CONGRATULATIONS!! Approval and Visa at the same time? amazing and wonderful.

I wish they were so efficient in the Ukraine - we have to wait up to 10 days for the visa to be delivered.

I wish so too, they actually give us even more stress when we have to wait for the mail to arrive again >_<

I know, it's particularly stressful in the Ukraine where express mail means they get out the donkey instead of walking. Seriously, you have to allow 10 days for them to "express" it back to you. After the emotional roller coaster you've been on Jeroen, what's a few more butterflies in the stomach. I was very happy for you when you finally got the visa in your hand.

Oh Blake, I know I'm a few days late, but here's a huge CONGRATULATIONS to you and Olga. It warmed my heart to read this post. Congrats to you both and may you travel well and finally have some peace.

lol, I wish it was just butterflies that I have in my stumach.. for months I have had pains in my stumach and belly area... been to the doctor numerous times, have had an echo, blood tests and such, even a tube inside my stumach and first part of my intestines (thats like suffocating, it goes in through the mouth) and so on.. never with any result.. but, now the doctor thinks he knows what it is: irritable bowel syndrome (I hope Google translate did its work right lol). I hope he is right this time, he gave me medicine for it which I am taking now and the pain should be gone somewhere next week but.. lol.. the pain indeed is a bit less but now I got more problems with acid in my stumach coming up a lot.. its terrible I think it is just stress from the whole process and of course from leaving my country and everything i have here basically. I hope this is just temporary and will end in a bit so I can go worry free to Michelle.. I would hate it to go there and not to be completely ok.

Another update btw: I am posting now from my laptop at my moms place. Today I brought everything that I didn't want to bring to Michelle and didn't sell to the junkyard and emptied out my house. I will be living with my mom for now until I will leave the country... (another thing that kinda came to me in the stressy things I think, I really liked the place I was living in). So yah, starting today, besides my laptop and my clothes, I basically have no personal belongings anymore (sounds a bit weird now that I am thinking about it hehe).

HUUUUGE Congratulations to Blake and Olga and Valerie and Justin!

I am so sorry I missed it all.

Blake, I wish Olga and her son a very safe flight and stress-free POE into the US!

Jeroen, IBS sounds horrible! I really hope it is just stress and that you'll feel better as soon as you're in Hawaii (who could be stressed in Hawaii?)!

Sunny, hurrah! I hope an interview date comes for you very soon!

Last week was extremely limited web access week for me - I still had no internet at home and I had to train my replacement at work all week (she's lovely) so I was only able to access the web at work in the five minutes before she arrived each morning.

Back in Worthing now and have web access again. Of course, I've been back 12 hours and I've already had to clean up cat poop from the carpet, act as a mediator in an argument between my mother, sister and littlest brother, and share a room with all of my sister's belongings (there's nowhere to unpack my suitcase!). Still, just 66 days until I leave.

Thanks for all the support guys!

Sunny-ok NOW congratulations! Hope you get that date soon! They ended up emailing us our date well before the letter came in the mail. Maybe they'll do the same for you...check that junk mail!

Jeroen-I can see how living with your mom may not help your stomach situation...Justin and I are So looking forward to our honeymoon in Hawaii. I can't believe you'll get to be there permenantly! Just imagen yourself relaxing on the beach and maybe you'll start to feel better well it can't hurt anyway, better just take the medication.

Fly safely Olga!

Rachel-you need to start carving a tally into your wall. I'm sure the time will fly by.

Heather- Hope you and Levi have a safe trip!

So Justin and I are back in San Diego Yeah! It was so funny when we crossed the border and I was admitted on my K-1. We drove across and it was an unusually busy day. So after waiting in the car an hour, we went inside and waited in line for 30 mins. Then we were called up to the desk and the guy was sooo mean! He was just a total ### and I could see Justin was ready to punch him. (But luckily didn't). We were told to sit back down and we saw the guy chatting and fooling around and NOT proccessing my paperwork! Well about an hour later he calls us up again.
At that point his attitude had totally changed, he was sooo nice and overly apologetic...haha he must have opened the package and seen that Justin is a Supervisor with the Department of Homeland Security (same as this guys department, although Justin's job is different). Too funny...he was ready to kiss our feet! Anyway, he gave me the whole candid Hollywood "Welcome to the United States of America! " I was like whatever buddy, gimme back my passport so I can get to SD!
We laughed.
Getting ready for the wedding in 3 weeks now. Picked up our marriage license at the county and have meetings with vendors set up all this week. Getting excited.

Also, can someone tell me how to put a picture under our username?

It's so amusing - but so frustrating at the same time - when someone's attitude totally changes after they learn who you are! I am glad you got through with no real problems, though!

For the picture, go to My Controls > Edit Avatar Settings.

My fiance's interview is tomorrow. I feel like I am about puke...still. lol

I am worried about the i-134 papers...i only submitted last years stuff for both me & the co sponsor...she couldnt get her bank statements...AHHHH

I wish I could be with him for the interview.

I had always thought that the CSC was going to be the vast majority of waiting time. But now I've waited the same time SINCE the NOA2 as it took to GET the NOA2. Checking K-1 stats for January filers, thru Manila Consulate:
Out of 35 records total...
23 I129Fs pending (20 with interview date)
12 visas approved

I'm not sure what these numbers mean. We got the I129F approved and had the interview already but no visa yet. So we don't fit either category. I'm not sure why there is not a 3rd category.

Anyway what did the 12 people have to do to finally get their visa?
Our packet has been forwarded to the NSO for document verification TWO TIMES.
On my last call to NSO, "PJ" swears he sent it back Sep 5th. But the embassy swears they didn't get it in the Sep 5 batch.

Some more analysis of the January filers going thru Manila....
I show 21 interviews, all were done already and the latest was 8/27.
The visas that got approved took from 2 to 51 days (std deviation = 16 days for the successful group).
Those still waiting for a visa range from 19 to 126 days since interview.
So how many "standard dev's" have we been waiting? It ranges from 1 to 8 times the std dev of the successful visa group.

In our case we're at 6 std dev's (and counting ). We're smack in the middle of the group still waiting. I expect that some of the longest ones are visas that were issued (or the relationship ended), but the histories were not updated.

My big burning question is this... those nine of us still waiting... were we supposed to bribe somebody to get this thing moving?
How many of you successful ones had to "grease the wheels" a bit?

DJ

Good Luck Boobah! I'm sure everything will be fine. Just remind your fiance to be organized, that seemed to help us a lot. The girl ahead of me was missing half her stuff and was totally unorganized, the interviewer told her to come back the next week when she was better prepared oops.

Thanks! I could hardly stand being at work tonight. My nerves are completely shattered! Thank god I got today off, I'm going to most likely be awake all night. He's supposed to call me when he gets to the embassy & after his interview is over. o.O

He should be well prepared with everything else he has. I brought him the organizer I put together & stuff. I hope they don't tell him to come back another time...because he's traveling 7 hours (bus) just to get to London. :s

We also went over the papers today via phone & I tested his knowledge about the papers. I told him to take this & this out...asked him random interview questions, just to be an ###...

"BABE! Don't worry, I'll ace this." We'll see. lol

Haha! Yes I'm sure he will!

Weeeee! So he called me at 2.14am (7.14 for him) to tell me he just got to the embassy. He was a bit scared about all the guys with big weapons walking around the area...lol...guess he's not used to seeing security guards like that.

Then, at 5.10 (10.10) he called again. He sounded a little worried & quiet...then said "Babe...I am coming to america! OH YEAH OH YEAH OH YEAH..."...here's my half sleepy self, being all "what? weeeee! ah hell you're really out of the embassy that quick?!". His appointment was at 9am. We were expecting him to be there for 2 hours, at least!

They just asked him 3 questions. Then, they said that all the papers were perfect, they couldn't ask for more. I gave myself a pat on the back, since I went through hell organizing that financial folder & obviously had thought the few missing things would screw everything up. ;p

They didn't ask for any proof of ongoing relationship.

When it came to the i-134 crap, the person wanted EVERYTHING. That should of taken quite a bit of load off his back. lol

So happy & tired! I'm going back to sleep. Will fill out my review thingie at some point.

Does the sponsor have to collect all the same finanical stuff for the 864 form? If so, then damn it, here we go again. D: haha

Congratulations boohbah!!

And yes, the same financial info is needed for I-864

DJ, I have read of similar stories from the Philippines (and some other countries too). It seems that for some couples they spend extra time checking other things. I hope you will get a response soon! and I doubt bribing them would change anything.

See, this is how it should be - you don't care that he got you up so early, because it's the news you've been waiting for. But I guarantee that if I got 'er indoors up at that time of the morning, I'd get a volley of abuse hurled at me!!

Anyhoo, congrats.

Haha!

Thanks, it's only just now starting to sink in...wooo

It was funny, because he couldn't understand me as my voice was raspy & was responding with almost incoherent comments. tongue kept getting twisted with its crazy self.

thanks!

oh poo! thanks for letting me know. i'm going to go ahead & start collecting that stuff at some point then. rather have it all way ahead of time for the next round!

Congratulations Boohbah! I'm so happy for you! What are your plans from here? When's he coming, when's the wedding? YEAH!!

Congrats boohbah

Congratulations!!!

It's a great feeling

Thank you!!!! There will be peace the day after the wedding, oh wait, that's a work day, damn I'm leaving this Saturday on the first leg of a journey that will take me to England, then to CZK, then to Kiev and finally back home with Olga and my erstwhile step son. I'll be gone all week, so whatever isn't done in the house, will just have to wait. It'll be something to keep her busy with anyway.

Thanks!

We're going to aim for his arrival to be september 26, since that'll be the soonest that I can pick him up, without it falling into october. we're going to try & get married in october. it'll be whenever his parents can visit the soonest.

Wonderful news!!! CONGRATS TO YOU BOTH!!!

Hi Guys, thought i'd gatecrash the party once again with a question - I know you all love it.....or something

After waiting 3+ months to get any kind of positive information from the NVC we finally received confirmation that the case had been processed and were given an LND number (Good times). A few day's later on the 28th August we had a hardcopy letter arrive that informed us that the case would be sent on to the consulate - no date was mentioned as to when this would be.

3 weeks on and i've yet to hear anything - should I be attempting to call the NVC or even drop the Embassy a line or is there no real need for the alarm bells to go off yet?

I know there is a way to track the LND numbers but not entirely sure how to do it - if anyone out there is in the know it would be much appreciated.

I think you can should the NVC first to check it out if they already send it to the embassy. If they did, you can ask them the date when they send it to the embassy, it should arrive there usually 1 to 2 days after that date, if there are a couple of days since then and now (or more), then you can easily call the embassy to check if they received the package

Hello all Well Levi and I are home now! It was an emotional weekend with all the goodbyes but we had a safe trip and got home last night. No troubles at the border at all.

Good to hear Heather, welcome back and welcome home to Levi

Thanks! Its so good to finally have him home!

So I get home just literally a few hours after my post and a letter had arrived earlier on that day from the Embassy telling me what needs to be done in regards to arranging medicals etc.

How odd - maybe I just had a psychic moment or something. Thanks for replying though, JeroenAndMichelle.

Hooray Levi and Heather! Congrats!!!

lol thats like how things went with me.. everytime when I started to stress,things cleared up automatically haha.. like one time I thought the postal service would have lost my reply to package 3 (since it was sent thru registered mail and it showed as it was never delivered on their site), I started to call and stress out, I get home and find a brown envelope containing package 4 haha =)

Welcome home you two, Congratulations

Been away from the group for a while. While I don't begrudge all of your happinesses, its depressing for us to read sometimes.

It's been great that most people who filed in January are getting their interviews, but there are still a few of us stragglers who were fated with the slowest center and now the slowest consulate. To make matters worse, they sped up like crazy through the summer, sending interview letters out in 20-35 days. We are at 60+ days and counting. They seem to have ground to a complete halt. Actually, there are a number of us waiting at Montreal for all kinds of interviews, and they are trickling out extremely slowly, if at all. Some people are getting letters now for IR/CR-1 interviews LATE October. It's almost like they have decided to stop doing K1 interviews as of August 2008. There have been none in September, and considering its already middle of September, and none of us have seen any appointment letters for October yet, we are wondering if they have decided to close down the processing of K1s through Montreal or something, kind of like what they did with TSC etc. So we are incredibly frustrated and have no idea what is going on over there.

So to those of you who said that the NOA2 approval was the longest stretch, and after the NOA2 things would be really fast, you were lucky enough to not have to go through the Montreal consulate. For us it was 130 days from NOA1 to NOA2, and as of today we are at 102 days from NOA2, and I doubt that we will have an interview within the next 30 days. So for us, our second half may turn out to be longer than our first half.

Sorry to vent but its depressing. I saw that there are others out there as well in the same boat.

I'm really sorry that this is happening to you. Honestly I really don't understand why the Montreal consulate is so messed up. It just doesn't seem right. I'm actually shocked with what you've had to go through. Vent as much as you want, no one will begrudge you the right. Again, I'm sorry.

Aww I feel for ya as we are still awaiting an interview too and we are January filers as well!!! Good luck to us!!!!

WaitForever, I remember a few months ago while we were all waiting for our NOA2, I read some threads in the Canadian subforum, and everybody was waiting for an interview date. I thought that the embassy really sucked, that they should not make people wait that long. Even though we are kind of used to waiting with this process, every additional waiting time makes us suffer a little more. I am really sorry this is happening to you. As Blake said, if you need to vent, don't hesitate, this thread is here for that purpose. Stay strong, even though it takes some time, it WILL happen soon.

LOL. Is there such a thing as Murphy's Law in reverse? Here I was just about to post another post thanking you all for your support and talking about how frustrated we felt and BOOM - Mary checked the mail and there it was. Interview is set for October 14th. YeeeHAH!

So thank you all for your support - we can finally see ourselves moving forward!!!!

How's married life treating you so far Cecile? I haven't seen you here too much and that's a good sign. Have you done your AOS filing yet? I printed out all the forms last night, GAWD, I can't believe that I'm going right back to the CIS hopper again. At least this time I can get Olga's help on it.

So let me get this straight..... Marriage License.....Marriage with her changing last name.....social security card with her new last name. I can do this right?




HAHA That's the second time this exact thing has happened in the last few days. The Gods are just playing with us, I guess.

Yay Congratulations!!! and it is in less than a month!!!

No, we haven't filed for AOS yet because of my I-94... I don't know if you read this two weeks ago, but when I went to the Social Security office, they discovered that my I-94 number was linked to a different person in the system. Therefore, they had to send a manual request to the immigration services (or something along those lines) which will take more time. I am going to call back in a week if I don't receive anything in the mail, and then harass them once a week Anyway, it kind of sucks to not know when I'll get my number and how, but I can't really do anything. And then I decided that it would probably be best to wait at least until the beginning of October (because at SSA they said we should have an answer in 3 weeks, which means by the beginning of October) before to send the AOS paperwork, in case they decide to give me a new I-94 or something similar.
But I guess if I don't have any news soon, I can still send the paperwork and write on the cover letter that the I-94 number on the paperwork is the one on my passport but that it is wrong in their system.
This is so messed up...

Marriage license ... marriage .... social security .... should work if you don't have something strange happening on the way, as it did for me. you got it right

Other than that, married life isn't too different than not married life. I keep saying "my boyfriend" instead of "my husband" (and he does it too )! I'm at home most of the days, which I like a lot even though I'd love to have a car so I can get out when I want too. I take his car once a week for a day, which is nice, but sometimes I'd like it the other days too I cook dinner so it's ready when he comes back from work, we go to a lot of places, see many friends, but still spend a lot of time just together. we bought a fish last weekend, and a nice kitchen table too, so we're slowly building our nest (all the canaries have nests, don't they? ) So, so far everything has been perfect

FINALLLYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY

We have an interview date!!!!!
Just called DOS today and interview was scheduled for Gareth on October 16th at 8:30 am! YAYYAYAYAYAYYAAYYAYAYAYYAYAYAYAYAYYAYAYA


Oh man oh man I am SO happy!!! Tears of joy baby!!!!

Get in!!!!!!!

Congrats on the interview dates everyone!!!!! Levi and I are just unpacking and trying to figure out where to put everything! Also loving finally being able to spend time together

I feel like I'm going to be one of those bridezillas... grrrr...
We are currently trying to set a date for the ceremony wedding next year. I had asked my brother and my sister to send me their school schedule so we can plan it during their vacation time. The plan was that they would come to the USA for a 2 weeks vacation trip. We kind of decided that it would be best to do it at the end of june/beginning of july (even though it would be too hot in July) but now my mother is telling me that they are the busiest days at her workplace. So I said maybe we can do it at the end of May, between my sister's exams ( ) if my brother can skip two weeks of classes. it would be the end of the school year so I doubt he would miss anything important. So, right now, it kind of sucks to not be able to set a date. that makes me all upset!
And I want an outdoor wedding, so we can't really do it in April because we may have a bad weather, but at the same time if it is July it is going to be way too hot!
Arghhhhhh!!!!!

Ughh yeah Cecile I feel ya....how's this for ya though Gareth will HOPEFULLY be able to fly here weekend of Oct 24th and then we have wedding and honeymoon Nov 18th -21st then our reception party on Nov 22nd. That gives me a one month notice of sending invites to people! He won't let me send invites until he arrives! He is too scared of jinxing dates etc...so yeah we have the invites and will print them off the weekend he gets here and send out but we will basically have to give caterer a guesstimate on how many people will come! YIKES! I will prob tell them to make more food that way we are safe and people can have seconds if they want and we can bring home etc too....

But yeah we have so many things to do from the moment he gets here so that month is going to be HECTIC!!!! Will all be so worth it though!!!

Everything will work out for ya lady!!! I wouldn't think July would be too hot there? It doesn't get that hot here really until August and even August days are hit or miss haha.

Maybe you should contact people before you send the official invitations, telling them that the wedding will probably be that day, so they will have more notice, and then you send the invites to confirm that date.
Bryan says that July is almost as hot as August here (and it was over 90 degrees almost everyday during August this year) so yeah it's kind of hot to have an outdoor wedding, with big gown, tuxedo and everything.

And the date we had in mind for July doesn't work because that will be right in the middle of my period... (yeah I wrote all the dates on the calendar to see when we can't get married that is if my cycles don't get messed up during the year)

What does a "traditional" American wedding looks like? I mean, what is the sequence of events during a wedding in the USA?

Congrats on getting dates Sunny and WaitForever, great news!

Meanwhile here in Seattle, I AM GETTING MARRIED TOMORROW! I will enjoy the day then focus on the next round of papes grrrrr on Monday. Hope everyone else is doing well!