EminTX

I have brought several things back with me. Some were in my carry on and some in my packed luggage. The first time I did this, I dumped the boxes and shoved all into one single box because of space. The 2nd time, items were in small enough boxes that it was no biggie.
I had no problems personally. Some of the items I brought back were items that I had a written prescription for from my doc and I am in the best demographic ever for profiling so that may help me to get away with things that other people might get tripped up over.
This is so common to do that I don't think it is commonly an issue unless you are bringing enough to sell.
I tried to look up an official site with info but I couldn't find one with all the other sites that are coming up, no matter what combination of words I have typed in.
Here is the best I could find for the official story. It is about halfway down the page and just a few lines.
http://www.mexonline.com/faqs.htm
Medcial tourism is so common now that I expect this is enforced as often as not using your turning signal to change lanes.

This is a very interesting concept. I like the idea and can see this as a valid and valuable option for many folks.
I wanted to correct a bit in your statement. The marriage license is issued IMMEDIATELY, but after it is issued, THEN you have to wait 72 hours to marry.
Texas Marriage License FAQ's
Additional note:
If you ARE planning to marry in Texas and you need to have your proof of marriage in a "timely fashion", don't get your license in a heavily populated city. We bought ours here in our neighborhood and were told that we'd have the documents back within 30 days. On day 31, it was available for us to purchase a COPY, but the originals were still being held hostage somewhere. The official copies were 7$ each and we got 4 of them for filing AOS and my insurance company and other places. The woman who waited on us was the same one who sold us the license and this time she told me they don't have to have it ready for us for NINETY DAYS!
Federal law (IRS) dictates payroll deduction rules for insurance changes and if you plan to add your new spouse to your company's plan, you have to provide proof within that 30 days from the event. Usually you can file for an exception, but that was an added stressor that we didn't need to deal with.
Delays caused by my county's bureaucracy:
Filing for AOS held up a month (He has to return to Perú this fall to finish one semester of college so we were in a panic! )
Adding him to health ins
My name change requirements. THIS delayed:
My Driver's License
My passport change
My CCL (gun permit)
Adding him to my bank (required the social security card for both of us-time consuming so we went once, together)
My professional licenses
etc.
If you live in a bigger city, go to the next county over and get your license. You will probably save time that day from not needing to stand in line. Good luck, everyone.

Our RFE was in early November and we received our NOA2 in Jan 10th with our NOA2 dated January 13th. He received the embassy packet on Feb 14th and the interview was March 14. I am sure that our RFE took longer than is typical because it was on the desk of someone on vacation for Christmas.
I really, really, REALLY wish I would have known about frontloading. I sent in the original application EXACTLY what was required as per the instructions. Those instructions should be changed if it automatically dings you for an RFE by being exact. I had no idea that it would be okay to include more stuff with it. Finding this site took me about 6 months of web browsing amongst all the lawyer websites. Visa Journey needs to be the number one hit on Google!
(Our RFE details are in a thread that is linked in my signature, if anyone is interested.)

I think it is interesting that no one has mentioned age as a factor. I am 40. Every minute is a tick-tick-tick-tick-tick-tick-tick-tick for us. We are not kids, nor even "young adults". If we are here, in the US together, the time to begin trying is NOW. But, we are not. Every cycle means the odds are much less. No woman in my family (that I know of) has ever been pregnant after 38.
FYI-Statistic: A women at 30 has 50% of the same chance of pregnancy as a woman at 25.
Every 5 years pretty much halves a woman's chances. At 45, the odds are low enough that if a couple wants a child by that point, they need to START with an infertility medical workup.
For us, if he can't (for whatever reason) be here with me, then we will live together there. Would that suck? Maybe. Maybe not. Would it be completely worth it to turn my life upside down to go and be with him, of course. He is worth it. And he is absolutely willing to do that for me, so it is only fair that I offer the same, if need be. If we do have a child, that child is part of the package-deal.
Anyone who assumes that the child would grow up without both parents is assuming that couples who are filing the K-1 don't actually have serious enough commitments to be together and it is very telling about the writer's own commitments to his/her future spouse.

I am actually against birthright citizenship and fully agree that its usefulness has passed, but while this is a legal option, I don't have any issues with anyone who is trying to be responsible in gaining US citizenship for their child.
It IS nice to see someone who is trying to do something completely within the law and I am believe that being able to contribute to our society and economy is a good thing. Retiring here is not a bad thing, either, if that is their plan. Since the parents are employed and are contemplating options of working here in the US, that is even better.
Living in a sanctuary city and working for a major provider of health care means that I am face-to-face with those who are completely flaunting their illegal status on a daily basis (and are quite proud to proclaim it openly). Going through this visa and immigration process makes me less tolerant and compassionate about those who blatantly disregard the laws of this great country. I am delighted to see an example of someone who is trying to be responsible and honest.

You folks can't be serious. Entering the US does not get you a green card at all. APPLYING and PAYING for the greencard gets you in line to eventually hopefully be granted one. We filed in May and it is now just about April and we are still waiting. And waiting. And waiting.
We did get AP (travel permission) and work authorization in 3 months--but we had to call and request expedite to get that. As far as the right to stay here, we are still in limbo and well aware that it is NOT a guarentee.
For our SS cards (mine, too--name change), it was 2 weeks. That was actually the easiest thing we had done. I still haven't had luck getting my professional liscense changed. Sigh.

The title of this thread asks for examples of "strong evidence" but the initial post only talks about FB. WHAT??? I certainly hope there is a lot more to your relationship than online chat.
If you have time, write actual paper letters to each other. Since this immigration process takes many, many weeks, there is plenty of time for postage delivery. It is cheap and this is one thing that was looked at in the interview for my fiance. (Plus it is very sweet and romantic to send the love of your life something that you actually touched with your hands.) My fiance took with him almost all the cards, postcards, and letters that I'd sent him along with the birthday cards I'd sent to his parents (for good measure). Seeing the notebook with the well-organized documents, photos, and letters, the interviewer didn't bother to check much else. I'd bet that it was clear that we weren't out to waste his time with stacks of repetitive ####### and had everything super easy for him to find. Keeping things simple and easy for the person who has so many people to "process" is probably going to make them feel better about you in general and can work in your favor.
A tip that I read on here that has seems to help tip the scales in the favor of the foreign fiance is to be sure the USC is there and for the foreign fiance to take the passport of the USC with him/her to the interview (if the fiance is not allowed to attend). This is some very distinct evidence of relationship to travel to the country of the loved one and to entrust one's documents with that person.
Good luck.

My husband quit his bellyaching when he went back home for 5 months to finish school. He had already gotten used to hot water on demand from every tap, Subway sandwiches across the street, having our own vehicle, his Home Depot addiction, NetFlix, air conditioning, unlimited access to all the frisky-play he wanted, etc. When he went back, of course he was delighted to be back in his element. For a few weeks. It wasn't long before he was lamenting for me to make some corn bread and mail it to him. Or his celebration when Pop-Eyes Chicken opened downtown in his city, but it "wasn't exactly right.". And he was lonely.
Since he has returned, he hasn't complained one time about how much he misses his home country. It wasn't so glittery gold after all and each place has its charms and detractions. And he knows that when we have the funds, he will be able to return for a visit in a heartbeat.
If this is a possibility for y'all, consider it.

Although my petition has already been approved, I'm proud to sign this in hopes it will bring fairness to other petitioners. My only suggestion is that it should have addressed all service centers and not exclusively California.

My husband quit his bellyaching when he went back home for 5 months to finish school. He had already gotten used to hot water on demand from every tap, Subway sandwiches across the street, having our own vehicle, his Home Depot addiction, NetFlix, air conditioning, unlimited access to all the frisky-play he wanted, etc. When he went back, of course he was delighted to be back in his element. For a few weeks. It wasn't long before he was lamenting for me to make some corn bread and mail it to him. Or his celebration when Pop-Eyes Chicken opened downtown in his city, but it "wasn't exactly right.". And he was lonely.
Since he has returned, he hasn't complained one time about how much he misses his home country. It wasn't so glittery gold after all and each place has its charms and detractions. And he knows that when we have the funds, he will be able to return for a visit in a heartbeat.
If this is a possibility for y'all, consider it.

I agree with the last post. My ex is my EX for a reason and there is absolutely zero attraction between us in any way whatsoever any more. My husband knows this and is very comfortable with the situation. He understands that in our family, the only way out is to die--you can't even divorce your way out and at holidays and gatherings, ex's bring their new spouses/kids and sometimes even their ex. The more people to love everyone in the family, the better. The more trustworthiness you can have, the better. The more community and family unity you can have, the better.
If my ex calls to invite for a BBQ, pool party, road trip, whatever--we are on it like white on rice.
My ex was a part of my past and there is no reason that he should be disposible. No one has ever been like that for me - not friends, acquaintances, or lovers (except a violent one).
Besides, if you do have some insecurity about it, you can go with him sometimes over the 2 months and see if her house is covered in momentos or photos of him or if he has clearly been replaced by someone "better" or what. If she is away training, she won't be around.
Why would anyone expect that a dog won't remember someone from 7 years ago? Dogs are especially loyal and have demonstrated this repeatedly throughout history with examples of several years of absence from their lives being forgiven in a moment.

If you are not comfortable with it, you are not comfortable with it. End of. People on here are going to tell you OMG HE WANTS TO BONE HERRRRRRR, and others will say "Not a biggie, grow up!" Only YOU know what you are comfortable with.
For example, my ex-husband and I are good friends, and he helps me out with any issues relating to my car. I saw him last night because he's working on my car radio upgrade, and we hung out, had dinner and watched an old movie. My boyfriend knew this was happening, and he had no problem with it. I made it clear when I entered my relationship with my boyfriend that I am friends with my ex-husband and a couple of ex-boyfriends, and that if he wasn't cool with that he needed to tell me upfront. He asked me if I was still sleeping with any of them, or wanted to, and I said NO WAY. We've been together two years and I maintain a policy of always telling my BF if I'm hanging with an ex. Hell, he's even friends with one of my ex-boyfriends now.
The key is honesty and openness. What are YOU comfortable with? Have you told him your concerns?

Yep
So is punctuation.

Drugs are bad.

Im clearly on this site way too much, but its nice to be in the company of people who are also in your shoes. My friends who have their loved ones here with them dont get what we go through.
With that being said, there are way too many people asking questions regarding if they will lose their status after they marry and want to divorce, and when or if they have to return if the marriage doesnt work, etc
O_O
I understand that nothing is promised, but to go through this process only to immediately seek alternatives for a way out, I will never understand. Why go through this process if you arent expecting to be with your petitioner for life. People who are even in the states are asking questions in regards to protecting their status if the relationship fails, wanting to make note it hasnt yet failed.
Word of advice, if you arent planning to be in these relationships for life, then find another way to get here. Its people like that who are making this process so painful, scrutinized every damn step of the way, trying to weed out fraud, while holding up those of us who want to move on with their life with their loved ones.
smh

I made my wife a laminated two sided color copy of her green card. She carries that with her all the time, as well as her driver's license. We keep the original safe at home where we don't need to risk it getting lost.

No it's not!!!! But marrying and adjusting status is!
If you get married and then go back and wait out the visa process back home you have nothing to worry about!

No it is not. Coming to the states on a visitor's visa with the intent to get married and STAY HERE is fraud. OP stated he would go back home when his visa was up. Perfectly legal.
OP - as long as you go back home and don't overstay, all will be well. But they might not even let you in if you state that you are coming to get married. Just be prepared.
GOOD LUCK!

To be fair, this post was originally in the "New Life In America" forum when EminTX replied to it and was subsequently moved to the CR1 forum later!

Step 1 - put a group of porta potty's outside the CSC office
Step 2 - use hand sanitizer
Step 3 - work on K1 Visa's
problem solved

It is because they are full of $h!t.

Sorry, the "beans and rice and rice and beans" is a Dave Ramsey reference. It is one of the things he always preaches to focus on when cutting your expenses. Eating out or eating expensive it not necessary.
When my better half gets here, that is one of the first things we will do together is take the Financial Peace class in Spanish so that he can bette understand money here in the US.

I wanted to add..honestly, the single best adjustment-helper was my husband's return to his country for 5 months. It was awful to be separated for that time 4 months after we got married, but in the long run, I think it might have been the biggest help in our new marriage.
In his first 4 months, he was missing his family, home, hobbies, friends, freedom, foods, etc. He was adjusting, but wasn't aware of it and there was a lot of friction about how sad he was about missing his home and culture.
When he went back for that final semester of college, he was missing cornbread, hot water in every faucet on demand, Sub-Way and Vietnamese sandwiches, fresh baked bread at home, cookies, going to the movies with me every week, having the whole house to ourselves, the cat, green grass everywhere, etc. He even called me one night begging me to make some corn bread and send it to him.
That time back there showed him just how much richer his life had become with his wife and the opportunities here that we have in our circumstances. I am sure the sudden lack of "physical fun" was a drastic shock to someone who was used to having that all the time was a big factor, too.
Since his return 7 weeks ago, there hasn't been a single comment about how much he misses being back home or life there. He knows that I really want to be able to send him home when he wants it, too but with a baby on the way, that is financial priority number one. He is very well aware about how stressed I am about making enough money for us so I think that also has reduced his lamenting when he knows it only causes friction.

Wow, I am blown away by all of the amazing tips here! Thank you all so much we are going to try them out today, since we both have the day off.
Layla

U.S. roads paved with glass panels encasing photovoltaics and LEDs would double as national grid
By David Biello
A truck tire supporting a 36,300-kilogram load repeatedly traverses an 18-meter stretch of road, day in and day out, rolling up 483,000 kilometers on the odometer at the U.S. Department of Transportation's (DoT) testing facility in Virginia. The goal is to thoroughly challenge any new paving techniques and see how the road surface holds up. Now imagine putting a solar panel under there.
That's exactly what Scott Brusaw of Sagle, Idaho–based Solar Roadways hopes to do next February. The electrical engineer is currently at work building a prototype of his so-called "Solar Road Panel" with the help of a $100,000 small business grant from the DoT.
"We're building solar panels that you can drive on," Brusaw says. "The fact that it's generating power means it pays for itself over time, as opposed to asphalt."
There are about 260,000 kilometers of roadway in the U.S. National Highway System alone, and thousands more in state highways, suburban thoroughfares and rural roads. Could all that asphalt be replaced with a solar technology that would also double as the nation's power grid?
The key to making this work will be the glass: The solar road panel prototype is 1,024 modules—each containing a solar cell, a light-emitting diode and, someday, an ultracapacitor for storage—sandwiched between a layer of some yet-to-be developed glass and a layer of conducting material. "Nobody's tried to drive on glass long-term," Brusaw says.
In addition to needing strength, this glass will be textured to allow tires to grip and water to run off. It will also be embedded with heating elements—like a car's rear windshield—to melt snow or ice. And it will need to be self-cleaning, coping with the grit and grime of an endless procession of tires as well as dust, dirt and other highway detritus. Needless to say, such glass does not exist yet but Brusaw hopes to partner with researchers at The Pennsylvania State University's Materials Research Institute to develop it.
"Glass theoretically can have a very high strength, provided there are no flaws," says materials scientist John Hellmann of Penn State, a glass expert. But "can you keep the proper optical properties to transmit light to the PV [photovoltaics, or solar cell] and still not weather or change with that traffic going over it? … We make some pretty doggone good glass for structural applications but we're not driving trucks on them."
The engineering challenges are immense, adds materials scientist Richard Brow of the Missouri University of Science and Technology, another glass expert. But glass can be strengthened by compressing its surface using special heating techniques or, at a molecular level, swapping ions in the glass itself. Such enhanced glass is 10 times stronger than the conventional variety and is used, for example, in smart phones to withstand the pressures of texting. "Can you go from a teenager's thumb to a truck? That's a pretty big leap, but 10 years ago we didn't think you could make a 15-micron piece of glass for what's relatively rough handling in a PDA," Brow says.
Glass has been used to build footbridges, such as the Chihuly Bridge of Glass in Tacoma, Wash. And new glass ceramic composites with increased toughness have been developed for the photovoltaics industry, Brow adds—but that might boost the price of the resulting panel.
In the meantime, Brusaw is spending $40,000 of the DoT's money to build a prototype from chemically hardened glass panels that can be purchased today. He will experiment with various types of solar cells, from thin-film to traditional monocrystalline silicon photovoltaics, and he will try to strike the right balance between transparency—so the panel works to deliver at least several thousand kilowatt-hours of electricity each day—and road-gripping texture, which will block some of the light. "If you have perfectly clear glass, you get perfect PV efficiency. But [with] perfectly smooth glass, everybody slips off the road," he notes. "Glass manufacturers can cut grooves into the glass in a hatch-type pattern. We'll try various methods and see what holds up."
Cost will be a factor: "The cost to develop a glass that will hold up in the fast lane of a highway? Fifteen [million] to 25 million dollars over three to five years," Brusaw says. "The cost in mass production? About $1 per square foot." The goal is to produce a 12-foot by 12-foot panel for $10,000 that is capable of producing 7,600 kilowatt-hours of electricity daily, enough per panel for more than 240 average U.S. homes, which use 936 kilowatt-hours per month, according to the Energy Information Administration.
In addition to requiring a yet-to-be-invented form of glass, solar roadways would need some form of energy-storage capability—whether batteries or some not-yet-devised ultracapacitor. The goal is to create a cross-country highway system that can also serve as an national electricity generator and power grid. And paired with wind turbines to generate electricity at night, Brusaw estimates replacing the nation's highways with his solar roadways could eliminate the need for fossil fuel–fired power plants. "Based on my calculations, at 15 percent efficiency [from the photovoltaics] we produce more than three times the electricity we have ever produced," he says. Even with cars constantly casting shade over the road surface, along with other challenges, "we think we can make enough to meet the nation's energy needs," he adds.
Other companies, such as the England's Invisible Heating Systems, have developed roads that use embedded water pipes to harvest some of the sun's ample energy that also bathes U.S. roads.
The solar roadway will also offer embedded LEDs to illuminate the road and display information, whether the actual traffic directions, such as lane markers, or messages such as "SLOW DOWN." And, should electric cars become popular, powered pavement could also offer recharging stations wherever such panels are installed.
The first test of Brusaw's crystalline vision will be when the prototype is delivered to the DoT on February 12, 2010. And the DoT's challenges will be followed by some durability testing by the inventor with a pickax, sledgehammer and, depending on the prototype's fortitude, guns. Then it's on to parking lots and perhaps fast food restaurants. "Parking lots are much better than going right out onto the highway," Brusaw says. "You have slow-moving, lightweight vehicles. We can learn all the lessons there before moving into the fast lane."
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article....####-solar-roads