hamtaro

I don't want an RFE. I am dreading an RFE for various reasons.

1. We barely used our joint account from 2011-2012 becausewe were using my husband's Paypal credit card, as all money I earn gets funneled into Paypal and transferring it to bank account takes time. You cannot get a joint account on Paypal. I have literally been using my husband's card.

2. We only started using our bank account properly when I got immigration anxiety in november and checked this website again and was horrified.

3. The bank have failed to send us records for 2011 and 2013, we've been waiting and now I don't want to leave it any longer, because I only have 6 weeks left on my greencard and have been suffering severe anxiety for 6 weeks now, waiting on proofs to be sent. So wehacve the full year of 2012 with barely using the account til November.

4. Equally, the IRS have not yet sent us our tax return copy for 2012.

So yep I'm expecting an RFE and I can only hope the info they request is the missing stiuff from above, and I can equally only hope that I get an extension on my green card in time for a trip to Japan in well, 2 months.

So I have to send of what we have now and I cannot wait longer for the IRS or the bank to get their act together or we miss going on this trip.

This is what we have (verbatim from our cover letter, letter is in my husband's name)

1. A copy of the green card in the name of ***** (front and back.)

2. A copy of our joint health insurance card as provided by my place of work.

3. A sworn affidavit signed by both of my parents

4. A copy of our cat’s medical records and vet visits, from the UK prior to my wife’s move to the USA, and veterinary records from the USA showing continued care of the same cat as handled by both myself and my wife, and addressed to us at our US residence.*

5. My wife’s final UK tax bill as addressed to our US residence.

6. Confirmation of my wife’s final UK tax repayment as sent to our US residence.

7. Summary of our joint US tax return for 2011

8. Our residential lease on our shared apartment from 07/11/2011-7/31/2012

9. Our residential lease on our shared apartment from 10/01/2012-04/30/2013 (please note that on missing months we rented our apartment on a month to month basis, as we are doing currently.)*

. 10. A copy of our visa credit cards for our joint account at Amazon.

11. Records showing continued use of our joint bank account at Bank of America.

12. A receipt for a cruise to the Bahamas that we went on on 01/04/2013.

13. A Christmas card addressed to us both, from my wife’s parents in England, inside envelope.

14. In the Walgreens envelope, various photographs from family events where myself and my wife are present, as well as photos from our trip to the Bahamas.

15. Also in the Walgreens envelope, our key cards from the cruise ship we embarked on for our trip to the Bahamas.

* Can You beliueve I am very glad my cat got deathly sick in 2011, that the expensive operation was paid for by my husband, addressed to my husband, and that it included the cat's birthdate, rabies vacc record corresponding to the one done in the UK and basically, proves it is the same cat.

**dreading an RFE on this too.

And that's it.

Good enough bar the missing records from irs and bank?

I have to send this now or there's no chance we can go on holiday for summer break.

Also I have had no health insurance til this year. I have preexistings. I had to wait for my husband to score a job with good health insuranmce that would cover a spouse, which he did not get til jan of this year.

Much of our info is from 2012 and...

Our 2011 tax return is not sent to our house, but to his parents. We were there for 2 months in 2011 but them we moved house. Is this a red flag?

We do not keep utility bills in both our names, because ours are on the lease bar internet which is in my husband's name. We are both very stupid and disorganised.

Hi all,

My fiance and I are trying to find the best shipping method/company to ship over a flat panel tv of his...and a box with a fish tank in it. The rest he is going to bring 2 suitcases on the plane.

What shipping companies do you suggest? We want it to be reasonable in price.

thank you!

I suggest ebay.co.uk then ebay.com to repurchase the same TV model here.

I sold my 32" TV for £235, found the same model on eBay which sell with the same period of use and condition for $250-$350. No great difference there but no shipping spent!

I hate to say it hamtaro (you never give us a name in your posts) but the onus is always on YOU, the buyer.

Caveat Emptor.

Actually I'm a trader - a lot of trading law states the onus is on the seller to inform and you can make a case against them if they don't tell you defining details or make sure they understand terms of a contract. UK law's way worse on this too, don't inform customers of their rights and they have a 1 year right of return whereby the seller has to take back the item despite wear and tear or damage - not only this has to pay for the return and refund the buyer before the item is returned. This is EU distance selling law and tbh I think it's collosally unfair on small traders - advise buyer of their rights (7 day no quibble return even if buyer damages your stock, you have to pay for return) and you open up even more possibility of people trying it on. People steal items online using this law all the time (buy new item, swap internals with broken item and send back, trader can do nothing unless you take buyer to small claims court and many small traders don't have the time or money to deal with this.) This is one reason I make the decision to trade in USA, but there's still some pretty draconian laws to protect buyers here, just less ridiculously slanted for buyer fraud than EU. Caveat emptor is a pretty redundant thing in today's markets unless you are a buyer dealing with actual criminals who will disappear after selling to you.

When I got this with Verizon they told me I had a 7 day cancellation period, so they didn't really scam me (hence "kinda" scammed - you don't have to be patronising to me), but overall to me it seems like all US phones are a bad deal (you can replace that with my previous wording if you like). I don't like the inability to switch SIM and use any phone I like, though I suppose if all Androids from Verizon do the same I really didn't have a choice anyway - husband is on Verizon so we would have been saddled with either phone and unable to switch (I wanted both services eventually.) Resolution is what matters to me and the best Android had a blurry picture when I held it next to the iPhone. The next best Android had a good picture but lower resolution. Either would really have bugged me. I was looking at the Casio Android. It had 150 or so less horizontal dot resolution than Iphone. Samsung has better resolution but a blurry looking picture. What I wanted to do was get a phone for apps and games then possibly get the other phone later. What I'm probably having to do if I want Android games is to buy a cheap tablet and just use it on Wi Fi. Don't know if that's possible. As for the $70, again - no other option, you can't have substantial internet use and phone use here for $40 like you can in the UK. Still feel ripped off but I would have had to pay it either way. I wanted the unlimited internet use that Verizon are no longer offering as of July 7th. I've used a gig in a fortnight already.

The main thing that has annoyed me with iphone is I search for a Japanese app and am not allowed to buy it or even access on iTunes outside of Japan even with my Japanese bank account (they only accept credit cards). If I want a game in Japanese not Americanised english the option is not there. This has made me wonder if I should have got an Android phone only to be annoyed by resolution or quality of image. What I am wondering now is how I would go about using an Android device not as a phone because I only want these things for the Japanese games and apps that are on them.

I dunno, I feel it might be better being charged for texts. When I was in the UK my boss texted me 5-10 times a day, I was EXTREMELY irritated by it, and it seems if you are charged for it if it happened here you could make a good case for complaining to higher-ups about such excessive texting from the boss.

I got kinda scammed by Verizon because when I signed up for the iphone I just heard "$30 internet package" over and over and thought it would be the same as my UK internet package which was £25, I didn't realise here an "internet package" was on TOP of the base rate. So I signed up for a $70 total, and my husband did not advise me not to because he assumed I'd just know - he was supposed to be there to convey any extras to me that I didn't hear because I'm hard of hearing. Plus I'm super angry about the iphone itself because it has no sim card, the verizon account is hardwired into it. What if I wanted to buy a different phone? I guess that means the verizon iphone is a paperweight with no resale value then? I wasn't told about this and it never even occurred to me to ask - mobile phones have sim cards and I never knew any different. I'm annoyed because I might have wanted to use an android phone on the same account. I guess I won't be able to without 100% disabling the iphone? Just wanted the ability to switch sims easily. Feel like I've been saddled now with one type of phone and I wanted to play around with android. I feel details like "this phone is 100% locked to us and doesn't even have a sim" are details salepeople should give you when you are making decisions about which phones to get. Wish I'd gone with the android so I'd have a sim I could transfer to an iphone later.

Plus - PLUS! Because Verizon phones have no IMEI code it isn't covered by my international phone insurance I have from Natwest with my business account. Be warned! Existing insurance is useless with no IMEI! I phoned Natwest and that was the one detail that made it ineligible, they would have insured it otherwise despite it being on a US contract, because I still maintain a UK business address.

Also, if you get rescheduled and your cat is quiet it's better to smuggle them on the plane than open your mouth and tell them. Stick a coat over the carrier, walk nonchalantly on the plane. I actually did this on the second united flight. Why? Well the guy who gave me the rebooking told me "They don't know you have a pet as it's short notice, but if they give you trouble tell them to ring the United desk and I'll OK it." When all those people got behind me for rescheduling, I thought "yeah, balls to that." I figured if I was going to cause them extra work my seat would just be given to somebody else rather than them going through the hassle of ringing the front desk. I threw a coat over the carrier and got on the plane. Don't care if I did wrong, my cat was suffering.

Continental don't allow pets in the cabin from Manchester, I can tell you that as lacking any straight answers I went to the airport and asked them directly.

I had to take my cat to Heathrow on a Virgin train, but they do cheap deals from Manchester.

I can honestly say that while United Airlines were my only option for the price, if you can afford it don't fly with them because they really did not care when my second flight was cancelled and they did not want to prioritise me for the good of the animal - made me stand in a queue for rebooking that took 2 hours to get to the front of - by that point of course there were no flights left and they really did not give a damn. The only reason I was last in the awful 2 hour queue for rebooking was because of their screw-up, they let people on our flight then of course would not let us off until finally confirming it was cancelled - by that point the entire airport was queued at the rescheduling desk, I was last in line because I waited patiently for everyone to leave the plane before getting off with the bulky cat carrier.

Plenty of seats in first class - did they care to upgrade me? No. Did they care to have a hotel available during emergency situations, despite freak weather being common in the USA in summer? No. All fully booked. Fully booked BEFORE the flight cancellations. If flight cancellations are so common, why the hell don't they have a hotel available for United travellers? I'd gladly pay the extra fee for the emergency.

Then I missed my rescheduled flight with Delta that United set up because United did not care to tell Delta I had a cat despite me insisting they check with Delta. The process of rebooking the cat took too long, I missed the plane - Delta were rude to me, United were just as rude when I went to the desk to reschedule AGAIN. Saying it was not their fault that I missed the plane etc. Fortunately a seat had opened up on the next United flight. Or rather, 4 seats opened up. It was only when I got to the departure lounge that I realised they had not assigned me a seat and they had given about 30 other people a theoretical seat on the plane. I only got on it because I stood at the desk as SOON as I realised, 5 minutes after that the lady called for everyone with an unconfirmed seat to come queue for allocation. I was first in line. My question is, if there are 4 seats why give a theoretical seat to 30 odd people and why not prioritise animals, when they certainly prioritise kids - kids can eat in airport restaurants, use the toilets and aren't packed in a tiny carrier.

I honestly think if it had been an extra day I'd have been in serious trouble, the cat was panting severely when we got out at Miami and passing out on my knee on the way home without waking when his name was called - seriously scary. Easily fixed with food and water but he hadn't wanted to eat until the point I could finally let him out of the carrier. Be warned that United do not care at all about your pet. If you can get a direct flight, get a direct flight, if you can not get a direct flight, arrange on the web with a pet friendly person who can put you up if anything like this nightmare scenario happens. United will not bump you in the queue for rescheduling, they will not provide food for the pet, they will not provide a hotel if you get stuck.

I came into Washington DC and the immigration official was chewing gum and looked like he was fed up of doing his job. Glanced at my file, then stapled it and threw away my I-94 form I filled in on the plane (the white one.) I then went into another room where they again just glanced at my stuff. They told me nothing. They told the person in front they would have their green card sent to the address they gave, but they told ME nothing. I was so keen to get out of there I didn't ask. Whole immigration process including queue took less than 20 minutes? My passport is stamped but that's all I saw them do. They were extremely disinterested and I'm worried they overlooked something and that they should not have thrown away the I-94. All they said to me is to confirm I knew my entry was conditional and I had to re-apply in 2 years. They took my file, as is normal I know but I've since heard precisely nothing. Been checking the mail every day and I don't know what to think. I checked the box asking for SSN but when do I get it? I've been here 2 weeks. I really want to work, neither me nor my husband have ANY income at all! I'm scared even of restarting my importing business in USA, I have no SSN. I'm going stir crazy as I am a bona-fide workaholic. What now?

It was hard work packing everything, labelling the boxes (your name, ref, item number and destination) and noting the contents of each box on the forms without error. Took me a good 8 hours and the knees of my jeans were literally worn away from all the kneeling, but I got there in the end.

It's worth noting here that if you have a LOT of very small possessions that collating all the info couriers want for customs is not really worth your time. I checked with couriers and would have saved money, but not time. I had all the remnants of my home electronics business. Thousands of small electronic parts to count and pack.

I opted for weighing them into 2kg packages and shipping the lot out Royal Mail surface mail with simply "misc electronic parts" on the customs labels. Just going to see if that causes any trouble receiving them. If not then oh well, I can live with losing them.

Can anyone please help. I'm going frantic. I'm only allowed one bag on board United Airlines and likely every other airline as I'm pretty sure from past experience this is a (stupid) UK law. The only bag I am allowed will have a cat in it.

Can anyone please tell me how I am supposed to carry my immigration visa package? There's a pocket on the cat's bag for a passport but no room for anything else. I have a HUGE envelope to take on for my visa and I have a VERY expensive computer that I do not want putting in cargo!

PLEASE can somebody tell me if I need a defra certified vet to certify that cat fit to fly if i am travelling by United in cabin? D:

http://animalhealth.defra.gov.uk/about/publications/forms/EXA01.pdf

Somebody help me I am going absolutely spare NOBODY said ths was required and that all I needed was a health cert from vet for fit to fly! Husband found this and I am panicking as it has to be sent off in mail! I never heard of this! I've no time to do it! PLEASE somebodsy say my husband is wrong abouty this!

My other worry-

No direct flights to where I was going on the airlines that allow pets. I have to travel on two planes. I am not bothered about taking the cat out of its carrier at any point, he was good as gold at the vets yesterday but that was principally because I was there. I really hope at the connecting airport which I'm guessing is my port of entry, that I am allowed to leave the airport, feed the cat and come back in. I have for this purpose bought a cat leash in case. Iam not joking about this cat, he is ridiculous. My neighbour was feeding him at one point, because I was at work. She let him in because it was raining. He saw me come home and tried to jump out of an upstairs window to get to me, while howling bitterly. This is going to be close to 24 hours of him being in a bag. We have taken long trps around the town on buses to acclimatise him but I'm not too sure this is going to be anything less than extremely stressful, not least if I am delayed at PoE and miss the connecting flight. Because there are no more connecting flights that day on the pet friendly airline! Fortunately there are pet friendly hotels in the area.

Do I take the cat through immigration? I heard that they prioritise families with kids at Washington DC (connecting airport.) I'm really hoping I will get prioritised if I am holding a cat because it would be terrible to miss the flight and subject the cat to more stress.

Unless it is somehow not much more expensive, I don't really want to spend that much more money. This has been an EXTREMELY expensive and lengthy visa process for me, compared to many others coming from first world countries. If I have to scrunch up in my seat and not be comfortable because the bag doesn't quite fit under the seat I'm going to have to put up with it. If I can somehow get an upgrade on the day that isn't too expensive I'll go for it.

The thing that most concerns me is I saw on another post that even though the cat is deemed hand baggage, that they take it away and put it on your seat waiting for you. I'm really concerned that my cat is going to wail and wail and be deemed stressed and unfit for travel. This is a very noisy cat that "talks" all the time, I'm already prepared for having to keep the cat quiet by waving interesting things in front of his bag. Right now as I type the cat is wailing for attention. Really concerned it will be seen as stress and they won't take him on the plane. I wanted to be able to watch him all the time to keep him quiet.

As for the people with allergies, no the cat hair cannot fly out of the bag. The bag has very fine mesh. Also very few airlines allow pets on board. Those that do only allow 2 pet for the entire plane.

Well they told me to get a sherpa bag and it could be 18" by 11" by 11", if it was a solid bag the dimensions were less. But I'm still worried because they have given me different information every time. I'm worried because I bought this bag: Medium Sherpa Bag Dimensions: 45cm (18") D x 27.5cm (11") W x 26.25cm (10.5") H. Bag Weight: 1.30kg (2.87lbs) For pets up to 7.26kg (16lbs)

Worried it will be too big!

Well I booked the cat on United and they say the reason it is not accepted on the website is only 2 cats allowed on each plane going out of UK (this is more the UK rule) and yes I could book my cat. But they are fond of giving out all kinds of confusing and conflicting information every time I ring.

So I have booked the cat and hopefully not messed it up, I mean they asked for the weight of the cat and I hadn't a clue so I guessed "5 kilos with carrier." They made me buy a Sherpa bag then told me it was too heavy at first! You can't get a Sherpa bag under 1 kilo (which is what they said it had to be.) Drove me nuts.

I have to take him in the plane with me because he is an EXCEPTIONALLY clingy cat who was abused and thrown out in earlier life and he will not leave my side, I mean quite literally. I am going to buy him a lead to walk on because every time I go out he follows at my heel anyway and everyone in the neighbourhood knows him for this. He is whiny and clingy and liable to drive everyone in the plane nuts no doubt, but I can't leave him here. I'm still exceptionally worried my visa is invalid because of the slight damage and they won't let me into the country and the cat will be impounded. Very very nervous, but what can I do otherwise.

You can;t fly out from Manchester basically with anyone now because other airlines I called have a summer embargo or cost an epic fortune in comparison. I can't put my cat in the hold. He will try to tear his way out of the bag, and yes I have witnessed this after walking away and leaving him in the bag. He needs constant companionship all the time.

I really need help, I have been trying to book a flight via United airlines but the people on the phone are just clueless. But despite the fact people on this site have taken their animals as hand baggage on United, I found this page on united's site that suggests they are NOT ACCEPTED from the UK, as hand or checked baggage.

http://www.united.com/page/article/1,,53410,00.html

So I went to delta's site and found this:

"United Kingdom (U.K.) regulations do not permit carry-on pets or accompanied pets traveling with passenger baggage. All animals, including service animals, must be transported as cargo. "

What is going on? Any advice? God but I hate this country. This makes me hate it more.

I can;t put my cat in cargo. I just can't. I guess this means I'm giving my cat away.

Do not know what to think any more. Was going to travel United airlines as all other options now have a summer embargo on any species. But I saw this page http://www.united.com/page/article/1,,53410,00.html and it says animals not accepted from United Kingdom???? This is just bloody typical.

It's "their" btw not "there" I mean despite having swallowed a whole bloody bottle of red to stave off the constant pain that is the knowledge I detroyed my visa through being retarded, I can make that distinction.

Seriously I don;t think one person has ever in the history of this forum focused on the issue which is certainly

"Immigration is only an option for the middle class and upwards. The working class (sponsor) need not apply."

That you can fling around "hey you can chuck $440 at this and forget it" is some hurtful thing to me.

I grew up working class with no option to sponsor immigrant visas.

This is a concept completely alien to over 30% of the UK population!

Over $400 is a lot to lose over doing smething this stupid.

You say don;t beat on yourself well I have beat on myself and worse over this - over wasting this much money on a 1/2 hour mistake and yep, I hate myself.

"insert some dumb rolling on side facebook smiley here what is money"

lol I focus on my issue all day that;s the exact bloody problem.

"everyone most completely has $404 to fling at some ###### so long as they're white and white collar" god bless the USA.

"like I completely won't hate and despise myself for wasting upwards of $500 for spitting on a visa over 1/2 hour I mean I fling upwards of $500 on useless ###### all the livelong day"

"what is money"

"I'm so blase about the whole thing"

This forum is so middle class.

So your situation is:

Your visa is damaged. Rather than get a replacement visa, you want to try and travel on the slightly damaged one but you are worried about it.

You need to know how much a replacement spousal visa would be and how long this process has taken for other people so you can decide what to do?

Ok! That makes sense! Good luck! I hope someone can help.

This is exactly it, I am weighing up risk. We (my husband and I) have called many people and seen them in person including border control USCIS and the airline I am going to fly with at their check-in desk. All say I should be OK with the visa but there is some tiny amount of doubt. London embassy of USA have not responded but given their response in the past in similar situations that I have googled, they are going to say "get a new visa." I'm basically about 99% certain they will say this and somebody in the know that I respect has all but confirmed I "should" get a new visa but I CAN chance it. Chancing it is not illegal. Worst that can happen is I am sent back, but my original petition is still valid and I go through the final process again (which includes interview and up to 2 month wait for such.) I really really do not want to have this 2 month wait. I am prepared to gamble a £300 plane ticket on this, especially given if I am successful it prevents 100% the need to do another visa interview with 2 month wait, £200 cost and £70 to travel to london to do it. I hope people can understand this, yes if I am unsuccessful I spend more money than I would have done but I really would like to hear from others with a similar problem because I would love to potentially circumvent such extra cost even if it is a gamble. My whole visa journey has after all been a gamble for me, even with a 90% chance of success. Most have an almost 100% chance, I've never had that because of medical problems.