it's strange... as you know, this isn't my homeland; I've already made the change that left behind my family, my friends, a good job, my own apartment, my car... I've really embraced living here though, and as I've tried to explain to my fiancé: leaving here is somehow worse than leaving home, even, because I CHOSE to live here, and I like it, and I've really EARNED my life here - found jobs (even changed career), places to live, friends, learned about the city and the transport and the way of life... I really go through bad patches about it all; there are things that are going to be great about living in the US - principally being with my honey - but there is going to be SO MUCH I miss about living here, and there's no way around that

makes it all that much worse when I read the bleatings of those narrow-minded people who go on about how lucky we are to be allowed in to the glorious country that is the US, and how EVERYONE is beating down the doors to get in... erm: no

thankfully, the visa that allows me to live here will also extend to a spouse, and my fiancé is well up for coming back here after a couple of years... we'll see what happens with that

Yeah - originally our plan was to move to the UK - Jeremy loves it here and I didn't want to leave my family behind as I am very close to them. My final year at uni was really tough though and I got totally dejected about everything - I was sick and tired of the bureaucracy surrounding education (my profession by education if not experience) and I was feeling less and less inclined to enter into the career - I was at a real crossroads and then Jeremy got promoted.

He was quite happy with his new position, I was fed up here and felt that a new life in the US would at least shake me up enough to follow my dreams and make a life for myself that *I* chose without worrying what other people thought. I still hold those ideologies though not so rigidly - I believe that we can really start a new life together - Jeremy leaving behind his life of poverty that he grew up in and me casting off the worry about opinions other people hold of me.

We're remaining open minded though - we know that while we are going to live in the US for a bit, we have the freedom to go where we choose, living there or here or anywhere else, and that whatever we do we will do together

making the decision wasn't that heard for me. Although I'm close to my family, Nick is closer to his, and as my mammy puts it.....the UK is getting taxed into oblivion! I wouldn't be able to afford to get on the proprty ladder here unless I wanted to live in a shed in an area where I'd be in constant fear for my life. I've been called crazy but I really like Nebraska. Grand Island is a city without feeling like one and it doesn't take long to drive to the middle of nowhere. I'll miss my hills and the fact I'm only 20mins drive to the coast but it will all be worth it. I mean I'll be with Nick, what more could I want!?

Agreed - house prices here are ridiculous and although the US economy is far from rosy at the moment, we know we can easily afford to rent somewhere while we save for a mortgage together

we go it !!! we got it !!! got the email this morning NOA 2 all done and dust. Thank god for that could be home by march. Well fingers crossed thanks for all your help and support so far

HUGE GRATZIES ERIC!!!!!!!! If you pm me the RECEIVED date and the NOTICE date as printed on your NOA1 hard copy then I will add you to the ever-growing spreadsheet

Although are you a June filer? Or a July filer?!?

Congratulations!!!!! This is good news, you've been waiting so long!

Congratulations!!

CONGRATS!

by the way.....I never responded earlier. This Houston been here since the 1400's

I don't think TBone is saying the Texas Houston is older, debz, just that it was named independently of the one in Scotland

but either way it means this was the original!!! LOL!

Yeah I was frankly surprised you left it unchallenged this long.

I'm still sat here mildly disturbed by the TV show about tornados devestating part of the town I'm moving to in hopefully 12-ish weeks

Maybe you could build an underground hideout? Start from the basement and work your way from there I want a basement but not very practical in earthquake land!!!

I've already told nick I refuse to buy a house there without one!!!

I thought they kinda came as standard in tornado world!?

I thought so too until I started looking!!!!!

Ooooh.... that is really lame!!! Then yeah - you should make sure you have a basement!!! I can imagine it would be quite exciting hiding out in a basement during a tornado... downside is your house gets totalled if it's a bad one You should defo consider developing your own underground empire!!

hahaha...the Nebraskan Underworld ruled by.....ME!!!!!!

Sounds cool!! I see another clan in the making!! Our own British Empire - underground in the States!! Muah ha ha ha ha!!!!

hahaha...they will kneel before me!

world domination starting with Nebraska.....hahaha...not exactly high class but hey, even the mighty have to start small!!!

anyways...movie finally finished downloading so off to bed to watch it as early start tomorrow and I'm knackered.

Catch you all tomorrow!

Awww - night Debz I'll see if I can e-mail the music to you if I can remember your e-mail address!!

I got a touch today, Saturday! Weird but its probably due to my phone call on Friday. Still, it does tell me that my file is really there somewhere and hopefully somebody notices.

Its all good, I have Kansas covered

And they even have a cricket team

http://kcc.hitscricket.com/default.aspx

Hope it's good news to come. Good luck!

APPROVED!!!

we received oru hard copy in the mail. we got a few touches but the website still says pending.


Chris

Congratulations!

YAY! Grats!

It's obviously been surpassed in prominence, importance, and fame (and in number of Texas rednecks, whether that's a benefit) by the "new & improved" version. Ha!

T-B. (at 186 days +++)

Mazel tov, si man. Mucho happiness.

These approvals of mid-July-through-early-August files reconfirm the obvious: A crate of files from the first half of June was overlooked, and is perhaps being initially explored only now. This is not just at the CSC, but also at the VSC (cf. Lora).

Debz, regarding your underground takeover, you can have North Dakota, too. If you don't like tornadoes, how about hurricanes? You are welcome to one or several of those that routinely threaten Tejas.

(Of course, half of them are named after men, so 50% are hurricanes and 50% are himmicanes.)

Congrats!

YES!! I am sure it is great news! I had you and Chris pinned as the next two to be approved as well!!! And gratzies again Chris for the third time I am sure you won't tire of hearing it for a while

Well, gee! VJ again has enough data to estimate when my I-129F will be adjudicated. The date is November 15, 2007. Did they get the month wrong, or the year?

The fiancee just passed up a SECOND pretty good job opportunity because of our continuing mutual hope that something will happen. She sees no sense in taking something new just for 2 or 3 months.

Two paragraphs without a punchline... I must be sick.

Change your service center TBoneX. Your petition isn't at TSC anymore, so it's never going to give you a decent estimate.

hey tbone, do you think we'll get approved before xmas?

You should have been approved by now, so it's really anyone's guess.

When the CSC-vs-TSC question came up, Cap'n Ewok said to definitely leave it at TSC. That had been a big mystery for a while. He out-cleaned an erroneous timeline date, and that seemed to out-straighten my projected dates afterwards.


Si, man! The question is: Xmas of WHICH YEAR?

Hey all,
when is the new CSC list coming out??? Can't wait to see how much we moved up! On the last one we were at 247 and I see 86 NOA2's for July Filers !!!
So hey maybe we are in the 220's now?!
What about them April Filers though? Are they still being processed or are ppl just not coming to VJ anymore???
Nat

July = 86? (Cue empty feeling in pit of stomach: enter, center stage.)
It's after midnight, so... 186 days, with someone else 3 days before me and someone else 3 days before him. I would go postal, but I ran out of stamps. Hmmmph.

Yeah, I read that too. I don't understand his reasoning though. TSC files are now CSC files. They're in the same pipeline as everyone who initially filed with CSC. Not that it matters in your case, you're overdue anyway.

Many Congratulations to all the new approvals

I know.

Hang in there, Stephanie. Meanwhile, you should post some fotos (Spanish spelling) so that we can admire your assured loveliness! Si, man.

Hmmm ok - Jeremy is on US Airways flight 732 so I wondered if anyone knew of any decent realtime flight trackers online? I can't seem to find the one I usually use that is nice and big and updates itself!!

This one is excellent, Aly: http://www.flightarrivals.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/Flights

Hey - I just found this one too which is good but doesn't zoom out enough to give any indication of where he is!!

http://travel.flightexplorer.com/TrackFlight.aspx

OOOH - I changed my mind - I figured out the controls and this is awesome Ok so you have to download some probable spyware but still

Can't you go onto the Useless... er, USAirways website and get anything, or is it only a "this flight is due to arrive at ____" result?

I have not had to fly on Useless for many years. ...Whoops -- Aly out-figured it. Ignore.

YEA!!! Congratulations!! Happy dance time!