KTandTommy

Umm... what?
All I-129F petitions get sent to the Dallas Lockbox and forwarded to either CSC or VSC depending on where the US petitioner lives.
http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis/menuitem.5af9bb95919f35e66f614176543f6d1a/?vgnextoid=1872aca797e63110VgnVCM1000004718190aRCRD&vgnextchannel=fe529c7755cb9010VgnVCM10000045f3d6a1RCRD

Thanks for the support, everyone.
I ended up coming home a couple of weeks ago now... I still have to figure out all the paperwork that goes along with it, but I have no doubt that I made the right decision for myself.

Thanks for the support, everyone.
I ended up coming home a couple of weeks ago now... I still have to figure out all the paperwork that goes along with it, but I have no doubt that I made the right decision for myself.

If you are wanting to go back to your maiden name then you don't need to do anything with your ID in Canada.
For OHIP I think you just need to wait 3 months, you can call them to see what proof they want to show your back and for the required time. Someone who did this recently may see this and give you better info. So start getting mail, change your drivers license back.
For 2013 taxes since you will still be in the US go ahead and do them then. Once you are back in Canada if you are not divorced by the time the taxes roll around you can claim as separated. Not sure what they mark but obviously you wont have your soon to be ex's tax info ( I used H&R block when I was separated and that is what they did). If you work at all in 2014 you will need to file both Canadian and US taxes to clear that up. Now I'm far from knowing anything about taxes that's why I payed someone to do mine
Your Sin # doesn't need you to do anything.
Make sure you keep a copy of your marriage certificate till you get your divorce decree so you can show, the name difference if you are even asked. Like maybe when you go to change your DL back and maybe they can issue it in your maiden name before you are divorced.

Oh boo
I hope something opens up for you soon
We're probably going to have a November interview (as long as they send packet 3 already!) but we're planning our big wedding to be in May... we have the option to postpone if necessary, but hopefully it won't come to that.

I don't want a bouquet/garter toss either. LOL... I just feel so *on display* and it's just not me (Especially the garter toss - I'm going to be wearing a tea-length dress, so he'd basically have to expose me to the crowd to get at a garter! LOL)
I think we're going to do the pick a seat not a side thing too. And oddly, even though I'm the foreign one, I think it'll be mostly my family at the wedding, and a few of our scattered friends (ie locals and travellers). Tom doesn't have a big family, and doesn't anticipate many people coming to the wedding, so it'll make things look more even if we just scrap the seating traditions.
I can't remember who mentioned pink vs. red on the last page of this thread - but Tom's very first thing that he said when we started planning was "absolutely no pink" (which sucks because turquoise and pink are my two favourite colours) - so we ended up compromising and our scheme is turquoise and red
I'm in love with our wedding plans too!

Even though I'm not the person you quoted, I'm going to reply because I'm doing the same thing.
It does seem very harsh, and unnecessary criticism - just because you don't agree with the courthouse + real wedding after, doesn't mean it's not a very real thing for us.
The way my fiance and I are looking at it - both ceremonies are meaningful in separate ways. We are planning our legal date shortly after my POE, and though it is VERY real for us, we are still considering that to be a part of our paperwork. Yes we will be legally married, and we are DAMN happy about that.
But we want to celebrate with our families and friends as we're joined as one in front of them. And that is not going to be any less meaningful for me because I signed papers at the courthouse a few months earlier. In fact, my fiance and myself have felt the commitment that marriage takes ever since we got engaged. A piece of paper makes it legal, but celebrating in front of friends and family makes it recognized by the people who are actually important to us, not just the government.
AND, FYI, many years ago, when my parents were still living in Italy, Italian churches did not have the legal right to marry a couple - so if a couple wanted to get married in a church, they had to first go to a courthouse to sign their papers, and then their ceremony was days (or months) later. I'm pretty sure it was JUST as special to them as it will be to us.
(BTW, my fiance and I plan to mark our legal anniversary with a nice dinner or something special to commemorate the day, but we will celebrate our first anniversary on May 18, 2014. The day of the wedding ceremony)
I'm sorry if you don't agree with that... but hey, it's my wedding, not yours

Yay! This is a happy thread!!
Tom and I have decided to do a small, courthouse wedding first (we're hoping for 12/12/12, though it may be too early, because the Montreal consulate can be REALLY slow - we got engaged on 11/11/11, so I think it would be totally fitting). We're going to have my parents and his dad there, and probably go for a nice dinner or something.
Then we're planning the "big" wedding to be May 18, 2013.
We've already booked the venue - http://postcardinn.com/ (we have a clause in the contract that will allow us to push the date to any time in 2013 without any consequences). We're going to get married outside in the courtyard, and have the reception upstairs in the ballroom. It's going to be a retro/50's/rock and roll themed wedding.
I've booked my photographers (friends of mine who actually are based in the Tampa area, but are originally from the Toronto area, oddly enough!)
I have my bridal party set - 3 groomsmen, 2 bridesmaids, 1 maid of honour (my best friend since we were 6 years old!)... and either 1 or 3 flower girls (we're having issues with my brother, and still have no idea if he, his wife, and my two nieces will even come to the wedding), and my ring boy is going to be my little nephew who is going to be born on Monday!! (My niece is going to pull him in a little wagon LOL)
I bought my dress back in June, and it is supposed to be ready in December.
I'm super crafty so I want to make a lot of the elements, like our invitations, I'm hoping to make paper flower bouquets, and a few other elements (and hopefully if I get down to Florida in December, I'll have from December to May to work on all this stuff!)
I get so excited when I think about all this stuff It's the one bright spot to all this ridiculous paperwork

Hahaha... I think I instantly love your wife. She is hilarious.

EAD/AP combo card received yesterday and in my wallet!!
My case status on USCIS has now reverted back to "initial review" from "RFE Response Review" because I changed my address... Is that an issue that is going to set me back AGAIN?! I should've just left my address as-is, if that's the case, since we were only living at my Father-in-Law's place, so we still receive mail easily... ugh.

This thread is not really for bashing other people for what they're doing. I understand that you're expressing your opinion but we tried to start it so that some people who have to make VERY difficult decisions in their lives, have some support of people who are also in the same boat. I do not love my child any less than anyone else. I love her enough to hope I'm doing something that makes her happy, by letting her keep living with her Dad. I am trying to do what makes her the happiest without sacrificing all that I am as well. I have seen how that works out. My MIL has nothing She has to live off the good will of other people. She put all she is into raising her two wonderful boys, but she is a shell of what she could be because she never stood up for herself ever. Even to her children because sometimes you need to.
My husband also loves my daughter very much. We both hope very much that she wants to live with us.

I am not here to ask advices or anything..
Just want to share that my husband passed away this morning... peacefully... he had brain cancer and we have been fighting for more than a year now... there was a point in our fight that we thought we are winning... but we lost... i am just thankful that he passed away peacefully... in his sleep, and i got the chance to tell him everyday that i love him... and that he is my love, my life, my world, my home and my everything...
Whenever I read people here posting marriage not working out, just using me for greencard, giving up... and a lot of things... i am so sad...
I found the perfect husband... the perfect person... and yet he was taken away from me in such a short time...
I promise I will honor his name... i will honor our love... and I do not think I could love other person as much as I loved him... and still loving him... my love for him will not die until my last breath...

it's a proven fact that a child's earliest years are possible the most important ones when i comes to learning. an infant's brain has around 2 times more synapses than an adult's brain and the years 0-3 are probably the most flourishing ones concerning learning and influences from the surrounding.
also stimuli from the surroundings help the infants brain to organise. concerning language: in the first year of a child's life they learn with their entire brain, before centres are built and certain areas are responsible for certain tasks. so when exposed to a second language from birth on, the language centre in the brain gets formed and organised with 2 languages on file already. this makes it way easier for the child knowing 2 languages when growing up. whilst a later exposure to the second tongue makes it harder for the child to memorise it.
since an infant's brain is not yet departed in areas, it reacts like a sponge to imformation and gladly soaks it all up.
so if you want your child to be bilingual it is much easier to teach it from the very start. it's also recommended that each parent uses one language to talk to their child, so e.g. the mother uses her native tongue and the father his. this is proven to be the most flourishing way to have a child grow up bilingual.
my mother is a pedagogue and and made all kinds of experiences with bilingual kids. she noticed that parents who don't teach their children their native tongue from the start, usually have a hard time teaching them later.
from my personal experience i know this: my cousin's husband speaks czech, but he didn't teach his kids from start on, and now his son is 7 years old and doesn't know a single word and refuses to learn it even.
so in my opinion, i'd start right away and not wait.

Aside from the obvious (living with your fiance/spouse, meeting their family, etc), what are some little silly, trivial things that you're excited about your new life in the USA?
I'll start off:
- I'm excited to be able to enter contests that are only open to American residents!

Haha yay! I don't really want to get back to immigration reality, but I would like to start looking for a job at some point, so I guess it's a necessary evil! We can do it!

Guys!! THIS IS MY LAST NIGHT IN CANADA!!!
We're heading out tomorrow at around 4am. Tomorrow is POE, but I won't be reunited with Tom until Friday, because we're driving down. Any last minute advice for POE? I have all the paperwork ready to go (I think! - sealed envelope... Passport with visa inside... Itemized list of the boxes in the van...)
Do you guys think I should bother getting a SSN in my maiden name? I arrive on the 21st, then there's two holidays in there, and we'll be married on the 1st of January. Should I just wait til I have the marriage certificate and apply with my married name?

Approved!!!!

Hahaha... I think I instantly love your wife. She is hilarious.

You can't really have any sort of 'wedding' in Canada if you wish to use a fiance visa to enter the US. Unfortunately, in Canada, civil and religious ceremonies are both official and any sort of official who is allowed to perform marriage ceremonies would not be able to perform an 'unofficial' wedding. You could have a 'mock' ceremony with an unofficial and unlicensed family friend playacting as the officiant as a sort of dress rehearsal in front of your family and friends but it must not have any sort of legal connection to it at all or your fiance would be denied entry to the US - and if he was successful in entering the US on a fiance visa, once he applied for a green card, it would be found out and he would be deported back to Canada and permanently banned for immigration fraud. That is how seriously USCIS looks at using a fiancee visa to enter the US when you are not a fiancee.
So, you can plan some sort of reception or rehearsal - but you can't have any sort of wedding. The only wedding that you are allowed to have if you are using a fiance visa is the one that is performed after your fiance enters the US. You can certainly have a second ceremony after that for friends and family but the only one that is allowed to be a wedding is the one in the US after your fiance enters on the K-1 visa.
Also, you are not able to apply for AP (that doesn't mean administrative processing, btw - it means Advance Parole) before you are married. An AP is a special sort of travel permission that is granted while someone is waiting for their green card application to be adjudicated. You need to be married first and you need to submit the AP request at the same time you submit your application for a green card. The fastest way to do that is to have all of the paperwork ready to go, then marry almost immediately after crossing the border into the US and then submitting the package. The AP averages about 60to 90 days after USCIS receives the green card application. Until you have either the greencard itself or the advance parole travel document in hand your fiance cannot leave the US.
If you go ahead and have a wedding in Canada, then you are basically cancelling all of the work and time you have put into the K-1 visa. You will need to restart the immigration process all over again from the beginning, this time petitioning for a spousal visa known as a CR-1. Your fiance is not able to live with you in the US until he gets the CR-1 - and that is about a year's processing time as well.
I suspect you may end up with his interview date sometime in July or August next summer. There is a chance it might be earlier but I think that is a more realistic time frame. Your friend's visa coming in November after an August RFE is not a fast time. Usually, when an RFE is sent out it means that the application is being looked at right then. Once the requested information is returned processing continues and is usually finished within a few short weeks or sooner so I would say that your friends' lawyer did not expedite or speed up anything for them. There is no real way to expedite any of this process except for the US citizen being in the military and expecting to be deployed. A lawyer who tells you that he can expedite an application at any number of spots in the process is being dishonest and is best avoided.

I'm not sure if it's against the TOS to post this - I'm not affiliated with this site at all. I just discovered it and thought some people here might be interested as well. It's this site I found called Coursera (www.coursera.org) where they've partnered with universities to offer courses online (some even give certificates of completion). There's even a course that starts in April called US Citizenship & Immigration https://www.coursera.org/course/immigration
Anyway, I'm going to take some of these courses, since I'll be in the country and unable to work until my EAD comes through, and I thought some other newbies to the country would want to do this too!

I'm not sure if it's against the TOS to post this - I'm not affiliated with this site at all. I just discovered it and thought some people here might be interested as well. It's this site I found called Coursera (www.coursera.org) where they've partnered with universities to offer courses online (some even give certificates of completion). There's even a course that starts in April called US Citizenship & Immigration https://www.coursera.org/course/immigration
Anyway, I'm going to take some of these courses, since I'll be in the country and unable to work until my EAD comes through, and I thought some other newbies to the country would want to do this too!

Remember when we were all checking this thread on an hourly basis to hear word of Sabi's approval? (Or was that just me?? LOL)
Happy POE, Sabi!

You're seriously considering self delaying yourself for 3 months????

DaveE, let it go. I , as well as any astute person, should easily understand what you wrote.

You are misreading what I wrote. The fact that they have already filed the petition means they are good to go. If they had not filed the petition they would have to file it prior to Dec 2013 or not meet the two year requirement. I never said it runs out.