EminTX

I'm not sure of the right place to post this, but I wanted to share my happiness.
Despite my husband being away on deployment and my mom missing the birth by a day, I am happy to say I gave birth to a healthy baby boy after 24 hours of labor! He was 8 lbs and 4.5 oz, 20.5 inches long. He was a superbowl baby! My husband was able to Skype the birth. I delivered 9 days before my due date and so my mom missed it by a day, she arrived from the Philippines the following day and is spending a whole month with me. I'm just glad it all worked out. I just want to tell others that you can do anything! My husband deployed when I was 18 weeks pregnant and I kept going to school full-time till the day before I went into labor. I survived being alone while pregnant and I am grateful for the company of my mom now. I just ask everyone for prayers so that my husband comes home soon- we expect him home this Fall.

After my wife Jena got to the states we put off having a child until we could afford it. She was able to get a job as a care giver (CNA) in a nursing home for the disabled. It was a very difficult job with a long commute and a 6 am start time every day. In return, the company provided her with health insurance and maternity coverage. She worked for 2 1/2 years with perfect attendance at that job while we saved for the pregnancy. Since she was already insured she was able to get private health insurance easily after the baby was born. It also includes maternity coverage in case we decide to have a second child. She's now a stay at home mom.
I waited until I was 48 years old to become a father. One of the biggest determining factors in that descision was being able to afford it. I don't have much respect for people that MAKE THE CHOICE to have me support their children.

you said and i quote "is there any way around this was the government can help me with maternity care?" seriously????? the affidavit of support is put in place so you CANNOT get around the system. Why do you think that just because you have paid taxes that your recent immigrant wife is entitled to government health insurance? Did you not read any of the forms you signed before she arrived? I am trying not to be judgmental, but why should I, as a taxpayer, be liable for paying for coverage for your wife and new baby? Why not put off having children until you can actually afford to pay for it on your own? SMH

If you are so concerned about the costs of maternity care and birth what about the cost of raising a child from one day old to age 18?! You would not only be doing a disservice to tax payers but also your future child by not having the funds necessary to raise it and expecting government assistance to do it for you. Sure people fall on hard times that are beyond their control and they deserve a safety net but it shouldn't be abused by people who just want to make selfish choices. If you want a child so badly then you and your wife should get good jobs with adequate benefits and save a lot of money. That is what RESPONSIBLE people do.

Nope, my family is blessed to have brains and a good work ethic so we don't require help from the government. I think it is fine that people get help when they need it and are desperate, but I think your attitude that the gov should pay for your baby because you "want" it and you are ill-prepared and disorganized is shameful. Babies are expensive, so if you want one, find a way to pay for one.

That is clearly not true though- she would have had to send at least the fee too to get NOA1.

That actually sounds good as far as evidence is concerned. Just make sure to have everything else the instructions ask for, multiple forms, intent letters etc. and you should be good.
The advice so far in this thread seems pretty spot on, but I wanted to add one thing from your original post that I didn't see being addressed. You said you have pictures of an engagement ceremony. Be very careful to insure that these state engagement ceremony on them. I have seen threads in here of people being denied and having to go through extra RFE's because whomever was looking at their evidence had mistaken engagement ceremonies for Wedding ceremonies. As long as you make sure it's clearly not a wedding ceremony then you should be fine. I just wanted to mention it to save you any possible hassle down the line.

1. You have receive a notice (usually called NOA1) that tells you the petition has been received, correct?
2. Why are you writing "because my husband is from"?...K-1 and husband are not compatible. Which is it?
3. 6-7 months into a K-1 (if in fact you have the correct petition), is not unheard of and it seems you might be getting some news soon.
To be able to provide help, please be precise: Is your filing for a K-1? Have you received NOA1??

Thanks Xanax, I feel better now. Xanax always makes me feel better.

I once had an ex-bf that was going through a fraud trial with his ex-wife. The short of his story is that his US born but foreign raised ex-gf called him up out of the blue and asked to get back together, he was an idiot and agreed to everything. She filled out all the paperwork from here in Kansas and told him (non-English speaking at that time) that everything was good and that some things have different meanings in English--like MARRIAGE for example--sometimes the word FIANCE can be used, instead. His culture has two different kinds of marriage so he didn't question it at all. Once here, employed, in college, and absolutely helpless to simply return, she abandonded him, filed for an "emergency divorce" in their resident state of Kansas and was granted that divorce within a few hours while he was out of town. (Based on unsubstianted abuse because we all "know" how Middle Eastern men can be!) She then cleaned out the bank account and the apartment and left his clothes in a pile on the living room floor. He had the car that he had traveled in and his clothes. She then sued for the car. Fortunately, the judge in that one told her she was greedy and stupid. As soon as 9/11 happened and The Department of Homeland Security came into being, she called them to report him as a terrorist. And as a fraud. And....
She demanded that he pay her over 100,000U$ to leave him alone.
He spent over 30,000U$ in legal fees and around 8 years of his life. He had given up a successful medical practice in his home country.
I went to court with him once. His file was so thick that it was two of them, several inches thick, and rubber banded together. The baliff accidently dropped them (at 8 in the morning) and the judge said, "Oh no! Put that on the bottom of the stack for this afternoon." Simply because his file was absurdly oversized, he had to wait until EVERY OTHER ONE was finished, including the ones with a court time for after 1 pm. I like to think that the people who serve the public are fair, but that was evidence enough to not overwhelm ANYbody with more than is necessary because they might just put you on the bottom of the stack. USCIS is esentially a group of strangers in whose hands you are putting your fate. Don't irritate them with too much or useless ####### or they might stick you on the bottom of their stack, too.
BTW--this relationship was extremely verbally volatile--if he had been a violent man, we would have had fist fights. Looking back, I can't believe we never did. He was absolutely NOT physically abusive and probably couldn't be pushed into it. He did get all his immigration straightened out and is now a successful physicial in Boston. I hope he now has a wife that is both deaf and a pacifist.

When I see the occasional post like (Approved after only 30 minutes, didn't even have time to finish the TV show I was watching) -
It makes me think about everything we have been doing so far and question it for a second. Then I realize something important to me.
I don't mean to be cynical, just skeptical. The timing of these rare cases is always bizarrely fast and lacking in substantive details. Although this could actually have happened in 66 days or 30 minutes, I tend to think that it is highly unlikely that someone could circumnavigate through a bureaucracy as thick as USCIS and get approved before all other applications that are ahead of them by many months.
Unless there is a life threatening causative event or unless their last name is Obama, it is just too good to be true and I suspect that there are those who join and post here, the ridiculous so that others will get even more frustrated than they already are.
Even if it is true, (congratulations, I'm jealous) - I look at the timelines of all the 2500 or so people who have documented their journeys here and 99.0% have journeys that are taking 180+ days to get to NOA2 -
I choose to think that the smarter thinking on my part is to trust the information of the 99% and put little stock in the fast and furious -
Now if the OP could tell us what they did that caused their paperwork to defy the laws of physics, that would be truly useful information. But as for me, I think the majority here are smart, judicious and for the most part have done our homework and accept the fact that God is Great and government is crazy.

it's ok. Do it now (postcards I mean). Keep it for the interview (or in case you have a RFE), it is alxays nice to have a few, just in case. (but I think most people communicate via internet now... so they must be used not having a lot of cards)

My wife also complained that I wouldn't correct her all the time. Reality was that I was so used to her and the anomalies in her language that my brain would auto correct and I wouldn't be aware of the mistakes.

Please don't stress its probably something minor or something that you have already sent and they just misplaced it. I to have been through a RFE and I think I freaked myself out more than I need to. Just try and relax and see what they ask for. Good Luck...

So i had my first driving lesson tonight in Kmart parking lot. It was actually not bad at all. Got pulled over by the police though because somebody reported us as being suspicious! The police man was laughing like crazy saying it was obvious what we were doing anyway but he had to come check it out since somebody called. We spent 3 hours there and we had fun as well and i have also made a friend out of it so win win all around.

I made a better one...

When I took driver's ed, I was 16 and had never driven whatsoever. It was am 16 day course (5 on, 2 off, 5 on, 2 off, 2 on = 12 days). We had classroom instruction for 4 hours, lunch, then 3 students to a car to drive one hour each for each of the days. Total actual driving time = 12 hours. (Not including practicing with my crazy older sister!)
When my son took driver's ed, he had already been driving for about 5 or 6 years. As soon as he was tall enough to push the clutch, I made him begin to learn (around 8 or 9 years old). He drove the church parking lot after services and at camping locations for a couple of years and then on a long distance trip where we had to rush a 12 hour emergency drive and I was super exhausted from working 3 doubles back to back, he drove from the middle of Texas up to a small town in the Panhandle. When it was time for him to take driver's ed, the class was a breeze. I can't remember exactly, but I think his in-car driving time was about the same as mine--12 hours.
This is probably so short because of the life-long familiarity with the signs and their meanings. It doesn't help that my husband has developed the habit since infancy to sleep in any moving vehicle. So far, he has had between 25 and 30 hours of driving practice behind the wheel with 3 different people and he has not left the most tranquil of neighborhoods yet. Traffic at all still freaks him out. One issue is that 2 of the vehicles he has practiced in are manual transmissions and 2 are automatics. He is doing very well with that as of now, but it was extra stressful in the beginning.
When advising or (reading advice) on here, please be aware that each state has its own sovreign laws about driving. One state may require a permit, others may not. Different ages of different drivers hav different requirements sometimes, too. Learn what is needed in YOUR state. And take the test in the smallest care you can get.

I would never, EVER do this. I drive to a spot where I would not be obviously on someone's private property (driveway!) like a corner store or at the curb in front of a vacant lot or alongside a park. If you are that lost, you can drive another minute to go to a place where you do not look like you are casing properties for robberies. There is absolutely zero reason to ever to pull onto a stranger's private property to make a phone call unless you are calling 911.
We live in a very high crime area, too. My husband is learning to drive and we had the discussion 3 days ago about how you do NOT turn use a driveway to turn around unless it is an OBVIOUSLY vacant house--instead, you do a 3-point or Y turn around. I was taught this 25 years ago in driver's ed and the same lesson applies moreso today.
This vehicle was how? Loud aggressive music? After dark or near it? Did they sit and idle for a while? There were four people in the vehicle? They were looking for the place where someone else lived? When they pulled in, did they pull all the way to the end of a driveway that was between the houses or up to the garage door or leave the tail of the vehicle at the street to keep keep a distance from the home? (Pulling all the way on a touble or triple driveway indicates a home invasion--it is getting too close for absolutely no reason.) Two of the passengers had exited the vehicle and were together to approach the house? There are too many variables. The homeowner had time to get his firearm, exit his house, and shoot in the air. I agree, that in that situation, my hands would be up to display that they are empty and without any weapon or threat (if I were in the vehicle).
I work in a busy ER where we have shooting victims regularly.My 2 neighbors in both directions have been victims of break-ins. I am automatically on full alert when someone does something like pull into my driveway when there are plenty of places to park or turn around that are close enough for me to throw a rock at them. No one has a reason to enter my driveway unless he or she is expected. I have no reason to enter anyone else's driveway either and I don't unless I KNOW the people and am expected. Otherwise, I street park and walk up or call first.
I do agree that it sounds like it escalated very quickly and without reason, but when an ordinary law-abiding citizen has a reaction this extreme, it is very rare that the situation is so blatantly that he just attacked some innocent youths for no good reason.

I know this is like ashark feeding frenzy but I shouldn't have to loose my guns because someone else misused his weapon.
This is akin to me not being able to drive because some nitwit crashed his car.

You're being ridiculous. I said his experiences trained him to think and react in different ways to other people. My husband had PTSD, still does to a small extent, but at least he doesn't see people waking him up as a reason to come up swinging anymore. The man in the article went for many years without killing someone, why now? There was an article I read where people in the military in support groups don't sit in a circle, because that means someone will have their back facing a window or door. Instead they're all sitting with their backs up against the walls so they can keep and eye out.
Just like I think people are rude pr*cks for certain things they say and others just think it's normal. It's all based on experience. His experience was: car full of people enters my drive way, accelerated and wound down the window. If you lived in an area of crime you'd think it was some sort of drive-by as well.
You know what, to a small extent yes. Many never come back "right", in defense of OUR freedom they've given a piece of themselves that many never get back.

Hardly... If my car gets jacked out of my driveway, assuming a young black male took it is hardly racism, when they account for over 90% of the crime in my area. I thinks it's basic statistics and logic.
If their is a serial killer in my location I am going to think white guy, right away.. People use stats for a reason.

It's Cause/Effect:
Was the guys initial reaction shooting his gun into the air a bit extreme? Perhaps.
HOWEVER, the kid rolled down the window in front of a man man with a gun. You don't get much more stupid than that right there.
The kid didn't 'deserve' to die, but he's definitely got some fault in this.

It is the dead guy's fault. He drove on private property, and then when the guy with the guy was yelling he rolled down his window. I wasn't there, but I can almost guarantee you the window rolling down made the home owner think the kid was going to pull something. In that situation - you don't wait and see, you shoot to kill. Period.

The kid shouldn't have rolled down the window.... Should have just driven away.

:rofl:
It is ok, I had a similar thought with this:


Don't ask me why.