hmm won't accept my dress let me try another way........

Grr still won't take it...I need to reduce file...anyway it is a white strapless floor length gown with all the pickups on the skirt part....I feel like a cupcake I love it haha! I then will have a fern colored sash to go with our brown and green woodland type theme

Can't wait to see your dress Sunny!

And since you were married before, maybe you can help us with the question about our name change.
When we got married, they never asked us if I wanted to take Bryan's name. Do we only need to go to the social security office to have it change, or was there something that we should have filled out at the courthouse/ recorder of deeds office to have it changed first?

Honestly I don't remember but I am sure it was something real simple as I was 18 when I got married before...I am sure it was most likely just the SSN thing though. Gareth and I are both changing our names this time so shall be interesting haha!

OK then we'll see when we go to the SS office.

By the way, I read that changing both names as you want depends on the states. in New York people can do whatever they want, but not in every state. Could you find what you can do in Michigan?

Hi yup we need to fill out a form though to both change our names and think there is a fee but no idea how much.

I just called the recorder of deeds to ask them and they said that the only thing we need to do is go to the social security office and DMV with a certified copy of the marriage certificate (which we received this weekend) and that is how the name gets changed. So it seems that everything should be ok that's a relief!

'

Oh great news Cecile! I have a question for you now what all did you bring to get marriage license? Obviously Gareth won't have a drivers license or social security number....does he just bring visa in his passport and birth cert and then all my stuff and we are good to go?

I only brought my passport. Check the website of the city/county where you are going to get married as it can be different.
Our county said that they only need an ID (driver license or passport) and our social security number, and that if we didn't have one we had to sign a different paper, but they never asked me my SSN and didn't make me sign anything.

Cool thanks! Just trying to have as many ducks in a row as we possiblly can!

K everyone here is me in my dress....was just holding flower girl sash up mine will actually tie in a bow in back and hang down a bit.....

looks nice Steph

That really suits you! You described it very well, so it is as I pictured, but it looks much better on a person that I could have imagined!

Tee hee thanks guys! I am so excited to wear it for my man........now to get him over here!

It is beautiful! and it looks very good on you!

Ever since I bought my plane ticket the distance has become harder to deal with.

I'd been okay up until now, really.

This week has been horrible so far. I miss Alex as much as I did after I'd left in January (of course the distance always sucks, but it's a little more painful when you've just left someone - I'm sure you can all empathise). I thought it'd be easier once I'd booked my plane ticket, but it's not. I think it's because I know it's so close.

I don't want to plan a wedding or worry about money, I just want to be there!

Aww Rachel I know! Each step closer we get in this process is making it harder! Here we are almost to final step and it seems I don't even want to speak to him that much as I am just so irritated with it all having to be over computer or phone and just want him here so we can sit right next to one another and not say a word no what I mean? I mean all we have done is talk talk talk talk TALK this past year LOL. I honestly think once we are together it is going to be sex and silence LOL!